Monteo to Murphy – Heading into the Gale

Leaving Wilmington, we headed up the coast of North Carolina to the small island town of Emerald Isle. Not a lot to do on this stop as this was planned as a jump off to catch the ferry to Ocracoke Island (more on that later). We paid top dollar for a campground on the ocean and a site up on a hill with views to the water.

Much of our time was spent enjoying walks along the beach and the views from our campsite.

However, our peaceful campground became quite windy after we arrived, with day after day of gale-force warnings up and down the coast. These were accompanied by cool temperatures that got to the point that it was hard to sit outside (you could bundle up against the cold but the wind was really pretty constant!). This would become a key factor in our upcoming plans as well as impact many others along the coast in the coming week but more on that later.

Only two main excursions were taken while in the area. The first was a drive to Fort Macon, a brick fort built in the early 1800’s and very well preserved. Blackbeard and other infamous pirates were known to have passed through Beaufort Inlet at will before the construction of the fort. Fort Macon was built between 1826 and 1834 and is made up of 2,379,546 bricks—more than any other U.S. fort. It saw action during the Civil War, the Spanish American War and World War II. It also served as a military prison from 1862-1877. Located on Bogue Banks near Atlantic Beach, the fort opened as a state park in 1936. Fort Macon State Park is the second most visited state park in North Carolina, with an annual visitation of 1.3 million, despite being one of the smallest state parks in North Carolina.

Our next excursion took us out to Harker’s Island on the other side of Bogue Inlet to visit the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum. This museum focuses on the history of the local area including exhibitions on waterfowl decoys, history of storms and hurricanes, library with reference materials, local community exhibits, and a lookout tower. It provided an interesting look into local life and how it developed in the area.

After all this culture and education, it was time to wander over to the lovely little town of Beaufort (the one in North Carolina!) for a stroll along the marina and some lunch.

About two days before out scheduled departure, the weather had really gotten interesting. Although we had mostly clear skies, the wind had picked up to the point that the entire coast was under gale-force advisories (winds running between 39 and 54 miles per hour). These were not gusts but sustained winds. The rig was buffeted a lot and sitting outside ensured your hair would be really messed up! Walking the beach was not that comfortable given the sand blasting you received from the airborne sand.

We were supposed to depart for Ocracoke Island which would involve a 1 1/2 hour drive to Cedar Island, then a 2 1/2 hour ride on a large ferry (that could carry big vehicles such as our RV). We’d then spend 3 nights on Ocracoke, an island that can only be reached by ferries (no bridges connect it to the mainland or to other islands) before catching another ferry to Hatteras. Checking the NC Ferry website found that ferry schedules were being disrupted by the high winds which were also kicking up high seas. Each day found the ferry from Cedar Island being cancelled due to weather. The day before our scheduled departure, we called the ferry terminal to determine if we would be able to get across the next day. The answer was a very firm “no”. On top of this, the ferry is booked months in advance meaning that when the weather did clear up, we would not be able to rebook. Thus, we had to make the decision to give up on our plan to visit Ocracoke during this journey. At the same time, we needed to find somewhere else to stay in the interim. After a quick search, we found a quaint little campground outside of New Bern, NC. called Turkey Quarter

This turned out to be a lovely little campground owned and operated by “James”. James was larger than life, stopping by our campsite to chat and see how we were doing, working on extending the campground, working on his dump truck in an empty site and chasing the geese out of his pond to keep them from eating his newly seeded bank. But the most amazing part of our stay was Sunday morning when James and his wife stopped by with fresh baked biscuits and sausage for breakfast. They evidently do this every Sunday for everyone in the campground. Quite an amazing little place!

We really loved this little campground but kept trying to think of who James reminded us. After a few days of contemplation, we finally realized it was Ernest T Bass from the Andy Griffith Show!

Another great byproduct of our detour was the fact that we were able to discover and explore the fine little town of New Bern. This town has several things going for it. It’s small (population of about 30,000), it’s geographically located near many bigger cities (It lies 112 miles east of Raleigh, 80 miles north of Wilmington, and 162 miles south of Norfolk), it is located at the confluence of the Neuse and the Trent rivers, AND is the birthplace of Pepsi!

We first took a self-guided walk thru the historic part of town where many large old homes still stand from the late 1700’s and 1800’s. Many sit with views of the Neuse River.

We happened to be lucky enough to be visiting while they were having a classic car show in the downtown square so we were able to enjoy a walk down memory lane while admiring the various restored automobiles.

We even found an older version of an RV..

And of course, no visit to New Bern would be complete without stopping by the birthplace of what would become Pepsi Cola. A cute little “soda shop” still exists where the original pharmacy stood but it ain’t the World of Coca Cola!

After this short detour, it was time to finally head to the Outer Banks (OBX) so we could officially start the Manteo to Murphy portion of our trip. But that’s a story for another blog…