2013 Big Truck across the Southeast Day 10

We made it to double digits! For all of you that work full time, you know how difficult it can be to take that much time off consecutively, and how rewarding it feels. Today was a great day, unique to the rest of our vacation so far. We are staying on a small island in Buxton, NC, and our plan today was to go to the ocean.

 

We started off at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Station, which was about 3 minutes from our campground, and conveniently where we needed to go to get our Offroad Vehicle Permit.

 

In order to obtain the ORV permit, you have to watch a 7 minute video, which contains helpful tips such as:

• Don't drive into the ocean, as your vehicle will sink
• Don't run over turtles in mating season
• You are not allowed to drive anywhere a bird has landed, will land, or has the capability to land in the future*

*This one is only a slight exaggeration. Huge sections of the beach, previously accessible, are closed off because some chooch beached his Hummer on a sand hill a few years ago. It must have been a HUGE sand hill, because those H2s can go anywhere...

Someone in our vehicle was pretty excited to get to the beach.

 

This is the view once you find one of the authorized access ramps (this is #44) and start working your way toward the surf.



 

We picked a spot with some decent waves and started to set up camp. I'll just get it out of the way now, yes I got tremendously sunburnt today, yes I used sunscreen (it acts like a focusing lens for the sun for someone as gingified as myself), and yes I was by far the pastiest person on the beach, at least for about 20 minutes before I transitioned into the hue of a lawn flamingo.

 



A few minutes after we got situated, I set out on a fatbike ride to reach the point, which of course is off limits because of Hummer guy.

 

Along the way I encountered quite a few of these little guys, not to mention a bunch of shells and other sharp objects. One thing I didn't expect to find was an older couple, retired as of last weekend, who had just found a pipe carved out of bone washed up on the shore. This marks the first time a woman in her 60s has asked me if I had any weed on me, and her husband looked genuinely disappointed when I said no.

This water crossing had me second guessing my plan. It was very similar to quicksand at the bottom, but I could see the end of the sandbar and I'll likely not be back here anytime soon.

Since the satellites are always watching, here's the track I rode. Although it would imply a skill level beyond what I possess, all of that riding save for a few knee deep crossings was on sandbars at low tide.

 

 

One final gratuitous shot once I reached the point (just behind me). The salt water is ridiculously corrosive, my chain was already rusting by the time we got back to the campsite, but the ride was worth it. One challenge I was not used to based on my Michigan beach riding experience was dodging the lines from the surf fishermen.

 

Upon my return, a couple of guys with a pretty thick French accent (Fraunch Fries....) came over and complimented our Jeep. They had driven down from Quebec in this 2013 Wrangler JK, which they've only had for 4 months.

 

We talked Jeeps in broken English for a few minutes, then I returned the favor by complimenting them on their choice of beverage. All 4 of them (I assume girlfriends/wives) were killing these on the beach. Impressive in itself, until you consider what chain of events must have occurred for a group of Canadians, with access to some of the finest beers in the land, came to our country and chose this delicacy.

 

 

 From there, it was on to full play mode. We buried Jordan,

 

 

she buried Kimberly,

 

Then we swam and played in the waves for quite a while. The weather was perfect, a blessing when you consider the cold/rain that has been going on for the past week or so.

 

 

We relocated further down the string of islands, driving down to the ferry launch to Okracoke Island and taking ramp #55 to another beach. The water here was a bit colder, but the waves were nice, big rollers that Jordan could swim in without shrieking every 10 seconds. After the swim, we played in the sand, and I wish I could tell you what was going on here. I don't think she even knew.

 

We returned to the Big Truck to assess the situation, dispense Aloe with a firehose, and relax for a bit before heading back out for some moonlight (not to be confused with Moonlighting, featuring David Addison and Maddie Hayes, one of the finest television accomplishments of its time) waves. 

 

With a huge full moon (I'll refrain from another Joe vs the Volcano link, but you get the idea), the scene was incredible. The beach ORV access shuts down at 9pm, so we stayed until close to that time, listening to the waves crash and watching the little piping plovers (the reason access is shut down, in addition to Hummer guy) dodge waves and find treasures.

 

 

Finally we got back to the site, and Jordan washed up her shell collection, then sorted it by size. I have no idea where she could have gotten these nerdish tendencies, but it was cool to watch.

 

Tomorrow marks an aloe-filled drive up the coast to Assateague Island, to camp among wild horses and do some more ocean/beach exploring.

2013 Big Truck across the Southeast Day 9



Day 9 started in the rain, as we needed to pack up and get on the road for the drive from Charleston to Buxton, NC and the Outer Banks. The rain tapered off long enough for us to get everything situated, tanks dumped, Jeep hooked up, etc. One small situation - a colony of fire ants decided that our grill was a sanctuary from the rain, so that took an extra 20 minutes or so of some highly unrecommended tactics to cleanse the grill.

I'm still quite certain that my next chipotle chicken sausage will have one of these fellas riding shotgun.

Since most of the day was highway driving (not much more disheartening than hitting the on ramp, then hearing the GPS lady say "continue on route for 374 miles"), we built a nest for Jordan and let her catch up on sleep. James Island waterpark 1, 5 year old 0.

 

 A quick check of the weather showed that we would be chasing this storm system the entire day. At this point we fully expected to see Jim Cantore and Reed Timmer waiting for us at our site.

