April 14-17, 2014 - The Outer Banks

On Monday we headed back east to Jacksonville NC. This summer we are going to ride our motorcycles from Jacksonville and the Atlantic to Oregon and the Pacific via primarily dirt roads. One thing we want to do once we pick up the bikes, is to go to a beach and have a photo op. As we were in the area, we volunteered to go and hunt for a spot. I found a Forest Service Campground in the area, so we headed there.

Spring has arrived

We couldn't help it, we had to eat here.  It was pretty good. The milkshake was wonderful. 

 

We knew that the weather was going to change so we went riding as soon as we got camp set up. We headed to Bogue Banks, one of the Outer Banks Islands. In Emerald Isle we found several places that might work for our photo op.

This one is too far from the ocean and the sand has piled up too high to see the waves.

This one might work

I think this one gets my vote

This one is good too.

There is great beach access at this one.

After we came up with a couple of good choices we continued on to Fort Macon State Park.

This fort was restored in the 30's when it first became a State Park, but the US Military took the site back during WWII as part of the shore defense.

It never saw any action and was given back to North Carolina after 1945. 

 

On Tuesday we moved to North River Campground which had better access to the Outer Banks and Kill Devil Hills where the Wright Brothers first took to the air!

Along the way we kept seeing these purple flowers hanging in the trees.  At first we thought they were lilacs, but soon realized that it was Wisteria. 

 

Our Beast and the Toad are in the distance 

The view from our space

 

That night the weather finally caught up with us. The winds howled-57 MPH just north of us.  And rain! Oh my; we were surrounded by puddles, again. But we decided to go to Kill Devil Hills anyway.  The ride out was very windy still.  We had to cross this one bridge on the Currituck Sound; it had a permanent sign posted.  "Caution High Winds".  No kidding! And the bridge is 3 miles long.  I felt like a ping pong ball in a wind tunnel.  It was awful. But we survived.

We went to the Wright Brothers Monument. This is a replica of The Flyer.

This replica is of their glider  which they used to figure out if manned flight could maybe work.

 

After lunch we decided that it was just too windy and cold! So instead of continuing on to Roanoke Island and the Jamestown Colony we decided to go back to the coach, via the beach road.

I told you it was windy, right?

Sand blows everywhere, even into the yards across the road. 



 

When we had first arrived at North River Campground Wayne had heard an exhaust leak, so we spent some time making arrangements to get it fixed in Chesapeake Virginia. So the next day we were up and on the road to make a 9 am appointment at a Cummins shop. Oh boy is that another story!