We towed the Brew Hut through countless cotton fields and past numerous Confederate flags on the way to Medoc Mountain State Park.  This area is known as the coastal plains.  We really felt that we were getting a look at the South in a way that we had not experienced before.  We traveled past the  Tillery Resettlement, a New Deal program in 1936 that offered Depression-era benefits to “both races”, separately.

Medoc Mountain State Park

The summit at Medoc Mountain is only a 325 feet above sea level.  I’m sure it wasn’t the elevation, but we did experience milder temperatures during our two day stay.  Nights were pleasant in the high 50’s and low 60’s.

The campground was amazing.  First, because we were there on a weeknight, there were only a few other campers.  The sites were generously spaced and wooded for privacy.  Electric hookups are available but primitive sites are in the majority.  There are water spigots and trash cans conveniently located.  Also, there are very nice bathrooms and showers within a short walk.  The camp-ground was immaculate, and we saw workers cleaning and sprucing things up during our entire stay.

We spent much of our time hiking: there are trails leaving from the campground, and we hiked at least ten miles of those trails.

On our last night, we treated ourselves to takeout at Lynch’s BBQ & Grill in Hollister.  There’s no seating here; you call ahead or just show up and it’ll be ready in about twenty minutes.

There’s also a free Paranormal and Bigfoot museum in town that Julia originally wanted to see, but she chickened out when we learned that it was in someone’s house.

She may have missed her opportunity because we are headed back to the Fairgrounds in Raleigh, where Julia catches her flight back home.

Historic Edenton, North Carolina

When we went to hitch up the Brew Hut on the morning of our departure, we learned that the Outer Banks wasn’t quite done with us yet.  One of the Brew Hut’s tires was markedly low (20 psi).

I got the “opportunity” to try out my low tech bicycle pump to re-inflate the tire.  After about  20 sweaty minutes, I was able to get it back up to 50 psi.  In the meantime, Julia found a tire repair place in Manteo that promised to fit us in.  I have nothing but good things to say about Tread Quarters Discount Tire.  They found the screw (in the header photo) causing the problem, patched it, and got us back on the road in about an hour for under $30.   We were fortunate not to have a blowout on the rod and to be within driving distance to get the slow leak resolved.

We drove on to a nondescript RV park near Edenton.  There was a nice view of a pond from our campsite, electric to plug into on a hot day, and a serviceable shower.  The main reason for our detour to Edenton was history.  This is the site of the Edenton Tea Party, where the 51 American women defied King George’s Tea Tax in 1774.

My wife Julia loves women who stir things up so this was a must stop for us.

There she is by the famous tea pot sculpture, Next she is lurking in the shadows of 1767 Courthouse.  Finally, she poses for her rabble-rousing punishment.  I am there to take pictures and perform the final rescue.

We only spent one night in the area, but it was a worthwhile stop.    Our next destination is Medoc Mountain State Park.

Outer Banks: Saying Goodbye

We ended up staying nine nights at Oregon Inlet Campground.  Mostly through luck, we had one of the best sites; we could walk to the beach from our backyard.  The showers were solar-warm.  The bathrooms had flush toilets and running water.
Cons:  the mosquitoes were terrible when the wind dropped.  Fortunately, the wind blows hard nearly all of the time.  The sites are tight.  Generators are allowed in the areas where there is no electricity.  Because all of the electric sites fill up first, this results in some strange situations where big Class A motor homes are running generators right next to tents in the non-electric zone.
Unlike the Texas gulf coast, we were unable to find any free public camping in the Outer Banks

Food and Drink

During our last days, we got in final tastes from the area.  Barbeque from Pigman’s in Kill Devil HIlls, shrimp and grits at Blue Moon Grill, and beer from Lost Colony Brewery.

The bbq was very good; the shrimp and grits were wonderful, and the beer was possibly the worst I’ve ever had at a brewpub.  The brown ale (to the right) was very thin and overly hopped for the style.  I like brown ales. Just one man’s opinion. I tasted Julia’s IPA (to the left), and it wasn’t as bad.  That’s all I’ll say about that.

Kayaking

On one afternoon, I dropped Julia off to do some kayaking (her race is coming up in about two weeks). She had a nice paddle and saw some some glamped-up fishing shacks which have been remodeled on the inside and even feature electricity.

The Lost Colony

We also took some time to learn about the Lost Colony at Roanoke, established by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585 and eventually led by John White.  White’s grand-daughter, Virginia Dare, was the first “English” child born in America.  White left the colonists to resupply in England.  When he returned in 1590, all of traces of the colony, including Virginia Dare, were gone.  Attempts to discover what happened were unsuccessful.
There was some speculation that the local native population killed everyone off.  That would not be shocking, as the colonists (fearing the locals might kill them) attacked the tribe without provocation, killing the chief and others.  However, there was no evidence of such a massacre by the tribe against the colonists.

Heading East

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Outer Banks.  This area has been on our bucket list for a long time.

