Went into sensory overload today!  We visited the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum today near Dulles airport in Chantilly, VA.  One HUGE hangar houses the Space Shuttle Discovery, SR-71 Blackbird, the Enola Gay, and an Air France Concorde along with 300 aircraft of every description.  I have never in my life seen such an exhibit of aircraft.  This even beats the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Goodbye to North Carolina

We've had such a good time in NC - almost hate to leave but our route is northward and we've about run out the northern border of NC.

Keith & Sandy stopped by our last campground where we happened to be parked next to an RV that had burned the provious day, before we got there.  Disastrous and thankfully no one was in it, no one injured.  Apparently an electrical fire. 

That's Keith & Sandy's RV & Jeep right in front of us on our ferry ride to the very farthest NE corner of NC, Knott's Island.

This is our last NC campground and a favorite so far, right on the water of Currituck sound.

On storm watch.  We had a great thunderstorm there.

Learned all about crab fishing from a young local family on the beach and dock for the day.

Goodbye North Carolina.  We are ranking you among the most beautiful and interesting states.

Another New Experience!

Had a double header today! Got two flights in a Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly experimental light sport aircraft (E-LSA) and then a flight in a tandem Moyes hang glider. This was my first time up on a hang glider and I loved it. Flying from Currituck County Airport (ONX) the views of Currituck Sound, the ocean, and the surrounding countryside were breathtaking. Never too old to try something new!

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.