On the road

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The Outer Banks

July 5-10, 2008. Northern coast of North Carolina: lots of quaint cities with marinas. Some of our stops included: Wilmington, Morehead City, New Bern, Ocracoke, Waves and Kitty Hawk. New Bern, NC. is a nice place to visit. Donny Helbich with Neptune Yacht Sales showed us several fine sailboats. He was a wealth of knowledge, as he had spent many years living and sailing on boats, with wife and two large dogs at first. Then they starting having children, which they homeschooled while living and traveling the Caribbean on a 38′, then 42 footer after the 2nd child came along.

A 2 hour ferry ride from Cedar Island to Ocracoke, NC. Bus rocked along with the ferry. Met an interesting character, Ricardo, who has been living on the road for a few years. His mode of transportation is a bicycle. He crochets hats for children to sell as his only source of income. He finds things on the highways and byways, such as a digital camera with a tripod. Hmmm. He plans to write a book about his life, and will title it “Ricky”. He talked of his disgruntled attitude about the government, health care system, and particular family members. He was hungry and tired. I made a huge sandwich and gave him some other food for the road. He was very thankful. Disembarking the ferry we had to drive through the main part of the village that had very narrow roads, with lots of foot and bicycle traffic. It was harrowing. Found a beach side parking lot to dry camp in Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Rode bikes through the village and had dinner by the water. It rained that evening and the next day.

To finish off the Outer Bank, we visited the Wright Brothers National Park and Memorial in Kitty Hawk. I had to see the grounds where man’s first flight occurred in a wheelchair…some bizarre foot ailment besieged my left foot. I think it was gout! :-/

July 2, 2008 left Charlotte for Conway, SC to the Glendinning factory parking lot. The next morning they molded a new head on the end of our 50 amp power cord while the cord was still attached to the power reel inside our bus. Pretty cool. This was a repair that had been delayed because of the complications of removing the reel and shipping. Jim is elated that he can use the power reel and not lug the separate power cord in and out of the bus every time we hook up.

We spent one night at a lovely RV resort in Longs, SC. Willow Creek had spacious sites, nice landscaping, a lake with paddle boats, huge pool, and game room with the works.

July 4, 2008 drove to Cherry Grove, SC, a beach town north of Myrtle Beach. Mainly tourist cottages and restaurants. We found a great spot to dry camp, behind a seafood warehouse! Spent the day and evening on the beach and in the ocean. Kept moving our beach “camp” back towards the sand dunes because of high tide. We were up against it with dune-to-dune people to watch fireworks. It was perfect weather and the water temp was inviting. We were absolutely “blown away” by the fireworks display that was launched from a pier very near to us. The reflections of the explosions in the Atlantic Ocean were not only beautiful, but included the significance of our independence from GB. Don’t miss the pics of Flaming Amy’s.

Arrived Maggie Valley, NC in the Smokey Mountains June,22, 2008. A quick trip and wet/muddy hike and we were off the next day to Ashville, NC. Four nights at Bear Creek RV Park. Did the Biltmore drive, Jack of the Wood Pub, learned a new game: Root Ball at the original Root Bar, http://www.rootbar.com. Meeting Lowell Allen and his lovely wife, Carrie was a real treat. Jim and Lowell had worked together but had never met “in the flesh”. Lowell was a “professional” root ball player.

June 27, 2008 we are off to Charlotte, NC via Chimney Rock. A beautiful, curvy drive, mountains of ivy draped trees and hillsides. We stayed at Lowes Raceway RV Park, right next to the huge Nascar racetrack. Thoroughly enjoyed an evening at Dave and Connie Huntley’s. We had the pleasure of meeting Dave while shooting the NCTA spot. We rode our bikes around downtown and viewed 100’s of Porsches parked on several blocks for a juried show. Met Dave at Mac’s Barbeque for lunch. Highly recommend this place for the very hungry. Last night in Charlotte we attended the Summer Shoot Out at the speedway. Watched student drivers (13 years old and up), Crash Cars, Trailer Race of Destruction, the Chicken Dance and fireworks to cap off the eve.