 

Most of the rest of our day involved bridges and rain.

 

 

At this point it seemed like the GPS lady was a bit overly ambitious about our rig's capabilities, but a couple of zooms in revealed a road in there.



It's not every day that you just randomly happen upon a bright yellow early 70s Plymouth Roadrunner, and even less likely that it would be supercharged and built to the level that this one was. If you know your TV history, you recognize that car as very similar to...

...Daisy Duke's car in the first few seasons of the Dukes of Hazzard. Daisy's was a '74, and the one we passed is a '73, but the resemblance is clear.

 



 Sadly Daisy's car met an untimely demise when the cousins drove it off a cliff and made Roscoe believe he had killed the Duke boys. They made things right with Daisy by replacing her Roadrunner with this '80 CJ7 with the ridiculous DIXIE decals. The 80s...

 

Back to roads (that's a total weird word isn't it), we happened upon about a mile long field of sunflowers. When you're driving all day, this is noteworthy.

Shortly after this we passed a Red wolf crossing sign - not something you see every day, then a bear crossing sign.

I couldn't help but think of poor Donna the deer lady, because why on earth would the government want an endangered species like the red wolf to cross a busy highway there?

I fully expected to see one of these next.

 

More bridges. Not Nash Bridges, just regular ones.

Finally we had reached the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. If you have not been here, I highly recommend it. Just a small strip of land, a road, and houses probably occupied by those that the Kennedy family has been paying off to keep their kids out of jail.

We reached the campground just in time to set up and cruise down the street to catch a seafood dinner and sample some of North Carolina's local brews. These are from the Weeping Radish - interesting name, good beer.

 

Tomorrow we explore the beach in the Jeep and hopefully get in some quality time in the ocean. Hopefully I have time to sneak in a couple of these, I'm sure the ladies won't mind.

 



 



2013 Big Truck across the Southeast Day 8

Day 8 started with a pretty decent downpour, which allowed a decent sleep in for the first time in a while. I got up and started enjoying our new fancy internet signal, when I was interrupted by this sight.

We never do this, but had planned on going to a pancake breakfast at the activity center of the campground because was about 100 yards from our site and we were running low on groceries.

We managed to keep a low enough profile to get in and out without incident (Chuck was there, talking politics with what seemed to be a willing participant), but Jordan wanted to check out the pond after hearing that there is a real live 'gator that lives there.

After breakfast, we took the 15-20 min drive into Charleston to go see Fort Sumter, and the visitors center on the mainland was pretty cool. This is from the monument just in front of the fountain - beautiful day.

As you can see, Jordan really enjoyed the wait for the ferry, and was very interested in browsing the historical exhibits detailing the events leading up to our nation's civil unrest.

 

I quickly found out that it was far more interesting pointing out cool boats and looking at the bridges. Of course this expanse of water would not be complete without a...

 

...reference to yet another cinematic masterpiece, or one of the largest flops in history. You decide.

 

As we finally got on the ferry to make our way to the fort, Kimberly and Jordan were doing their best "I'm the King of the World" while maintaining a very, very safe distance from the bow.

 

 

 

A few more minutes and we arrived. The fort is an interesting sight as you approach, it is positioned right in the center of the harbor, and the flags really catch your attention. The rubble is very apparent even from a distance.

Inside the fort, it was a pretty fascinating mix of visual history (in a few places you could actually feel like you were being taken back in time, some of the shells were still embedded into the 5' deep brick walls) and museum-type artifacts. This quote helped put the historical significance of what we were seeing into context.

 

 

From there it was just stunning imagery, with amazing levels of detail about each of the guns, the shells used, how long each were in service, etc. The National Park Service has done a pretty impressive job of restoring and maintaining things in this condition.

 



 



At the top of the fort, this semicircle of flags from different points in US history along with the South Carolina State flag dominate the view.

Here you see the enormity of the moment really impacting Jordan. She was so enamored with what she saw, she had to take some time to really let it sink in. Or, she was beat and wanted to find out if SpongeBob passed his driving test on the streets of Bikini Bottom.

 Upon our return to the mainland, we took the tourist drive along the coast of Charleston, and saw some of the old Victorian mansions along the water.

 

 

Southerners definitely wear their school pride on their sleeve, and also on their back windows. It has been rare down here to see a car without some sort of sticker supporting some SEC or local school, especially in South Carolina (College of Charleston, Clemson, USC Gamecocks, etc). I half expected to see the Ol' Ball Coach kicking around in the entertainment district, but instead he was running a tight ship at practice.



We got back to the Big Truck just in time to hit the matinee version of the water park, but thankfully there were no cameras present. This time it was a bit busier since the sun was actually out, and once I rolled into the park the rest of the guests were in for a treat.

 

There was just enough time after the water park for me to sneak out on a ride around our place, which is a huge county park on James Island. The paths seemed to go on forever, and the setting is very cool. This particular path had been completed about 5 minutes before I rode it, and it led to...

...a scene right out of the Everglades. Even though it has nothing to do with Charleston, this view with the airboat way off in the background gave me the perfect excuse to look up this theme song. Good luck getting it out of your head.

As I type this, we just got bombarded by what sounded like 3" hail, but it was actually just raindrops. I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come down for quite a while.

Tomorrow is a full travel day, nearly 9 hours to Outer Banks (Buxton, NC) for some oceanfront goodness.