Today we travelled from our Days Inn hotel in Wilmington NC along the east coast to Cedar Point where the camper (and car) were driven onto a ferry and taken across the Atlantic Ocean to the island of Ocracoke which is the southernmost tip of what is known as the outer banks. The ferry trip took close to two and a half hours and was quite interesting.  There would have been around 50 cars on the ferry all ranging in size from motor bikes to the biggest, our camper.  There were about 8 corvettes going on a club cruise.  Around 4 of the corvettes were crammed along the outside of the parking area alongside the camper. One poor guy was so close to the camper it took him 10 minutes to get out of the car, fun to watch – he should have had a convertible!

We spent part of the time upstairs on the deck just talking – very pleasant and then returned to the camper where we had lunch.

Around 1pm we arrived on Ocracoke where we made a quick visit to the visitors centre and then headed across the island and boarded another ferry for a half hour ride across to the much larger island of Hatteras.  We ended up at the town of Rodanthe where Jim and Bette parked in a camping ground and they kindly let us use the car to find a nearby hotel. Harder than it seemed but we ended up at a hotel not far from the beach. No internet or phone but nice and clean and I had my best sleep for months.

After checking in we headed out looking for food and then ended up back at the hotel around 7pm. We went for a short walk along the beach – the Atlantic Ocean, wow. Then back to the hotel where I soon bombed out.

Tomorrow we will check out the sites along the island and then back onto the mainland – no ferry this time, just a bridge.

Our hotel may not have been the Ritz but it was clean and quiet and I must have had around 9 hours sleep. A rare event for me.

We met up with Jim and Bette at 8:20am and were on the road at 8:30am. Sadly the early start cost us from seeing a couple of the items Jim wanted to see, they opened at 10:00am.

We ended up at Kitty Hawk around 9:30am. This was a great thrill, the exact spot where the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight back in December 1903. We wandered around the area and up the hill to check out the monument – just an awesome location and great to be there where it happened all those years ago.

For the rest of the day we headed onto the outskirts of Washington DC and here we are at a Days Inn in Dumfries around 30 miles from downtown DC.

Tomorrow we aim to catch a train to DC and do the day walking to the areas we want to see.