October 15-17, 2009 The Outer Banks of North Carolina
Thursday was the rainiest day we have had yet on our trip. We drove about 130 miles in rain, rain, and more rain. We made it to Kill Devil Hill (Kitty Hawk) and the rain gave us a nice break, we spent an hour or so walking around the Wright Brother’s memorial. What an interesting place to visit, Orville and Wilbur were so amazing to put together their flying machine back in 1903. We hiked up Kill Devil Hill to see the 60 foot monument and visualize how they flew their gliders off this hill to get the feel of flight and how to control the aircraft, prior to motorizing it. Our love of flying made this one of our favorite stops among our many. We camped for the night in Avon on the Outer Banks (known as OBX, by the locals). We had dinner at Dirty Dicks -- an amazing plate of sea food,: king crab legs, clams and more shrimp than should be legal.
Friday we were met with dryer weather as we set out to sight see the 75+ miles of spit of land we were on. We visited The Bodie Island Light House , just south Nag’s Head -- we enjoyed driving along the road and being able to see Pamlico Sound on the west side of the road and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. In the afternoon we went on to see the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This 208 foot tall light house is incredible. In 1999 it was moved about ½ mile up the beach to get it away from the surf that was washing it away. This move was called the “move of the century” and boy was it ever, Mike and I watched the video with amazement as we saw them cut it, lift it, move it and re-install it in the present location.
Saturday we headed south from our campground and boarded a ferry for a 40 minute cruise to Orcacoke Island. With some time to kill we visited the Orcacoke Light House and toured the cute little beach village. We then boarded our second ferry of the day for a 2 ½ hour float back to the mainland of North Carolina. They really pack the ferries tightly, we could just barely squeeze out the door of the MoHo to have a little leg stretch and walk around the boat. It was fun sitting in the moho’s front seat and seeing the sea gulls flying around and by us, another wonderful safari adventure.