This morning Ollie slept in up in the bunk, while Amelia was up sorting her vast seashell collection. Jonathan made pancakes for breakfast and we packed up the rig. Ollie was up in time to eat some pancakes before we set off around 10am to drive to Ocracoke Island where we'd booked to stay the night in order to catch the very early 7:30am ferry from Ocracoke to Cedar Island to start our journey back to the mainland and into South Carolina.
Stopped to get diesel on the advice from our Visitor Centre lady about how after Cedar Island terminal, it's an hour before you get any kind of services. We wanted to be sure we were filled up. Along the route we saw lots of trucks with the big fishing rod/cooler holders on the front grills... massive fishing rods for the surf. We also saw more of the VRBO and holiday rentals... huge three level houses on tall stilts to avoid flood damages. We passed Dirty Dick's Crab House (the one we saw advertised earlier in the week with the off-colour billboards).
In Buxton and Frisco, the towns were smaller with homes of people that lived there full time... bungalows and more modest buildings tucked along the roadside. Lots of SuperWings stores (beach and accessory, souvenir stores). Big yellow garish buildings with the same "SALE SALE SALE" signs. We never did go in one, even just to see what they were all about!
Hatteras Village had tall condos, and we reached the ferry terminal (it's a free ferry that runs regularly as part of the highway down the strip of land called the Outerbanks). We had been warned it's a LONG line up and wait time to take this ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke. We parked in the line up and were told it was a 2 hour wait. Luckily there's a tiny little swath of restaurants and stores at the terminal for customers to browse and eat and hangout.
from 11:20-1:20pm we hung out at the Hatteras Marina waiting for one of the two ferries running (the Rodanthe and the Roanoke). We explored shops, had ice creams (kids found a superman icecream that is the most obnoxious colours of bright red/blue/yellow - but chose a more respectful flavour when it came time to choose). We ordered food at the Wreck Tiki Bar (and were fair warned that they are NOT a fast food joint and that we should be mindful of the ferry timing). It took a very long time for our order, and we were getting anxious about having our food arrive (pricey to boot for our "boatload of nachos", beer and bean tacos). Jonathan had his beer right away but the food was taking awhile. Kids and I sat outside and eventually Jonathan ran over to the RV to check on timing as it seemed the next ferry might be our sailing! Sure enough, he would have been waved on as the last vehicle on the ferry, but asked to be waved off. Minutes later, he returned and our food was ready! doh! It wasn't too long though before the other ferry came into port and we had time to enjoy our food and still make it onto the next boat in good time.
It was almost an hour's sailing to Ocracoke! much longer ferry than anticipated... especially since it was free!
Arrived on Ocracoke Island around 2:30pm. Had a brief pull over at the wild ponies barn... they have a barn there for the ponies to come and hangout. These guys were from domesticated horses that were brought over by the Spanish in the 1730's... called Banker Ponies.
I had tried going online to book our campsite at Ocracoke National Park campground but it wouldn't let me get online. Apparently you need to book through their online site, not at the camp office. Luckily there was someone at the little office booth and I was able to connect and get the site I had my eye on. Lots of people were rolling in off the ferry and into their booked sites. We got site B4 (a very reasonable $28USD) just a few steps from the allocated dune entry to the beach. We went and checked out the beach, super nice! then back to the rig to get our swim suits and chairs/etc to hang out and enjoy the beach properly. Jonathan and Ollie enjoyed flying the trainer kit (it's a kite with a kite boarding bar on it) and Amelia and I scoured the beach looking for beautiful shells and stones, and doing some wave jumping at the water's edge.
Back at the RV, we decided to hop our our bikes and ride the 6+km to the Ocracoke village and lighthouse. It was already after 5pm and we knew it would be sunset and possibly very dark on the way back, but we geared up with lights and reflective gear and jumped on the bikes. Amelia rode the pannier-rack there, but was ravaged by mosquitoes on her bare little legs, poor kid. We hoofed it there as fast as we could along the awesome bike path beside the road. Checked out the 200 year old lighthouse as the sky was turning pink for the evening. Then rode a bit further into the village which was super cool with little artisan shops and restaurants and lots of people on golf carts. It's a thing around here... outerbanks loves golf carts for getting around. They are everywhere! Rode back home with all our lights on... this time Amelia rode her little bike and Ollie stood on the back of Jay's. Hoping that the bugs would stay off Amelia's legs if she were pedalling. She did so well for such a long ride! Gorgeous sunset at our backs (oh and saw some kind of muskrat on the side of the road nibbling some grasses).
Home and tired, we ate a quick dinner of butterbean and tomato pasta, with a fudgesicle for dessert. Then it was in bed and straight to sleep at 9:30pm for the kiddos. Too tired even for a single page of Anne of Green Gables.
No comments:
Post a Comment