I am not sure what I thought the Outer Banks would be like. As a Californian, the only time I see that area on the TV is when a storm or hurricane damaged it. For East Coasters, the Outer Bank is a great getaway – beaches, restaurants, trails, surf, and sun. Our main reason to visit the area was to see Kitty Hawk. After we both read the Wright Brother biography, our interest has peaked and we just had to see it for ourselves.
We learned that the Outer Banks is much more than beach, fun and sun. These long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes and woodlands provide home to many animals. There is history here, from prehistoric, to a lost colony, and scientific advances. The area is often called the graveyard of the Atlantic, because the shifting sand ridges beneath the unstable sea have never made landing here easy. This brought about historic Lighthouses and the US Life Saving Services. The Outer Banks really has something for everyone – whether its lying on the beach, swimming in the water, fishing, kayaking, history, hiking, picnicking, shows, food, etc.
Where We Stayed
We stayed on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Frisco Campground. The National Seashore has three campgrounds in total; this one rated the highest – but also the farthest from the activities.
While at the campground we finally set up the new solar panels! Success! Green never felt better! The solar panels actually worked and kept our batteries fully charged!
What We Did
We arrived on Wednesday night after a long drive from Springfield. All in all, with stops, it took us about 8 hours. In typical style, we arrived to the camp during the rain and had to suffer hot, humid raindrops while we set up. This campground was first come, first served (we had a reservation which we aren’t sure actually does anything) so we drove around the many loops to select the best possible spot. After deciding on one and getting set up, we were wet, tired and hungry. Steve volunteered to set up the grill under the trees while Sparky and I got situated inside the trailer. What does one make on a rainy day? Garlic Bread Pizza! Delicious!
Thursday morning we woke up early to meet up with a Rover sitter. Like I mentioned earlier, the campsite is far away from everything, in fact, to get to the sitter was a 90-minute drive.
Before I discuss the Rover situation (hint, there was a situation), I should talk about Sparky and his habits, emotions and attitude. We arrived in Virginia before October 1, 2016 and left Virginia September 6th. Sparky was a Virginian resident for 11 months! During that time, he made himself quite at home with my parents. They had a routine – walk in the morning, play in the afternoon, regular meals, with occasional playtime at JustFurPets (doggie day care). Sparky loved waking up early with my mom, looking out the window people watching, walking with my mom and waiting excitedly for my dad to return home from work to play wrestle with him. Life was good, and then Steve and I returned. Finally the pack was back. We walked with him, played with him, and he felt like the unit was whole with all four of us giving him attention, especially my mom who loves him unconditionally. What’s the point – leaving my parents house in a truck for an 8 hour drive, arriving in the rain, sleeping on a tiny dog bed in a tiny trailer, experiencing new sounds and smells, but not really sure what’s going on – we didn’t exactly set up Sparky for success. He was grumpy, moody, testy and anxious. When we arrived at the sitter’s house, Sparky’s cackle was up, and he acted aggressive towards the sitter. We have never seen Sparky in such a state. We quickly realized that his day of fun with 5 other dogs was not going to happen; the sitter and us just didn’t feel comfortable leaving him there. So, we had to roll with it and take Sparky on our adventures.
After the failed attempt at Sparky’s rover sitter, we drove to nearby Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island. Roanoke Island holds its place in history for several reasons – it was originally home to the Algonquian tribe, the Roanoke voyages led to a settlement here, later during the civil war Union forces took Roanoke island creating a safe haven for ex-slaves & runaways, and in 1901 Reginald Fessenden developed the AM radio here! For me, a good conspiracy is always interesting – so I found the Roanoke colony to be fascinating. In 1584 a charter from England landed here to do reconnaissance. Their experience was positive, as the local tribe was kind and helpful. In 1585 a military expedition landed the English here, but by this time relations with the tribe had became strained. Many of the natives were dying from English diseases and both sides felt tense. In 1587 it was decided to make a colony in the new world bringing 117 colonists (women and children included) led by John White. The ship was meant to go to Chesapeake Bay, but after a detour to Roanoke Island to pick up the remaining military men, the captain of the ship refused to go any further. This was technically the first British colony in the new world (not Jamestown). At this time, relations with the local Algonquian tribe were still strained, with both sides killing and striking the other. John White went back to England with plans to return to the colony within a year, however, the Spanish/English war used many of the Queen’s ships. White returned 3 years later to find the island empty, no bodies. Where did the people go? Killed by the tribe? Left the island to find refuge elsewhere? Get swept up in a hurricane storm? Aliens? It is a mystery.
Today, this National Historic Site has a museum with a video, a live show during the summer (which has high marks on TripAdvisor), has a reconstructed earthen fort, several nature trails and various monuments. If we come back in the summer, I would love to see the show since it has great reviews. The nature trails were great, but we have learned that North Carolina bugs will eat you alive (even with spray) so we only did 1 of the 2 trails. We did spend a little time along the shore. Sparky remembered how much he loves playing in the water.
