Last Summer, Mary and I discussed taking a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We mentioned it to a few friends and began to plan a trip for October. Andrea and Jim from Lexington, NC (with their granddog Lu) and our Niece Vicki and her husband David also have travel trailers and we all decided to get together at the Sands of Time campground in Avon for a couple of weeks of R&R.
Vicki and David had a last minute change of plans and headed down early while Mary & I drove to Lexington on the 30th of September to spend the night with Andrea and Jim and get in some visiting with other friends and then we headed for Avon on Wednesday the first. We arrived about 5 that afternoon and after getting setup in our spaces, joined Vicki and David for dinner at the Froggy Dog.
On Thursday, we finished setting up camp and getting the lay of the land. Then the six of us went to Oceana’s Bistro for their Thursday night oyster special. Good food and an excellent selection of beer.
Then we all packed ourselves into our screen room for some songs, fellowship and a few brews for good measure.
Jammin’ in the screen room
This was the first time David and I got to jam together, I was hopelessly outclassed but we did have lots of fun and everyone stuck around (apparently preferring our music to the certain death from the hungry mosquitoes outside the screen).
David had been fishing every day since he and Vicki had arrived and on Friday, Jim and I joined him in his truck for an excursion on the beach and some surf fishing. The weather was beautiful and warm and we were soon wishing we had worn shorts instead of jeans. The fishing was good in quantity if not in size but in a few hours we had enough fish for the day and headed back to camp.
Meanwhile, Mary, Andrea, and Vicki did a bit of shopping while Lu enjoyed the new sights and smells.
We had a group fish fry in camp while we all lamented the fact that Vicki and David had to leave early so Vicki could start a new job on Monday.
On Saturday the 4th, David got in some last minute fishing while Vicki started getting ready to leave. Jim and I visited the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras Village while Andrea and Mary took Lu for a walk along the beach at Hatteras Point.
We visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and stopped at a couple of shops along Route 12. There were hundreds of bicyclists in Hatteras Village at the end of a “Mountains to the Coast” rally. We got back to Avon just in time for a beautiful sunset over Avon Harbor.
Our first Sunday in Avon was a great day for relaxing – being constantly on the go is hard on old folks so we only took a bike ride around Kinakeet and kept the cooking simple with grilled fresh shrimp on the barbie (basted with butter and garlic of course).
Monday and Tuesday were carbon copies of one another with Jim and I spending most of the day slaving away catching fish from the pier and Andrea, Lu and Mary exploring the beach and checking out the “Eye Candy.”
Tuesday night we had quite a storm – high winds and lots of rain so Wednesday morning was spent rearranging camp and drying out. We added our 12V lights to the screen room and camp sign – hey, you gotta go tacky in the RV camping world. Then we had another fish fry in camp, it just doesn’t get much better!
Thursday the 9th was another carbon copy of Monday and Tuesday – fishing, walking on the beach and just being generally worthless. On Friday, Jim was coming down with some sort of crud so we all just laid around camp and piddled with some of the more mundane activities of RV camping, dumping tanks, cleaning the trailer and straightening up our campsite. Oh, drinking beer and wine too. We grilled chicken and burgers on Jim’s new Lil Smokey grill.
Saturday morning Jim was still under the weather so Mary and I decided on a day trip to Ocracoke Island to check out our planned destination for next week. The NPS Campground was just about like we expected. It was right against the barrier dunes with the Ocean less than 100 yards from most campsites. (More about this to come in the next entry for next week.)
Sunday was another day of bike riding around Avon. Mary & I are getting better at riding with practice – we are enjoying the daily rides and extending our range.
Monday morning and we hit the road on our bikes fairly early. Some riding and some shopping before returning to camp around noon to find that Jim is somewhat recovered so we decide to have another fish fry in camp this afternoon.
Tuesday the 14th is our last full day at Avon and we pass the time visiting and getting our rigs ready for the road. Andrea and Jim are heading home to Lexington while Mary and I are moving on to Ocracoke and points South. For our final Dinner together here we went to “The Captain’s Table” in Buxton. While the dinner was good (the fresh Bluefish was superb) the company was excellent. Big storm coming tomorrow so we have checked with the campground about staying another day if necessary – no problem. We said our goodbys before retiring for the night and plan to get together for another trip soon.
Wednesday October 15th – Andrea and Jim left before daylight and we checked out of the Sands of Time about 9am. Next stop Ocracoke!