Soaking in South Carolina

Modoc Campground, Lake Strom Thurmond, South Carolina

 

We took a little "we" time today.

This is our third time at Lake Strom Thurmond and one of our favorite places to camp. Knowing we had a five hour drive to get here we pulled out of North Carolina early.

 

Fortunately, we had the Comey testimony to keep us entertained. It made the drive go by really fast.

Here's Ned munching on popcorn as we listened - apropos for the congressional hearing.

 

 

As if the all the political stuff wasn't enough drama, while driving down the highway a truck pulling a trailer (adjacent to us) had a blow-out. He lost his re-tread which caused the fender to fly off and into Winnie.

It just missed our windshield, landing on our hood. We're fine, Winnie is fine, but it sure woke us up. We stopped and the guys with the wacko truck came to check on us. I think they were as shook up as we were. We shook hands, glad everyone was okay. and off we went.

 

Finally here by early afternoon.

First thing was to get set-up in the perfect campsite on the water...check.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, ride bike to nearest store a couple of miles down the road and obtain ice...check.

 

 

 

Create the perfect Moscow Mules...check

 

 

 

 

Ah, soak time with Moscow Mule in hand...Check!!

Mission Accomplished.

We hung in the water for hours...and hours. Hot day, warm water, place to ourselves, pretty dang awesome.

 

 

Ned...hello out there...you good?!

 

 

 

After a fun day in the sun, tonight is all about getting ready for Costa Rica tomorrow. Fortunately, the campground has laundry facilities (thank you US Corp of Engineers). I wish doing laundry at home was this much fun. Bike ride, change laundry, bike ride, fold laundry, bike ride...

Best camping buddy ever...Just love this guy.

 

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Grist Mill and Chocolate Making in Raleigh, NC

William Umsted State Park, Raleigh, NC

 

 

We left Virginia Beach and headed toward Raleigh, North Carolina to meet our friend Sam Ratto of Videri Chocolate. Arriving in Raleigh we had spare time before meeting with Sam, so we toured the Yates Mill and saw a great exhibit about the traditional method of grinding corn and wheat using huge water powered stone grinding wheels.

 

 

 

 

We then went and saw Sam, his wife Starr, and their son, Salem at their sweet home. Salem showed off his driving skills on the front side walk while Sam and Ned visited. After seeing their house, Salem toured their vegetable garden with Ned, and attempted to pick a green tomato while Ned held him in mid-air.

 

 

 

After dinner at one of Sam's favorite hamburger places, we toured the Videri Chocolate Factory. The stone chocolate grinder (melanger) in the lower left photo is one which Sam is now manufacturing for chocolate makers all over the world. Interestingly, it uses some of the same basic stone grinding principles to make very smooth chocolate as the corn and wheat grinding grist mill that we had toured earlier in the day. Salem finished off the evening by "serving" us all from a special restaurant menu he had dictated to his mom. Ned shows off the menu and his order of a doughnut, which cost $7.00.

Sam is one our favorite chocolate makers, and it was great to spend some time with him.

 

 

 

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Taking flight and onto Virginia Beach

First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach, VA

We continued our drive up the Outer Banks making our way to Bodie Island. By the time we reached this island there wasn't much of a island feel to it. Cape Hatteras National Seashore ended and suddenly everything was big box stores, strip malls, highways and lots of houses on stilts crammed together. So glad we started the Outer Banks journey from Ocracoke and got to experience the off the beaten path feel.

The best part of this island was definitely the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

 

After a 30 minute talk by a Park Ranger learning all kinds of interesting tidbits about the Wright Brothers, we took a walk up Kill Devil Hill.

Hard to believe this entire area was sand dunes 100 years ago. In the early 1920's some people planted grass to keep the sand dune in place. Its current location is about 450 feet from the original site. What makes this hill special is that it's the spot the Wright Bros. practiced launching their glider to prove their design was stable and able to fly. I think they did over 1000 trial glides.

From the top of the hill you look down on the actual place where the Wright Bros.' first successful powered flights occurred. There are boulders that mark the first, second, third and impressive 4th flights.

You can also see a replica of their hangar and cabin they lived in while working on their designs.

Mr. Ned ready to take off to our next destination.

 

 

 

Virginia Beach! We rode our bikes along the boardwalk taking in the beach vibe, gorgeous hotel gardens and art sculptures.

I also really loved riding through the residential neighborhoods and looking at all the swanky houses on the ocean.

