October 4 - 7, 2024 - Lafe and Faith's Odyssey

The Outer Banks

The next morning, we got up early and started driving before any of the locals could get suspicious. It was still the work week, and I had some presentations to give, so we decided to find a coffee shop to work at for a while. We ended up stopping at a lively shop in North Myrtle Beach along our route. We stopped in and split a coffee flight of various delicious drinks along with some equally tasty breakfast food. As soon as the coffee was gone, Faith ditched me in favor of exploring the nearby shops while I continued working. Thanks to the energetic atmosphere, the cafe was not an ideal location to give a presentation from; so, I journeyed back to the van and gave them from the relative quiet of its walls. On the other hand, it was a hot day, and the van quickly became a sweltering environment. Soon enough, my presentations were over, Faith had returned, and we were once again trekking up the coast. Our next stop was not far away at a neat nature area with board walks across salt marshes and to the brackish waters of the river. We saw numerous clams, snails, and a few little fish. Once satisfied, we meandered our way north to Washington, NC and slept along the river after taking a lovely stroll through the quaint town, the first place in the US to be named after George Washington. The night was, thankfully, much cooler, less humid, and provided us with much-needed rest. However, we were not to sleep in, as we had ferry tickets for the next morning.

As the sun rose, we hit the road towards Swanquarter, NC where a ferry will take you to Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks for a small fee. We arrived early with our ticket and got an excellent spot right at the front of the ferry once boarded. The ferry ride was a few hours long, so we took some time to explore the ferry, watch the shore recede into the horizon, meet some of the other passengers, and, in Faith’s case, take a nap. Everyone we met was certain that the South Dakota plates on our van were because it was a rental, not that we were actually from such a far-flung place. Once on Ocracoke, we quickly made our way to a little Mexican food truck that some of the locals had recommended and got some excellent food before snagging some fresh oysters from a local seafood shop. We didn’t really have a plan for the day other than to see the scenery, so we made our way slowly up the narrow island until we found a suitable beach to shuck and slurp down the oysters and search for seashells. As late afternoon approached, we reached the north end of Ocracoke where we took another, much smaller, ferry to the next island on the OBX. Night was falling fast, so we found an empty beach parking lot and fell asleep to the wind and waves just beyond the dunes.

The next morning, we got up early, hit a pastry shop, and kept driving northwards, stopping for a couple lighthouses and to watch kitesurfers ride the waves just off shore. We both thought it looked incredibly fun, so don’t be surprised if you find us zipping along the waves pulled along by the wind someday. As we made our way up the island, we found ourselves in progressively more inhabited areas that chock-full of tourist traps. At the first bridge back to the mainland, we took a quick detour off the Outer Banks to visit Fort Raleigh Historic Site on Roanoke Island, the location of the famed colony. It was a neat place with many artifacts, but we didn’t solve any mysteries. We backtracked back to the islands and soon stopped again at another historic site: Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers first took flight. We spent a while poking around the monument before again finding a local seafood shop and getting some dinner to make later. We had plenty of daylight left, so we drove back onto the mainland and found a park a few hours later to make our food at just south of Norfolk, VA. It wasn’t a terribly nice park, but it gave us a place to make the crab cakes and suck down the oysters we had been dying to eat. It was a great meal, and we followed it up by hopping back into the van, driving through Norfolk, and across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The structure is extremely cool: it’s a bridge just above the water stretching for miles across the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay that dips down into the water, under the bay, and back up at several points to allow for ships to go across. It was quite cool to see, and I would highly recommend driving it at least once. We didn’t have much else to do with our day and didn’t want to get too far up the road, so we stopped at the visitor center of the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge to sleep for the night. Although humid, it was a cool and dark night: great for sleeping.

The next morning, we got up and started making our way up the eastern shore of Virginia, through the tip of Maryland, and into Delaware. I worked from the van while Faith drove us up the coast and stopped at myriad thrift and consignment stores. We eventually made it to Ocean City, DE and paused to poke around for a while and soon found ourselves sharing a banana split from a local ice cream shop. It was superb. To be honest, there isn’t much of anything on the eastern shore up through Delaware, so we made our way back to the coast at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge and found a perfect spot to set up camp for the night. We watched a beautiful sunset before quickly stowing ourselves in the van to avoid the hordes of mosquitoes that quickly came for us.