Okracoke and the Carolinas

Okracoke is the most southern part of the Outer Banks string of islands. We rose from our expensive motel in Hatteras -- The Hatteras Marlin Motel -- and drove south to Okracoke. First came a free ferry from Hatteras to Okracoke -- about a 30 minute ride. This ferry is a bit like the Thetis Island ferry. We drove down the narrow isthmus with the Atlantic on one side behind big dunes and the "sound" on the other side -- often behind dunes as well. When we got to the little town of Okracoke, we were pleasantly surprised . It's a great little place with bakeries and coffee shops on people's porches and other restaurants and boutiques in people's yards. Of course there are the ever present "junk" (read that "souvenir") and surfing shops. We had cinnamon buns and coffee at a little place that came highly recommended. Great cinnamon buns!

Since we had put on our bathing suits under our clothes, we were ready to visit the beach -- apparently the best on the Atlantic coast. I don't believe I have ever seen so much fine white sand -- not in Scotland, nor in the Caribbean.

and wind:

We spent a couple of hours paddling in the tidal pools (swimming was prohibited when we were there because of the rough water), looking for pig rocks (didn't find any -- sorry, Sandra) and watching the sand pipers speed across the shore just out of the reach of the incoming waves.

We puttered around Okracoke until it was time to catch our next ferry -- the $15 one. It is certainly no Queen of Coquitlam -- it's just a bit bigger than the previous 30 car ferry, but it took us smoothly over the two plus hour trip to the mainland of North Carolina.

The motel was okay, but you already heard the WiFi story -- no staying at EconoLodges any more.

This morning we headed south -- sort of. The sea shore is very irregular and the road followed the shore for some time, so we travelled north, south, east, and west.

There is just one word to describe the Carolinas that we've seen so far -- FLAT. At first, we looked out and as far as we could see there was rolled out flat marsh -- nothing to relieve the even terrain or horizon. As we travelled on, the marsh melded into more treed areas, but still flat. The trees are mostly pines with no limbs for about 3/4 of the height and no underbrush. The result is pickity looking trees stuck across the field. As we continued south, the trees thickened -- still pines for the most part -- so we drove along straight roads with rows of pines lined up on either side.

Next came South Carolina. We began to see palm trees, but the dominant vegetation is still pine trees, but in several areas there are beautiful crepe myrtles (I WANT some in my yard) and live oaks lining the street and forming a canopy over top. Some of these oaks had moss hanging down as well -- totally beautiful.

This is a picture of live oaks I found on the Internet. the ones we saw were like this except they were growing on each side of the road in a couple of different places.

So, we were finished with paying a lot of money for grubby, cockroach, non-WiFi motels, so guess what we did? We stopped at a Motel 6. Here we have everything we need or want with a sparkling clean room, laundry if we want it, lots of towels and WiFi -- all for under $50! So here we are -- enjoying an early night in Charleston, South Carolina. People here are polite (Yes Ma'am, Certainly, Ma'am, Right away, Ma'am). I am not taken with the surroundings for the most part (I miss some mountains or even some hills -- no, even bumps!) but there is beauty here and evidence of gracious living.

More of the same in Savannah tomorrow and then it's on to Florida.