Friday, Feb. 24, 2017

Day 11 –  Rob was up at around 6 a.m., me at 6:45, roosters woke me up – life is tough.  53 degrees, partly cloudy, rained a little last night, mist over the lake.  Rob sat outside and took pictures of the Killdeer darting about.  We’re leaving today, taking a relaxing morning at the campground before departing.  Checkout time is by 11:00 and check-in at the next place is after 1 p.m.  The drive to Hatteras is only a couple of hours, so it should work out just right.

The girls are not happy with us, we’re on the move again – Gracie has a new game which she first tried on Rob at the house and he ended up chasing her all over the house.  But we’ve caught on and spoil her fun now.  She plays her cards well as she cuts & runs from one hiding place to the next, so now one of us is waiting for her to make her move and catches her before she makes it to Point B.  They like to hide under the couch in the RV and just as Rob finally reaches one, they take off over the top of the couch.  Makes for a long departure just as we’re itching to go.

They travel in the bedroom with the door closed, on the bed sleeping once they are through complaining.  There’s a litter box in there for the trip.  We make stops and let them out to stretch their legs, they have food and water, and they are much happier this way than when we first started taking trips with them several years ago.  None of them like to be in a cage – first cats we’ve ever had that fought caging this way.  Our first trip with the RV each had their own cage and the cages were strapped in with seat belts at their respective locations, the couch and the dinette. They howled and fought to get out the whole trip, two of them actually bloodying their paws.  We knew that would not work in the future even though it was the safest place for them to travel.  Just leaving them out free is dangerous, what if they get underfoot while Rob is driving?  So Rob put in a sliding pocket door at the bedroom and solved the problem.  It’s the safest way we can travel without making them crazy in the process.

It’s sunny and warm (75 degrees) as we head South and East to the Outer Banks.  Two bald eagles near the road in a corn field, lots of turtles sunning themselves on logs & branches in the streams in the ditches.  There’s some complaining coming from the bedroom – Gracie his a loud mouth.

Arrived Camp Hatteras at 1:30 p.m.  Huge campground (we’re used to staying in smaller ones) and we figured it would be packed with campers and people – it’s the ocean after all.  We pull into the office parking lot and see that out of more than 400 sites, only a few are taken.  We’ve forgotten it’s only February but wonder why more people aren’t here.  Loud roaring ocean behind the sand dune.  It’s cooler here by the ocean; temps have dropped to a little above 60 degrees.  Traveling off-season ROCKS!

We procured Site #72, the closest to the Atlantic Ocean, and got ourselves set up.

Site 72, Camp Hatteras, NC

Camp Hatteras is virtually empty as of Feb.24

This campground is located on the strip of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina known as the Outer Banks.  You can cross over to the Outer Banks by car at 2 places; we crossed over at the Northern place not far from Kitty Hawk.  Drove by the Wright Brothers National Memorial, which we’ll definitely come back to visit.  Then you go thru Kill Devil Hills (kite flying and wind surfing are popular here) and Nags Head (golf courses).  At first when you cross over from the mainland to the islands it’s solid strip malls and rows of homes on stilts.  You can tell just what it’s like in season by the number of huge stores selling t-shirts and souvenirs that line the road.  The farther South you go, the less houses and businesses you encounter.  Once you reach the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, there is very little traffic and it is wild and raw out.  Not many trees, tall shrub bushes line the one road headed South, all of them leaning to the West from the winds and storms that come in from the Ocean.  Large, beautiful sand dunes.  Camp Hatteras is one of several campgrounds just South of the barren area, in a town called Waves.  It’s on a small strip of land, the Ocean on one side and Pamlico Sound on the other, with camping sites on both sides of the road.  You can make your choice as to whether you’d rather be by the Ocean or the Sound, two different environments.  We’ll make a trip South one day and check it all out there, too.  The map shows lots more Cape Hatteras National Seashore to the town of Hatteras and the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  Then you reach the end of the road and can take a ferry to Ocracoke Island.  I hope we have time to do that, too!

First we went on a short walk to the beach.  It was empty and beautiful.  The water is cold!

Cold!!!

Atlantic Ocean from Outer Banks, NC

Then we went back to the RV and sat outside until dinner time.  Row upon row of birds flying in a V formation flew overhead.

Cormorants from Camp Hatteras

Looking forward to doing some exploring in the coming days.  The high today was 75 degrees (inland), partly cloudy with huge billowing clouds and very little wind. Left a bedroom window open to listen to the waves crashing, which sound disturbingly like the high winds we experienced the day before leaving home!