After we visited Fort Raleigh we headed North to the Wright Brothers Memorial. The memorial is located at the site in Kitty Hawk where the brothers actually made the historic first heavier-than-air powered flight. We were excited to be here, as we had read their biography and visited their hometown in Dayton, but to my surprise it wasn’t what I pictured. I guess why would it be, it’s a National Memorial with many visitors each day. The iconic sandy picture just isn’t true anymore. The area is covered in grass and roads. I quickly got over that shock and got excited to see the boulder markers placed where the plane took off, landed, etc. There are also reconstructed hangars and living quarters, a monument on top of Kill Hill (where they often did glide testing from), and a sculpture of the famous December 17, 1903 scene depicting Orville on the plan and Wilbur running along side of it. We took Sparky and walked around the entire area and felt truly inspired. I couldn’t believe how windy it was too, no wonder why it was ideal for flying. Our last stop was to visit the sculpture, and true to nature – Sparky barked at all of the statues thinking they were real.
If you haven’t read it already, Steve and I really enjoyed the book, The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. It is a great biography about the brothers. I even have my own theory that Orville was in love with his sister… seriously, read the book and you will agree.
We left the Wright Brothers Memorial still early in the day, so we decided to make the most of it and attempt to tire Sparky out more with additional trails as we headed back South to our campsite. We decided to stop at Bodie Island Lighthouse & visitor center. The lighthouse was built in 1872 and is surrounded by marshlands. We didn’t climb the lighthouse because we had Sparky, but did admire it from the ground. We took a stroll on the nature trail which turned out wasn’t really long at all. We saw a few guys fishing, but that was about it. It felt like a bust, so we drove across the street to the beach to watch Sparky enjoy the beach water. Sparky hates swimming, but loves to wade, which makes beaches perfect for him. He is also an excellent digger, though we aren’t quite sure what he is looking for when he is digging excessively in the sand. The beach had these tiny birds that don’t really fly unless they need to. They like to walk up and down the beach, taunting Sparky… like “hey fool, you’re on a leash and we get to walk around… oh you want to drag your mom running at us…look we can fly – Peace Out!” I can’t be sure that the birds said that, but really… they did. After all of the excitement of the day, we headed back to enjoy dinner and much needed rest. Dinner was inside again because those damn North Carolina bugs don’t know when to quit!
The next morning we slept in and finally had a good night with Sparky. He slept through the whole night!!! Yes, it was in our bed, but who cares… no potty runs, or barking or crying – we had a good night sleep. The weather was great, so Steve adjusted our solar panels, and we decided to walk on a nearby trail from the campsite. The trail was meant to take us to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse 4 miles away. We made it a mile in, before the trail turned into deep sand and the bugs were relentless. We decided to turn around and drive to the lighthouse instead. Yes, 30-minute air-conditioned ride vs. deep sandy bug infested hike – no brainer! We checked out the lighthouse and the visitor center. We picnicked in the area, which was lovely too. We did a nearby mile hike called the Buxton Nature trail. The trail was okay, a little overgrown, but once again the bugs seemed to be attracted to our anti-bug spray so what was meant to be a leisurely stroll turned into a power walk extreme. Sparky enjoyed it. We also accidentally stumbled upon a British cemetery. Two soldiers of the British Navy are buried here. They were on a boat protecting the US when a German U-Boat sunk their ship. These two bodies made it to shore, one of which is an unknown solider even today.
We left the Lighthouse area in search of the Southern most tip of Hatteras Island without taking the Ferry to Ocracoke Island. This area ended up being a local history museum and a beach next to it. We decided to have Sparky enjoy last one stroll in the waters. We spent 30 minutes goofing off in the water and sand with our Spark.
We returned back to camp, hungry and tired. We spent most of the night reading all about Hurricane Irma, and readjusting our plans. We were meant to head South towards South Carolina’s Congaree National Park, but we had read that the park was closed due to Irma. Our plan after that was to head to Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee, but many on the Internet speculated it was only a matter a time before they announced their closure. We decided to head North West, possibly to Tennessee, but to take it one day at a time.
We had a late start the next morning, and were out of the area by 11AM. We drove out of the Outer Banks heading to Greensboro North Carolina. Our drive was nice and interesting. Turns out, North Carolina is home to roadside gun shops.
We arrived at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park just before it closed at 5PM. We ran inside to get a stamp and a guide so we can walk the trails. The hiking trails are actually much better than the driving route (in my opinion on this particular NMP). We got to see pretty much everything without the hassle of worrying about parking.
The Battle at Guilford Courthouse began on March 15th, 1781. Commander Greene was in charge of the Southern defenses and Cornwallis was in charge of the British troops. The battle was about two hours long, with ultimate a loss for the Continental Army, but also a heavy loss of officers and men for the British Army. In fact, Cornwallis retreated from his original plan to conquer Virginia and head back South. At the National Military Park there are several monuments honoring the soldiers. By far, the most impressive was one for Nathanael Greene. The trails along the battle lines had quite a few information boards for us to follow along. It also provided quite a scenic view with deer! Sparky has a love/hate relationship with deer.
We drove further North to Mount Airy and stayed at a Walmart parking lot for the night. We had discovered that Great Smoky Mountain National Park was closing for the hurricane and would be reopened after the 14th. We made plans to head to West Virginia’s NPS sites.
The next morning, much to our mothers’ delights, we explored Mount Airy, which is the birthplace of Andy Griffith. In fact, the Andy Griffith’s show Mayberry is modeled after it. We walked the town, took photos of the famous spots, even got to visit the jail. Moms – we made your dream come true!
What’s Next
We are heading North to West Virginia to escape Hurricane Irma!