Wright Brothers National Memorial

I have a couple of weeks left on my National Parks annual pass.  My frugal nature and Julia’s thirst for knowledge led us to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

I have to admit that the visit was more interesting than I anticipated.  The Wright Brothers were bicycle shop guys from Ohio who just wouldn’t give up on their dream to fly.  They repeatedly experienced failure but refused to give up. 

Successes were incremental.  In this photo, you can see where each of their four flights ended up. The fourth flight covered 852 feet and nearly a minute of flight time.

The plane was attached to the rail during its lead-up to take-off.  The memorial itself is on top of a hill overlooking the runway.

I’ll always remember two things about what I learned that day.  The first is that difficult dreams usually come true as a result of adversity, repeated failures and hard work.  The second is that Wilbur Wright didn’t die in a plane crash; rather, he died at the age of 45 from eating bad oysters.  You just never know…

Living under a rainbow and enjoying our last days in the Outer Banks…

Outer Banks: Excursions

We are staying at a campground within walking distance to the beach and a few miles south of Nags Head, North Carolina. I would be content to spend the day walking, reading, and napping.  However, Julia enjoys exploring the surrounding area.  On one of our days here, we ventured south.

Wildlife Refuge

Our first stop was at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.  When we pulled in, the frog in the header photo was perched on the driver’s side mirror of the vehicle next to us.  We browsed through the Visitors’ Center.  Then wen hiked the trails leading out into the Sound between the Outer Banks and the mainikland.

We continued south and took a quick tour of the Cape Point campground.  This is  a large National Park Service facility with dry camping and permitted generator use.  Not as popular, there were only a couple of tents and trailers on a weekday.  It’s set up in a large grassy field and not within easy walking distance to anything.  I was glad we didn’t make reservations here.  If the weather was cooler and the mosquitoes more forgiving, it would probably have worked as a base to explore the southern part of the Outer Banks.

Lighthouses

My feeling is that when you’ve seen one lighthouse, you’ve pretty much seen them all, but Julia feels differently.  We purchased tickets to climb the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which is the tallest brick lighthouse in the Americas and the second tallest brick lighthouse in the world.  Climbing to the top was equal to climbing a twelve story building. Yes, we climbed it.  I didn’t take pictures, because if you’ve seen one lighthouse….

One interesting thing about the lighthouse is that it needed to be moved a few years ago.  The Outer Banks is basically shifting sands, constantly moving to the west.  Over a couple of hundred years, the lighthouse was in danger of being swallowed up by the Atlantic Ocean.  They simply jacked it up, put it on rails and moved west to higher ground.  Cost: about $12 million.

Seafood and Beer

With all of that sightseeing, I was ready for nourishment.  We stopped at Pop’s for some delicious seafood and beer.

Julia, who has worked in the eye care world for over 30 years, immediately found an IPA to her liking: Hoptical Illusion.

Jockey Ridge State Park

On another day, we headed just north of Nag’s Head to Jockey’s Ridge State Park.  The terrain here provided a sharp contrast to the area near our campground where the dunes are grass-covered.  At the state park, dunes are tall, mostly bare, and stretch for miles.

Lots of sand in our shoes and socks, but we had a great time.

Outer Banks, North Carolina

Hurricane Dorian took its best shot at the Outer Banks.  However, the area was recovering well by the time we arrived at our campsite on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Julia and I have been enjoying some quality time together:  eating, drinking, and taking lots of long walks on the beach.

Actually, Julia is training for an upcoming mini-triathlon with running, biking, and paddlling, so she is doing a bit of running on the beach each morning.  The highlight of the eating and drinking has been a local place called Fish Head’s, which offers lots of quality craft beer and 20 cent boiled shrimp.  The beach and surf views from the tables are free.

We’ve eaten redfish, flounder, triggerfish, plankfish, and red snapper.  The latter two we picked up at local seafood markets and prepared on our cast iron skillet.  We start every morning with a long walk on the beach and end every day the same way.

Life is good, and we are thankful.

North Carolina State Fairgrounds

As mentioned in the previous post, the record-setting temperatures in North Carolina have been too hot for this northern man  There were a couple of dry camping opportunities in the Raleigh area for less money, but I laid my money down for a bare bones grassy field  with electrical hookups at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds’ campground.

Besides air conditioning, there was proximity to the airport, a dump station/garbage services, and convenient location to laundry, grocery, etc.  The bonus is that some kind of horse show was going on across the street from the campground.

Callie and I took frequent walks over to the exercise pen where we saw many beautiful horses.  My favorites were the high-steppers and the horses pulling carts.  I’ve ridden lots of times but they’ve either been horses on the farm or trail horses.  These were fancy horses at the show.

There are a few things missing at this campground.  There are no showers or even bathrooms on site.  I did get the chance to test my plumbing repairs undertaken this summer and took a shower in the wet bath.  It felt great after a couple of days of dry camping.  I still used two or three gallons of water.  In the long term, that’s not sustainable for two people to take daily showers without frequent refills of the water tank and stops at the dump station. The baby wipes and sponge baths will have to do on some days.

