He was an old man who fished alone in a lobster boat off the Maine coast and he had gone 117 days without taking a crustacean. His luck was not bad, rather his judgment was good (don’t fish the Atlantic in winter). Then he met us and for all I know his luck changed. He is due for a change of luck. Eleven months ago he purchased a new 40’ RV which has now made six trips back to the dealer for repairs. After that he gave up on warranty work (like Van Gogh on his ear) and took his rig to Camping World. Thus we met our buddy from Maine in Foley, Alabama.
The beaches are lovely if desolate. The village of Ocracoke is on the far end of the island away from the free ferry’s dock. (Don’t think you’re going to pedal your cruiser bicycle from ferry to village: that’s a 30 mile round trip.) The village has a dozen restaurants, several souvenir shops, a lighthouse you cannot enter, and a British cemetery where four poor guys sunk by U-boats in WW II will rest until a storm eventually washes the island away.
Some parks advise their visitors to bring lots of insect repellent. Others warn you about extreme winter or summer weather. Hatteras Seashore does none of that, but what the hey, we used to be Tarheels. We know that country. You don’t need to tell us nothin’.
Civil War General J Johnston Pettigrew is buried here. He led one of the three brigades in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, and came back horseless, but unhurt. Two weeks later he was killed in a minor skirmish during Lee’s retreat toward Richmond. Pettigrew, something of a Renaissance Man, was fluent in half a dozen languages, a lawyer, mathematician, fencing master, author, university professor, and soldier, all by the age of 35. And he owned slaves on a farm next to the park.
Kat discovered a neat little Forest Service campground with all the conveniences just south of New Bern (say “Newburn”) NC. New Bern is big enough without being Big. It has a Wal-Mart, a Tractor Supply (for your propane needs), several Laundromats, and two Bojangles biscuit and chicken eateries.
It turned out that Clark and Deb reside in Hilton Head Sun City, a huge development populated by the retired and the long since retired. Del Webb built this and many similar new home subdivisions for seniors all over the warm states. Many were named Sun City;
Our culinary expedition treks on. Amanda and Tim of Watsons Wander blog fame happened to be in the neighborhood, and they invited us over for her famous Company Potato and Roasted Pepper soup to go with some full-time Airstreamer fellowship. The soup was indeed excellent, as was Tim’s local brew, which though quite hoppy, pleased […]
Life on the Blue Highways 