The Outer Banks, North Carolina

We've had two days of driving since I posted last time. As we were pulling in our slides and hitching up in Wilmington, I took these pictures of our seasoned traveling companions. There was a time when both would head for the hills as Mike started operating the jacks on the fifth wheel. Now, they just hold their ground.

Smitty likes to ride in his cubby. Usually he moves to my side of the bed before we reach our final destination.

Sadie always starts out on Mike's dining chair. That's her favorite napping place. She usually moves under one of the recliners before we reach our final destination.

We spent last night in a Walmart parking lot. We did a little shopping and found the perfect Christmas tree for our rig. Now the tree is up in all its trailer-trashy glory. It was the tackiest thing we could find.

Today's drive took us through eastern North Carolina and a lot of flat farmland. According to our AAA tour book, tobacco is a big crop here. We saw none. It's probably already harvested. We did see some fields of harvested cotton, and we suspect this might be the same kind of winter wheat that is grown in Oregon.

Before our driving day was over, we would cross several bridges on our way to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This first one took us across Alligator River.

Here's what it looks like on the map. We came in via US Hwy 64 and then crossed over this bridge.

The Alligator River was a huge body of water despite it's Wikipedia entry, which lists it as "a small river" that separates Dare County and Tyrrell County. It empties into Albemarle Sound. A 21-mile canal connects the Alligator River with Pungo River to its west. The Lindsey C. Warren Bridge of U.S. Route 64 crosses the river. Many believe the Alligator River is named for its shape and mere connection to the swamp. The river is protected as part of Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.

In pretty short order, we came to the draw bridge, in its "draw" phase.

We were in no hurry because we were going to reach the RV park well before check-in time. As it turns out, the bridge was actually a "swing bridge." You can see the swinging portion of the bridge indicated with a red arrow in the image below.

And exactly what were we waiting for? This small pleasure sailboat.

We watched the bridge swing open, and then watched the sailboat sail on through. Take your time. We definitely have all day.

Then, we watched it come out the other side. Mike and I mused about being the bridge tender. There was just his (or her) one car parked there. Definitely nobody would bother you.

And then it sailed on out the other side.

After that, we waited for the bridge to swing back into place. By the time we were ready to go again, the sailboat was well on down the river.

Finally, we had the green light. This killed about 15 minutes of our time, but it kept us entertained. We're easy that way.

After crossing the bridge, we found ourselves on a tree-lined, swampy road.

But we were soon going to cross over a really long and fancy bridge. 

This was the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge.

We were remarking how smooth it was when we noticed something strange. Both lanes of traffic on our side were traveling in one direction. The other side of the bridge for the oncoming traffic appeared to be closed. And this begged the question...how do we get back when we're ready to leave? As it turns out there is at least one other older bridge, and we can choose to go that way. We've also been told the bridge will reopen by Friday, when we want to return.

We were crossing the Croatan Sound, and you can see it indicated there on the map below.

The Croatan Sound separates Roanoke Island and the towns of Wanchese and Manteo from the mainland, and essentially creates the island itself, buffering it from the small town of Manns Harbor and the Dare County Mainland with a wide body of saltwater that generally circulates like a slow moving river, depending on the wind and current directions. When we reached the other side, we were officially in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

There we stopped off at a really snazzy visitor information center.

It looked pretty welcoming with its row of rocking chairs outside.

We asked about the Alligator River in there. Were there really alligators this far north? As it turns out, yes. Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is in the near northern part of the range for the American Alligator.  However, alligators do live in areas north of the refuge.  It appears their range is expanding a bit further north over time. They do live in these waterways, but are rare and shy of people.

Also, I picked up a good bit of information there. Check out that white pamphlet in the center of the image below. And, yes, we are scuba divers. We have our gear along. It's been quite some time since we've done any diving, and we don't know if we'll find any on our trip. If we do, it's our plan to take a short refresher course before doing any serious diving.

There were several hiking trails off the parking lot here. We were still trying to kill time, and so we walked them all. This first one simply led down some stairs to a kayak/canoe launch. Looking right, we saw this:

Looking left, we could see another trail.

We walked on down to that trail. Along the way we passed a very large hedge of holly all covered in red berries.

The trail was an elevated boardwalk for a time.

Eventually, it turned to hard-packed sand.

We were walking through a pine forest. The pine cones were about the size of my fist, and it smelled good in here.

