Kathleen's Window: Itchy Feet!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

I have itchy feet! No, I don't mean athlete's foot. My feet are itching to get back on the road. My nomad gene is rarin' to go. I feel like a sailor on a ship stuck in the Doldrums waiting for the wind to fill my sails. Canada calls! I know we're in for an amazing journey there this summer, and I'm ready to get started!

We've been “hangin' out” in North Carolina, after two weeks in Maryland. We arrived in Maryland on March 20^th and left again on April 3^rd. Since then we've been waiting for warmer temperatures. North Carolina is warmer and cheaper than farther north. So here we are. Every time it gets warmer and I get my hopes up, then a cold front comes in, and I see ice and snow on the radar up north...

So, to update what we've been up to; Sunday, our last day at Cedar Point Campground in Croatan National Forest was a delightful day. We took a short bike ride and then hiked the trail through the tidelands again. Monday dawned overcast and looked as if it would start raining soon. We had already decided to break camp and head for the campground on the other side of the National Forest. It was only 20 miles away, so we decided to do laundry and get groceries on the way. Since it had been three weeks since we did laundry at Kaylin's, even with our “conservation”, it was a fair amount. We went to the laundromat in Swansboro and had sticker shock. $3 for a load in a small HE washer! We loaded up five and that fast, we spent $15 in quarters. The dryers were just as bad, twenty-five cents for five minutes. I don't know how much we spent to dry our clothes. We used a fifty pound machine, but you just keep taking out the dry clothes, leaving in the wet, and plugging in a quarter at a time until they are all done. While we were busy an elderly man walked by and said, "I got divorced so I could do this?!" After that ordeal, Greg was exhausted from putting quarters in machines, so I had to reward him with lunch out.

By this time it was gray, windy and spitting rain. We found a place to park along the curb in the old town part of Swansboro, and went to the Icehouse Waterfront Restaurant. Since there weren't many customers we got to sit by the window and watch the tide roll out while the wind blew. Greg sampled a local brew, which prepared him for grocery shopping.

After that we got groceries, did the WalMart run and by 6 pm found our new campsite at the Neuse River Campground, again in the Croatan National Forest. We had another rainy and cold night and Tuesday morning was still overcast. By the afternoon it had cleared off and gotten sunny, though windy, and we surveyed our surroundings

This campground is smaller and less developed than the last. There are no concrete pads, and we are in a site with trees and a lot of privacy. The showers are nice and close by, and we are enjoying the quiet, except for the jets flying overhead from the Marine air station next door! At the last campsite we had BIG helicopters flying over in fair weather from another Marine air station. Ah, well, we are in the East. No wide open spaces!

Yesterday afternoon we walked down to the Neuse River. It is very close to the campground and we could walk down steps to a small sandy beach. I was surprised to see how wide the river is, since I had never heard of it. We walked along the sandy beach and then through a stand of trees to get around a point. We found a trail into the woods that took us through a swamp and then up through a hardwood forest and back to the campground. There were signs of Spring; the trees have leafed out, the ferns are growing, and the mayapples are coming up. There were a lot of large trees that had overturned and we surmised that they had been felled by Sandy or another recent severe winter storm along the coast.

Today is finally sunny and warm. Tomorrow there is a prediction of rain, again... We paid for three nights, so we will have to decide if we stay or go. It has been a quiet day. Another jet just went over, my computer crashed and lost half of this post, Greg took a walk and a shower, and I wrote a few notes to friends who have lost contact with us in the move. I am looking forward to cooking dinner (playing “Chopped” with the stuff in the fridge that needs to get eaten NOW), and we are approaching the end of Battlestar Gallactica on the DVD (our second time viewing). Wow, I am SO ready to move on!