I will have stayed here for three nights when we leave for the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Hurricane Dorian gave a hard blow to the Outer Banks.  Our campground has reopened, although there are some places we probably won’t get to, including Ocracoke Island.  Julia and I have never been to this part of the country.  I  don’t know if we will be back, so we are going to proceed and see what happens.

The Heat is On!

After leaving the Blue Ridge, we descended rapidly into lower elevations and higher temperatures.  I was still a few days ahead of picking Julia up in Raleigh, so I picked a half-way spot near Greensboro, North Carolina.  The campground choices didn’t look great from a cost/benefit point of view. Instead,   I elected to stay over for free at Grove Wineries using my Harvest Host membership.

I knew that I wasn’t on the Blue Ridge anymore when I set up the Brew Hut thermometer.  94 degrees! Some people love it hot; I’m not one of those people.  Callie is one tough dog; she doesn’t seem to mind it hot or cold. With Callie safely secured in the Brew Hut with the screens open and ample water, I entered the air-conditioned luxury of the Grove Winery’s tasting room.

The young woman working  in the tasting room also happened to be a Harvest Host member.  She and her husband had traveled by trailer from Alaska to North Carolina. They stopped at many Harvest Host locations along the way.  In the end, they both found employment at Grove Winery and Vineyards.

I have quite a bit of experience tasting West Coast and European wines, but almost no experience drinking East Coast wines.  I was very pleasantly surprised with the whites but especially liked the reds.  Not normally part of the tasting, there was a bottle of the 2011 Cabernet Reserve open. It was amazing.  I ended up buying a bottle of that and also a bottle of a red blend called Block B (2013).  I will try my best not to open them until Julia arrives.

For the rest of the afternoon and early evening, Callie and I hung out on the shaded patio.  I caught up on some reading and made use of the free wifi.

By 7 pm, the sun was starting to go down.  However, the temperatures stayed above 90 in the Brew Hut until about 8 p.m.  It was just too hot to cook, so I ate some crackers with cheese and drank my last cold beer.  Then I chugged two large glasses of cold orange juice and a bottle of kombucha.  You would think I would be up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night,  but I must have been dehydrated because I had no trouble sleeping until dawn.

Staying for free is its own reward, but I was ready for air conditioning.  Next stop:  Raleigh, North Carolina.

Dry Camping on the Blue Ridge

After leaving Roan Mountain State Park, I drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway and camped at Julian Price campground.  For $20, you get a generous campsite with access to a modern bathroom (no shower), water, garbage, and a dump station.

Initially, I tried the C loop (no generator).  Unfortunately, that loop is tent only.  I thought maybe I could squeeze my little Brew Hut and truck into one of those sites, but it was a no go.  To me, it makes more sense to designate one of the rv loops for no generators since people with rvs are more likely to bring generators than people with tents.  But what do I know?

I talked to one of the camp hosts and told him that I really would like a site that won’t have generator noise or a bright streetlight.  He told me to go up high on loop F.  I drove past a guy on loop E who had one of the loudest generators I’ve ever heard.  But up on loop F, it was practically empty.  My nearest neighbor had solar panels out, which is always a good sign. 

Callie and I hiked around the Price Lake Loop on both days we stayed here.  We walked all of the campground loops and also did a good chunk of the Boone Fork Loop Trail.  The lake views were outstanding; Callie took several swimming opportunities; and the trails were well maintained and featured a canopy of shrubbery.

Best of all, the temperatures stayed cool at night, making for perfect sleeping weather with no artificial light or generators. We continue to make our way east.

Back in the Roan Highlands

Almost no campsite is perfect.  My campsite at Roan Mountain is nearly perfect, except for a streetlight right at its edge.  As a result, I slept poorly, even though the babbling brook put me right to sleep.  Black-out curtains would fix the glaring light, but it’s rarely a problem where I camp, so I’ve got thin white curtains that don’t keep out the bright streetlights.

We were up early enough to snag one of the limited parking spots at Carver’s Gap, which is the trailhead for going southbound to High Knob (the highest shelter on the Appalachian Trail) or for going northbound across several balds to the Stan Murray Shelter.

Hungry for views, Callie and I climbed up the pine forest, taking in the wonderful smell.  Well, I was breathing pine; Callie was probably scenting squirrels, birds, and snakes.

The contrast with the ice-covered trail from the spring of 2018 was amazing.  With a light breeze and pleasant temperatures in the low 70’s, hiking conditions were perfect.  One of the reasons I love the Roan Highlands is that there are expansive views as a reward for making it to the top.

Later, the trail plunges down through thick forest and overgrown bushes. There must have been a few nettles because my arms were on fire for awhile.  We hiked to the Stan Murray Shelter and back again–about 7 miles round trip.  In each shelter, there is supposed to be a notebook for thru-hikers and other visitors to sign in.  Some people write long passages detailing their hikes, hopes and dreams, etc.  During my thru- hike, I rarely wrote much more than my trail name, so that people I knew behind me could see that I was still on the trail.

This time, I signed for both my thru-hike in 1996 and my short hike that day.

Quid Pro Quo, GA>ME ’96, Carvers Gap to Stan Murray Shelter, ’19.