Outer Banks ’09 Day Two
Day 2 of our trip began with a pancake and sausage breakfast that Eric cooked up on our grill along with a fresh pot of morning brew 
We didn’t really sleep well to be honest, because of the sand gnats that got through the mesh netting of our tent and bit us all night long (well, I should say they bit ME because I was covered in bug bites, but Eric somehow came out pretty much unscathed by the gnats) I guess you take the good with the bad when tent camping at the beach: the good part being that we fell asleep to the sound of the ocean waves and we could see the moon glowing through the window of our tent. The bad part being the bugs and the fact that we were really “roughing it” and had only our sleeping bags–Eric insisted on doing it ‘right’ and not bringing an air mattress or any kind of foam roll-up padding to put under our sleeping bags, so we kind of tossed and turned all night.
Eric braved the cold spigot showers, but I opted out of that showering option in hopes that our next tent camping site would have better shower ammenities 
We took the short 20 minute ferry from the island of Ocracoke and headed up to Cape Hatteras to explore the light house there.
Cape Hatteras was built in 1870, and is the world’s tallest brick lighthouse at 198.5 feet.
We paid the $7 per person to climb to the top. It was equivalent to walking up 12 stories and I think there were 200+ steps.
We continued North up the coast and decided that we wanted to spend our next night in Rodanthe. Some of you may have heard of the Nicholas Sparks book, “Nights in Rodanthe” that was later made into a movie starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere. We thought it would be fun to spend our 2nd night camping in that town, so we wanted to secure a site since we knew most places would again be mostly booked up and a lot of tent sites are first-come-first-serve. But it seemed that every campground we stopped at was “No Vacancy”. The only option was a KOA that was charging $65 per night for a tent site!! Highway Robbery!! (We paid $23 the night before in Ocracoke for our tent site)
We were starting to get nervous that we’d be sleeping in the car, when we found this family owned campground and they had only 3 sites left, and the price? $25!
We quickly made our reservation, and as we did, the friendly woman who checked us in invited us to come to a pig roast they were having that night on the water front. She said there would be fresh caught shrimp and crab legs too–a real southern feast!! We thought maybe we’d check it out and see how much they were charging per plate, but we had already decided that we weren’t spending any $$ on food while we traveled… we had planned and grocery shopped ahead of time to try to save money. But maybe we’d swing by… I mean, it’s not every day that you’re invited to a water front pig roast and seafood smorgasboard!
Our tent site wasn’t nearly as picturesque as the last site, as you can see:
but the view of the sun setting on the sound side of the island was pretty:
But I’m getting ahead of myself! After showering in the nice HOT showers we went into the town of Rodanthe and parked our car next to the dunes near where the ‘famous’ beach house that was used in the filming of the movie “Nights in Rodanthe”. We climbed the dunes…
…and headed over to check out the Rodanthe house. We weren’t the only ‘tourist’ who wanted a picture of the house. We met this nice lady who told us that she’s watched the movie 5 times
It’s crazy the way the foundation has been eroded away and the whole house appears to be on ‘stilts’
We laid out on the beach next to this house for a bit, and watched a group of people kite surfing. I read some of my book, “My Life in France” –the story of Julia Child. Then we decided to check out this wild life refuge we had read about in one of the brochures we picked up. It turned out to be this beautiful nature trail that lead you through a wildlife preserve on Pea Island. We strolled hand in hand along the trail and it ended at a look out with binoculars so you could view the birds and other wildlife in the marshes. We sprawled out on the deck and laid in the sun just soaking in the peaceful sounds of nature and enjoying just being together, even though neither of us were talking. It was SO restful. Eric kept saying how peaceful it was there. With how busy our lives have been lately with the opening of Hope Cafe and our new church, it was a much-needed break and so refreshing.
Then we wandered back to our car and went back into ‘town’ and enjoyed blizzards from DQ We went in search of a small portable charcoal grill since our campground didn’t have grills at each site, and we wanted to make s’mores and grill up the rest of our meat in our cooler before it went bad. We tried to plan ahead and pack all our food so we wouldn’t spend $$ eating out. We had pb&j sandwiches and carrots for our lunches But even after 1 day of grilling, I was starting to crave other foods, but I knew that we had to be careful about spending. For some reason, I kept craving potato salad, but when we went to the store to look for the grill, I decided to ‘be good’ and stick to our plan not to buy other foods so I passed up a tub of potato salad I saw at their deli. God, again, provided another “last available”-type blessing when we go the last grill on a back shelf. It seemed to be a theme this weekend…. last car on the ferry, last beach front site in ocracoke… one of the last tent sites in Rodanthe under $30, and now the last grill in stock!! I continued to marvel at the small ways that were really a big deal that God was providing for our every need during this trip.
When we arrived back at the campground we cooked up the rest of the meat but started to notice that there was a gathering starting over by the pig-roasting pit. We decided to meander over and check out the scene. As we approached the gathering, a man came up to us and put his arm around Eric like he was his uncle or something… like we were family and had known him for years. He told us to grab a plate and help ourselves to the feast! I could have cried as I realized that these people were GIVING us a FREE feast!! We later found out as we asked around that the man who had welcomed us in was Irvin, the owner of the campground, and that many of the people there were his family, but he also wanted to invite all the campers that were staying there that night to celebrate the end of the summer/Labor Day Weekend. The pork was AMAZING! succulent pulled right off the pig from the pit! True southern cuisine. I still felt hesitant, and then Irvin came right up to me and told me not to be shy! He directed me to a picnic table that was covered with sides and more food that his family and friends had brought. As I browsed the options, all of a sudden I saw it: a huge TUB of POTATO SALAD!! It was at that moment that I paused and smiled and knew, as I scooped a HUGE helping onto my plate that God had placed it there just for me. Eric and I took our heaping plates of free food over to the pier, and sat with our legs dangling, taking in the scene before us: friends and family mingling and laughing and eating under the glowy lights that were strung up around the tents and tarp pavilions…. someone turning on some country music….. little boys playing and chasing each other around…there was a young man with downs syndrome who was a cousin of Irvin who started heartily singing Sugarland’s songs at the top of his lungs while happily swaying along with the rest of the crowd and I joined in along with him. It was one of those moments where I wanted to run and get my camera to try to capture it somehow, but I knew that I should just try to take it all in and make a mental picture in my mind that I could bring to mind often, remembering the night that we felt we were a part of someone’s family after meeting them in 5 minutes.
Isn’t that how church should be? Welcoming. Music. Open arms. Food. Acceptance. Love. Feeling like you belong. Family. Eric told me that it made him miss the days when he was a boy and his whole family would gather and there would be food and laughter and so many people. He told me that he wants to come back to this campground every year now, and be a regular. It was just something that drew you in. Something you wanted to be a part of. I was inspired by Irvin and his family and their hospitality. It made me want my home to always be a place where people feel they can be themselves and come as they are and be welcomed with open arms. This was actually a part of my wedding vows to Eric.
So Day 2 was pretty amazing. Stay tuned for Day 3!!!