Kathleen's Window: Crossing Over To Croatan

Monday, April 15, 2013

After heavy rain all day Friday and Friday night, we were not surprised to see lots of clouds and hear the wind roaring around the RV when we woke Saturday morning. We got ready to make the 10 am ferry which was only a block or two away from Teeter's Campground. With everything stowed we headed out the potholed camp road and got in line at the ferry dock. We could see lots of whitecaps on Pamlico Sound and figured we were in for a rough ride.

By the time we loaded, the sun was out, but the wind was still high. There were only nine cars plus us on the 28 vehicle ferry heading over the Sound to Cedar Island on the mainland. Goodbye Outer Banks! We enjoyed our stay in Waves, where we could walk over the dunes to the beach. Ocracoke Island, not so much, mostly because of the sub-par campground, the rain, and not much to do after a brief walk around town. We didn't have any kind of beach access there. So back to the mainland!

The ferry trip took 2 ¼ hours, so we went up to the deck to watch Ocracoke harbor recede. Storms had re-shifted the sandbars here as well and the ferry had to work its way past them. We had the usual seagulls and terns following the wake, especially after some other passengers threw a bag of bread at them. Why would people think that birds that live on sea creatures would want to add grain products to their natural diet? Just sayin'... We were joined by several brown pelicans who would fly up close to the boat, drop down into the wake and float in the bubbles like a jacuzzi! They repeated this behavior whenever they drifted too far back from the ferry. Greg and I speculated about whether pelicans play. We know that ravens engage in intentionally playful behavior. Don't know if pelicans are that intelligent, but they didn't appear to be fishing for food while they did this.

We spent the rest of the time out of the wind in the RV. It was nice to be able to make lunch and eat while in route. We were visited by an elderly gentleman passenger who insisted that I roll down the window. He wanted to know what we thought about the University of Maryland leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference for athletics. I told him Greg went to William and Mary so he wasn't concerned. That led Mr. Elderly Gentleman to tell us that he played football at N C State many years ago. He is 83 now. At that time W&M had a good football team. A local sportswriter said the only way that NC State would win at home against W&M, when MR. E G was playing for them, was if they left Bill behind! Get it? The College of “Bill” and Mary? Hey, you had to be there on the rolling deck in the middle of the Sound as a captive audience!

We reached dry land again at Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge and drove south with the idea of stopping at one of several campgrounds depending on when we were ready to stop. We arrived in Morehead City and took the bridge over to the barrier island beaches. We drove the 20 miles through the resort areas and back over the bridge crossing Bogue Sound. Just beyond we found the Croatan National Forest and decided to stop at the Cedar Point Campground on the White Oak River. It provides electric hookups, but we have to drive to dump and fill up with water. We can stay 14 nights and at $17 a night we may stay for a while. As long as we are sitting, we aren't buying fuel.

Yesterday, we settled in and Greg had his first bike ride in probably two months. He found some local back roads and rode for 27 miles. In the afternoon we had a nice conversation with a full-timer from Illinois who wanted advice on pulling his fifth wheel trailer through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, and an owner of a Navion which is the same RV we have, but a different name. Very confusing. Winnebago makes the same model but slaps different names on them. It is very easy to find new friends to talk to in this mobile life!

Before dinner, Greg and I took a walk out of the campground, down to the river and on the nature trail over the marshland. The clouds were starting to come in from the weather system working its way up the coast. The tide was down so we saw lots of fiddler crabs digging holes.

It rained heavily all night and was swampy this morning. When we arrived our campsite had puddles drying out from Friday's rain. Now we have puddles so large that outside our dinette window, we spotted a turtle swimming in the closest one! We are hoping that we do not have a mosquito hatch in the next few days. That would drastically limit my enthusiasm for staying here longer.

It is still overcast and sprinkling, but the sun comes out tomorrow and we will decide if we are staying longer. Greg would like to have time to explore the back roads on his bike. Soon we will need to decide if it will be warm enough to head north to Canada!

Quick update before posting- We signed up for three more nights. Greg had another 25 mile bike ride today, so he is a happy camper. I took a spin on my bike around the campground loop road a half dozen times. We are still waiting for the sun to come out. Had a few more sprinkles today, but we are hoping for sun tomorrow. The puddles are very slowly shrinking, but the birds are having fun playing in them and we had a pair of bluebirds taking baths. Last bluebirds we saw were on the Tombigbee River in Alabama on our way back east. So great to see that even though they are scarce in Maryland, they are still thriving in other places.

On another note, we are missing the desert Southwest. It is interesting how that area of the country, with all it's barrenness and challenges can get under your skin and into your spirit. We are already talking about where we want to go back to next winter, but in the meantime we have lots of adventures ahead of us in Canada!