 

 

 

Ned and I are staying at First Landing State Park just a mile or so from the boardwalk. Linda and Gary have another couple of hours to go til their destination for tonight and then catch a plane back to California tomorrow.

We enjoyed one more meal together then went our separate ways.  Good times!

 

 

Ned and I enjoyed taking a walk around our campground and a stroll on the beach to watch the sunset. Nice end to a fun day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Outer Banks: Hatteras Island

Frisco Campground, Hatteras National Seashore, Hatterland,

Ned and I decided to revisit the sleepy little town of Ocracoke this morning. We had fun visiting the museum and poking around the quirky shops. The most interesting tidbit we learned was that the island has their own dialect or Ocracoke brogue. We watched a movie about it and learned some of the slang. It's based upon Shakespearean English, but we couldn't understand anything they were saying. Thick brogue indeed.

My favorite shop was the community general store. It had an ecclectic array of just about everything from a wooden Indian statue to several boxes overflowing with baseball cards. Ned's big discovery was a new chocolate bar he hadn't heard of before. Yum...tasted pretty good!

We eventually left Ocracoke Island and took a ferry to the next island in the Outer Banks. The ferry ride was about an hour. It used to be shorter, but due to Hurricane Matthew the channel was reconfigured thus the longer ride. Once on Hatteras Island you noticed an immediate difference from Ocracoke. Instead of little funky, artsy houses with white picket fences, you have new huge homes lined up and brightly colored. There is also no real "there, there", but instead retail spaces that are not walkable distances. Hatteras is a bigger island and has several towns. More of a place where'd you drive to a destination rather than meander thru the streets.

I liked Ocracoke better, but Hatteras has less mosquitos, so Hatteras wins.

 

After checking into the Frisco campground, we went in search of the famous Hatteras Lighthouse. It's the tallest brick light house structure in the U.S. It is open to the public for viewing and has 257 steps to the top. Of course we had to do it. A really sweet ranger, Emma, gave us some basic instructions and then let us know that due to the high winds we wouldn't be able to walk the balcony at the top. It was pretty calm at the bottom so we thought she was crazy. Once at the top the ranger there let us know that the winds were now reading at 74 mph! That's officially hurricane strength. Wowza. We had fantastic views, but yeah it was super windy.

I was impressed with Gary and Ned holding it up...yuk, yuk.

 

We also toured the lighthouse museum. The lighthouse was moved from the original site in 1999 because the beach had eroded away and it was 150 feet from the ocean. It was relocated almost 3000 feet. It was fascinating to learn how they moved this lighthouse. The bottom picture is Ned investigating one of the 100 rollers used to move it.

I love the picture of the old car. So, how did they solve the problem of driving through so much sand? By building plank roads. Pretty clever. Kinda reminded me of the Autopia ride at Disneyland.

 

 

 

Frisco Campground is still part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It's a beautiful campground, not quite as close to the beach as last night, but easily accessed by a long boardwalk. Gary fixed us up with some Moscow Mules and we decided to go exploring. It was dusk and so beautiful. We had a blast playing in the ocean while balancing drinks in our hand.

We were treated to lots of deer grazing in the marsh. Maybe the deer were enjoying watching us take selfies as much as we enjoyed watching them.

 

Tonight is our last night camping together before we go our separate ways. We decided on dinner at Chez Cruise America aka Gary and Linda's RV. Ned BBQ'd chicken, Linda made a salad, Gary fixed the corn and I drank Moscow Mules. Here's me looking like a happy camper.

This campground has the same set up as last night. Cold shower sheds scattered around the campground. At 11ish at night, Ned and I decided to get a quick rinse and take our chances with the cold shower. It's windy tonight and a bit cooler, but I didn't seem to mind it too much. Mmmm - That might have something to do with the Moscow Mules.

 

 

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The Outer Banks

Ocracoke Campround, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, NC

 

We drove up the Carolina Coastline for about 3 hours and then took a 2 hour ferry ride to the Outer Banks. It felt good to just chill out on the boat with the hot breeze blowing on us.

We had a great time watching the pelicans dive for fish or fly alongside the boat.

The top pic is Linda and I learning about Ocracoke Island while hanging out in Winnie.

Such a quaint little harbor, village and light house greeted us as we approached the island. The lighthouse was built in 1823 and is North Carolina's oldest operating lighthouse.

Our campsite is about 4 miles from the little village of Ocracoke. We rode our bikes into town to scope it out.

We took in the Ocracoke Island Visitor's Center, drove thru some residential streets and enjoyed the artsy beach vibe. Everyone is really laid back.

