We're going to drive all of it in the Waggy. Vacation time, cash flow, and frankly vehicle reliability helped us decide to break it into two parts. The first part will be from the I-440 intersection in Raleigh, eastward to the Outer Banks; part deux will be from the I-440 intersection in Raleigh, westward to the TN state line (hopefully
).We're sight seers and explorers at heart, and geographers at work, so we're into taking our time on our travels, looking around and pondering "why here, and not somewhere else". This nature is what makes us prefer a slower, but more interesting way to get from here to there. This drive on US-64 will let us see all sorts of interesting things in this state that we call home; things that we'd otherwise miss traveling the conventional way across it on I-40. Been there, done that eleventy-billion times! It's boring! There's nothing to see but exit signs and billboards!
We completed part 1 this past weekend as a three day weekend, and in celebration of Sarah sticking with me for 5 whole years of marriage!
Here's some stats to get us started:
740 Miles
~50 Gallons of gas
~15 Avg MPG
DAY 1
We left the house, about 24 miles from what we're treating as the beginning of the eastern leg (part 1) of the trip on Friday morning, April 12th. Not a great start to the trip as far as going slow, nearly all of these first miles are on US-64 "common" (industry term there, sorry) with I-40 and I-440.
I'm sure you all don't want to read our ramblings for hours, here's some pictures!
US-64 @ I-440 - The last "big" sign on this leg of the trip
You've all seen these, but since it's pertinent to this story, here ya go!
Our first planned stop - Mackey's Landing Firearms
Definitely worth the stop if you're in the area and into this sort of thing - short of a gun show, we've never seen so many guns for sale!
Next stop, Plymouth, NC alongside the Roanoke River
We toured around town for a couple of hours, taking in the sights. We saw a replica of the CSS Albemarle, an iron-clad gunboat used by the South in the Civil War. You can tell it's a replica, because if General Lee would've had a Suzuki outboard things might have turned out differently... lol
Picture of the Ironclad across the hood of the "ironclad"?
For you history nerds, here's the rest of the plaque
We made a quick stop at the Roanoke River Lighthouse, established 1866. It's not quite what most folks might picture when they think lighthouse, but this one is along a river
Then there was a hidden gem - Wildlife Museum and Gallery! This was one of those random things on the map that sounded interesting. You know, probably silly, but we've got time so let's check it out. Glad we did! From the outside, and even for a minute on the inside, it seems kind of cheesy. The office manager/museum guide/resident knowledgeable person, Beth, gave us quite the personalized tour of the whole museum.
She runs the office for the lumber company upstairs, and the taxidermy collection downstairs is the personal collection of the lumber company's owner - Mr Harrison. The collection is comprised mostly of critters found in North America and Africa, but he has recently become interested in the critters that call New Zealand home. Beth knows about each and every animal in the collection. If there is a hunting story that goes with the animal, you get to hear it, if there is a cool story of how the animal or item came into Mr Harrison's possession, you get to hear it. We got to ask all the questions we wanted during the tour, then Beth turned us loose to wander and take pictures as much as we liked. All in all, a very cool experience!
One day my beard will look like his!
NC record bear for female youth - shot by Mr Harrison's daughter (granddaughter?) in Hyde County, 708 pounds.
Sarah and a Lioness. Cool story with this one - Apparently the lioness was causing trouble in a village so Mr Harrison got permission to hunt it. When he and the guide found it, he shot it, only wounding it, hitting it in the jaw. As they searched for it, unbeknownst to them, it had doubled back on them. It pounced on the guide, getting it's mouth around the guide's head, but with a broken jaw was unable to clamp down. The guide is credited with the actual kill, as he shot it with his side-arm while his head was in the lioness' mouth!
No photoshop, the critter on the right is the size of a large white tail deer, the critter on the left really is only a little bigger than a chihuahua.
Cape buffalo
zebra rugs
antelope "grand slam"
red stag
Alaskan moose
Next stop: Sans Souci Ferry, one of three remaining cable-operated ferries in NC. Not on the way to anything, but another one of those overlooked sights. It's pretty cool, you drive up to the stop sign, honk the horn and the very friendly 175 year old man walks out of his satellite TV equipped office, cranks up the ferry and motors on over to pick you up. It's free, courtesy of NCDOT.
Honkin
video
Randomness: there must have been a dragonfly convention near the ferry because we've never seen so many... swarms! Here is one of our victims.
More random; drivin, ridin, and NOT Kansas!
(Looks like maybe I ate a dragonfly by accident?)
Next stop: Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge
Which was closed; well the visitor's center anyway. There's a nice boardwalk through the swamp alongside the Scuppernong River in the town of Columbia. We saw a beaver, a snake, a frog, regular swamp stuff, bald cypress trees, and a ton of turtles - pretty much the theme for everywhere we stopped near a swamp. Turtles, turtles, turtles.
Video of the beaver swimming over to check us out:
Lake Mattamuskeet is the state's largest natural lake, measuring about 18 miles wide and 7 miles long. We drove across the 7-mile portion.
It's supposed to be a great place to see a variety of ducks and go fishing... but we just kept driving.
The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge has a "wildlife drive" where visitors are supposed to see plenty of animals along some gravel roads. So we consulted the refuge map and drove some of the gravel roads... hoping that the weather front moving through would bring some animals out of hiding to visit us. We saw plenty more turtles, and best of all... a black bear.
Does a bear poop in the woods? I don't know... but it sure does poop on the road.
Arriving at the Oregon Inlet Campground was like arriving at Wally World in our Woody. Closed for maintenance, except there was no friendly moose at the gate; we had to read the sign. Turns out we were a week early. So we drove south along the Outer Banks to Rodanthe where we found another place to camp. The weather front was moving through so we didn't get to see a real sunset on our sound-side camp. We had a tough time making diner in the high winds, but it sure was tasty. It was so windy that Sarah thought the tent was going to collapse on us that night.
it's "natural" sanding --- oh yeah, and its fun too!
