July 17, 2012 Ocrocoke NC to Norfolk VA

A full day driving up the Outer Banks of NC.  The night last night was less "buggy" than camping in the Everglades, but still quite buggy and very hot and stuff in the van.  Our van camping seems to work a lot better when it isn’t close to 100 degrees and humid.  We were able to really enjoy a lovely dawn sunrise walk on the beech, following the path just up from our campsite.  The sun on the water was shimmering with beauty.  As soon as it was fully up, Patti said, “Let’s try to catch the 7:00 ferry” to the next island, so we scrambled, drove about ten miles up the road and got on.

But, before we left we began seeing many rabbits grabbing something to eat from the grass before many of the campers began to stir.  We watched them for a few minutes before we had to leave.  They were very cute.

This took up to Hatteras Island, with swarms of tourists.  We were able to eat our breakfast cereal sitting on a bench waiting for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to open.  This is one  of the most famous lighthouses on the east coast.  Both for its distinctive black and white pattern, but also because in 1999 they moved it 2900 feet to keep it from being washed away into the ocean.  This was a huge task, because they didn’t take it apart, they jacked it up and moved it just like one might move a house or a rocket.  We got to see the movie they made about the move.  Crazy!  It was done primary using guys who were house movers from around the country-people who jack up houses, put it on a truck and take it someplace.

This is also the tallest brick lighthouse in the country and the second tallest in the world.  We were the first ones in to start of the walk of 279 steps up to the top.  It was quite a hike, and were where glad to be doing it in the morning rather than midafternoon.  We both made it.  Yah!  We heard form the ranger, that every summer they have to perform rescues on many people who are not in good enough shape to do this.  You wouldn't want to be on THAT list.

This lighthouse had been located a spot near the beach.  The ocean had eroded the island, until there was less than 100 feet of beach between the surf line and the foundation.  It was clear that if something had not been done, the lighthouse would have been lost.  So, they decided to move it - all in one piece. The Park Service hired the best house movers in the country to jack it up off its foundation and slowly move it 2900 feet.  It took several months to prepare it, move it, and set it in its new location.  They did a fine job, leaving only a ring of foundation stones at the old location.

Next we went to the Outer Banks’ other big claim to fame. This was the area where the Wright Brothers made their first mechanical airplane flight, outside of Kitty Hawk.  We saw the flat places where they did the first flights, in 1903. We had imagined that they flew off of a big hill, but in order for it to “count” as a flight, it need to start on flat ground.  And we also climbed to the top of the hill where there is a memorial to them.  The Memorial is quite moving.

One of the great park ranger activities was to take kids to the place where the first flight went for 120 feet in 12 seconds.  She then took a stopwatch and had any kids who wanted to run the same distance.  All of them proved they were indeed faster runners than the first airplane, including and couple of four year-olds.  So it didn’t go very fast. 

But we where struck as to reflected how the world had changed because of this leap:  being able to fly around the world or across the country without much thought. One of the sweetest things was a letter certifying that Neil Armstrong and Apollo 8 took with him to the moon a tiny piece from the first airplane that the Wright Brother’s flew.  How cool was that!

One more lighthouse filled out the day.  This one was at Currituck Beach Light, also on the Outer Banks.  This lighthouse was not painted but remains its original red brick.  It was open, so we walked up this 162 foot lighthouse. So that makes two tall ones in the same day.   To get to it, we got to drive through the community of Duck NC.  This place had more corny joke signs than we have seen in a while.

We were really appreciative of the great interpretation that was provided at the base and on the landings.  We have learned a lot about lighthouses but found some interesting new information in what was provided here.  As you can imagine, the spiral staircase gets much narrower as we neared the top.

By the time we got to Norfolk, just time for dinner and bed.  Goodbye Outer Banks!  We really enjoyed out visit.