We decided on fresh grilled fish tacos sitting on a deck overlooking the harbor. Best fish tacos ever. Mmm, gives me an idea. Ned and I have gone in search of the best ice cream, fried chicken, bbq, and chocolate across the U.S. on different road trips. Maybe we should do a fish taco road trip. Who's in??

Ocracoke is famous for housing Blackbeard and other pirates. Turns out Blackbeard actually died and is buried here...minus his head.

 

We're staying at an awesome campground tonight. It's part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Usually beach camping is pretty bleak. Not here! We're backed up next to the dunes with the Atlantic Ocean surf pounding on the other side. The good news is that this campground does come with flush toilets and showers, albeit the showers are cold water only and in standing sheds in the middle of the campground. It felt great to get cooled off tho!

I'm also enjoying having the beach to ourselves. What a contrast to the multitudes of people at Myrtle Beach.

Tonight we are appreciating a much welcome breeze, although it's still 80 degrees near 9 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

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Carolina Beaches

Carolina Beach State Park, North Carolina

 

Today was our day for beaches. First up was Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. We parked south of the boardwalk and this is what the beach looked like. Do not be fooled by this picture.

We wanted to walk the entire boardwalk (and then some) and experience what Myrtle Beach's hoopla was all about.

 

This is more of what it looked like. I wish you could also feel the intense heat and humidity. There were women competing in a circuit training event, people playing beach volleyball and guys showing off in a skateboard jumping contest. How they did it without passing out from the heat is beyond me.

By the time we made it to the north end of the boardwalk we were all ready for lunch or at least be cooled off.

 

 

Oh looky here, a seafood restaurant! What a novel idea. Think we'll give it a go.

 

That smile you see on my face is due to several "Arnold Palmers." I have never enjoyed anything golf related so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ventured once more outside and this time took in the street side of things. More craziness and more cheesy attractions. However, Linda and I did score a 2 for $10 t-shirt deal.

(Love the restaurant that says "Hot beer, lousy food, bad service." Ha! There's something to be said for truth in advertising).

That creepy guy below scared the bejezzus out of me. How he was able to wear all that stuff AND be inside a rubber mask on a day like this was impressive.

 

 

 

 

Ah, we'll always have Myrtle Beach.

 

 

We crossed into North Carolina and decided to take the ferry over to Carolina Beach rather than drive up to Wilmington and drop down. (Kudos to Gary for that suggestion). We managed to just make the last ferry of the day out of Southport at 6:15.

The town of Carolina Beach is so much more laid back than "fun-park, roller-coaster, Ripley Believe it or Not" Myrtle Beach. Carolina Beach has more homes and condos than hotels and just a few beach bars and restaurants.

Our campground is on the marsh side of the island, not the beach. As I write this it's 10:30 at night and still super hot and humid. The thermometer says 85 degrees and 62% humidity. Looking forward to heading to the Outer Banks tomorrow for some cool ocean breezes. Night y'all.

 

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Don't worry be happy

St. James Island County Park, Charleston, SC

 

We started our day off with a hike at the campground on Skidaway Island. It takes you through groves of palmettos and oaks and out to the marshes.

This area was hit by Hurricane Matthew last October. The observation tower is no longer accessible due to the boardwalk being moved a couple hundred feet.

The rest of the loop was gorgeous. I especially liked the red cardinal birds flittering about and their contrast against the green.

 

 

 

 

On our drive from Savannah to Charleston we stopped at a Cider stand. We tried several different kinds of cider and ended up buying several bottles of peach cider. Yum! So tasty.

There was also every kind of canned vegetable, fruit, perserve and sauce you could think of.

 

 

 

We explored Charleston by bike. The highlights were riding through the charming streets and being in awe of all the history.

 

 

 

You would have thought that after last night we would have had our fill of seafood. Nope. How could we pass up some amazing local fish? And of course, we just HAD to have some hush puppies, being in South Carolina and all.

We got back to our campground at about 7:30. Oh forgot to mention this over the top campground where we are staying. It's a county campground, but feels more like Disneyland. It's got a climbing wall, splash zone, fancy wave pool, miles and miles of paved bike paths and everything is meticulously maintained. However, the biggest bonus was the opening night of their summer concert program - featuring...

 

 

Reggae music!! There were several thousand people there...and we be jammin' too.

After listening to the Da' Gullah Rootz for several hours we walked back to our campsite. Pretty chill evening.

The hardest part was getting this blog written before falling into bed. Don't worry, be happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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