We also passed by an old family cemetery. There were no explanatory signs...just this little plot of several graves.

This was a short trail...perhaps half a mile and it led to a small neighborhood, marked "private property." We turned and headed back and then walked across the visitor center parking lot to yet another trail. Along the way, we passed yet another cemetery. This one was a little more interesting. Here was the accompanying sign.

There were maybe 20 graves here. Again, I sniffed at this one. So sad.

Beyond was the trail...another elevated boardwalk.

It went along side the long bridge we'd just crossed.

On our way, we passed Mr. and Mrs. Pigeon, snoozing in the sunshine. It was a lovely day...coolish at 55 degrees, but there was no wind, and so it was very pleasant.

Looking under the bridge, we could see it extending off into the distance.

The trail went on for quite a distance and then dead-ended at the edge of the sound. From there, we turned and went back the way we came.

Our shadow selves considered going for a swim here, but we discouraged them. The water was brackish and kind of smelly.

We could see the visitor center off in the distance.

We passed one more kayak/canoe launch, and then came to a place where the trail went off and under the bridge. We decided to see where it would take us.

It was a little spooky under the bridge, but we admired this engineering marvel. See how it arches in the middle? That is the crown of the road, and it is banked on both sides.

There was no indication anywhere on the trail of its purpose or destination. We just walked on to see where we would end up.

Eventually we came to the conclusion that this was one of those fitness/obstacle course trails. We came to this contraption where one could do knee lifts, dips, or pull-ups. The sign there advised us to seek the advice of a physician before attempting any of these things. We never take chances in that regard. Rest assured that no exercise took place here.

From there, we headed back to the car, having killed an appropriate amount of time to make arrival at the RV park in relatively good taste. We still had one more bridge to cross. This one took us from Roanoke Island out to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

It took us across the Pamlico Sound which is the largest lagoon along the North American East Coast, extending 80 miles long and 15-20 miles wide. It is part of a large, interconnected network of lagoon estuaries that includes Albemarle Sound, Currituck Sound, Croatan Sound, Pamlico Sound, Bogue Sound, Core Sound, and Roanoke Sound. Together, these sounds, known as the Albemarle-Pamlico sound system, comprise the second largest estuary in the United States, covering over 3,000 sq. mi. of open water. (Chesapeake Bay is the largest.) The Pamlico Sound is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Outer Banks.

From here, we turned right.

Here's where we were on the map, and we were headed to Rodanthe, indicated with a red arrow on the map below.

We were now traveling along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Along the way, we passed the Bodie Island Lighthouse, which is a working lighthouse. We were simply on our way to the RV park today, but we'll be passing back this way tomorrow or the next day, and we'll visit the lighthouse then.

And then we came to this...which seriously harshed our mellow.

It appears this bridge is being replaced. If you've ever wondered how this is accomplished, here's a clue. A barge is used to pour the concrete and construct the pilings. You can see the end of the new bridge in the image below, indicated with a red arrow.

After getting through the construction zone, we were in the area known as the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. It's located on the Atlantic flyway and it attracts more than a million migratory birds in spring and fall. It's also one of the northernmost nesting grounds for the threatened loggerhead sea turtle. The route here was flanked by the salt flats stretching into Pamlico Sound and  the man-made barrier dunes edging the Atlantic Ocean on Mike's side. Beach grasses and sea oats stabilized the sound side on my side of the road.

The dunes were too high to see the ocean, but eventually, we were able to catch glimpses of the Atlantic as we drove closer to our final destination.

It's hard to see in this next image, but there were lots of birds on the sound side.

As I'm writing this, we're settled into our spot for the next four nights. Smitty has been out for a rather disappointing walk...disappointing because the grassy areas here are full of cockle burrs and he picked them up in his paws. Bummer.

We'll have to try to keep him on the pavement and the gravel for future walks outside. Just on the other side of the dunes behind us is the Atlantic Ocean. Access to the beach is about four or five shelters down from us.

We pretty much have the place to ourselves. Very nice. And we're expecting good weather for our entire stay here.

We're just about to head out for a walk on the beach, and so I'll stop here. We're about halfway between Kitty Hawk and Cape Hatteras, and so we'll drive either north or south tomorrow, and then in the opposite direction the next day. There is lots of sight-seeing to be done here, and I've been advised to keep my eyes peeled for sharks' teeth.