Thursday, June 21, 2012

Seeing friends...

We "ran into" Jon & Ellen on our morning bike ride in Ocracoke.  They were on their way to Maine.

We run into Sandy & Keith every few days or so, kind of leap-frogging each other in our travels.  It's Great!

Ferries

We both LOVE taking ferries!
Our first ferry ride, this trip, from Cedar Island to Ocracoke, 23 miles, took 2 1/4 hours.  Only $15 per car and $30 for the motorhome - what a bargain!



View out our front window through the boat parked in front of us.  Coming into Hatteras from Ocracoke.  Best yet, this ferry is completely FREE!

Light houses

Ocracoke Lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse in NC.

Beautiful Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 208 ft, the tallest brick beacon in the U.S.
Due to the shifting beaches, this was moved 1/2 mile in 1999 so it is now the same distance from the ocean as it was in 1870.  Took 23 days to move. 





Atop Hatteras, behind us is Diamond Shoals, treacherous area for ships due to ocean currents meeting there and shifting sandbars extending 20 miles out in the ocean. 

Called Graveyard of the Atlantic, there are over 600 shipwrecks off the Outer Banks due to the shoals, storms and war.  German U boats sunk many merchant and war ships off this coast in WWII.

Beaches

Ahhh...finally on the Outer Banks, starting at Ocracoke, NC.  Miles and miles and miles of beaches, both Atlantic Ocean side and Pamlico Sound side.  Sometimes from the highway you can see the water on both sides at the same time - it's that narrow. 

That's our RV viewed from the ocean side beach, over the beautiful dunes.  Ocracoke campground - Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
                                       
sunrise



So THAT'S how you surf fish...

Our campground at Frisco, another National Park campground in the dunes.

Looks like they are moving...

The weather here is really hard on beach houses...

Fishing pier at Rodanthe

Beach houses at Rodanthe
Aerial picture of what storms can do to these islands - drill a new inlet right through them.  This was 2003.


Beach at Waves, NC   I love all the colored umbrellas.

You know you are NOT in Arizona when...

You carry your fishing rods on your front bumper...

There's a pelican watching you eat your seafood lunch...

You can compare your size with the skull bone of a whale...

You look out the motorhome window and there's a ferry passing you...

Last days on mainland NC

We took the coastal route to the ferry at Cedar Island and took our time getting there...

Great bike ride at dusk through a big salt marsh at Cedar Point Campground
Loved this Forest Service campground with big yards, friendly neighbors who play Corn-hole and invited us to a big pot luck Chicken Marsala dinner.
Fishing pier at Emerald Isle



Beaches here are so BEAUTIFUL!  Clean white sand, turquoise water.