Oct 25 Sunny 80+ next day Oct 26 Grey and Foggy 70
Overnight Trip from Cedar Point to Outer Banks then back to the mainland and looped back from Washington. 452 miles, yikes!!! we did not realize it was that far. I know we should have run the miles on mapquest.com to check.
We left at 8am to catch the 10am ferry at Cedar Island. At first we thought we had lots of time but it was farther than we anticipated; however no worries we got there with 30 minutes to spare. Good thing as it only holds 40 vehicles and it looked pretty full when we pulled up. There were at least 8 motorcycles going too. The crossing was 2 hours 25 minutes, only 24 miles. We did not have to tie the bike down as it was smooth ferrying waters.
Once we landed on Ocracoke (pronounced Okra- coke) there is a very pretty little ocean side village but knowing we had only today to ride we did not stop to snoop around. An interesting tidbit is that this is where Edward Teach - better known as Blackbeard the Pirate was killed. This island is only 14 miles long and so away we went to the other end to catch the next ferry to Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks.
A couple of things we knew about this area were the famous black and white striped 208 foot brick lighthouse, which is the highest in the country and that just off these banks are the Graveyards of the Atlantic. More than 1,000 ships have sank in these treacherous waters. Amazingly they had to move the Lighthouse in 1999 from its original base as it was eroding into the ocean. It was 4,830 tons to move, at $12 million dollars it only moved 2,900 feet and it took 22 days. Wow! A modern engineering feat.
Really the entire ride which is supposed to be scenic, was quite a disappointment for us. You hardly ever see the Atlantic Ocean or the Pamlico Sound on the intercoastal side. You travel for miles (about 60) through the Hatteras National Seashore only seeing sand dunes and sand dunes covered with vegetation..... :(
The Outer Banks are known for their unpainted stilt cottages tagged the Unpainted Aristocracy. The property here must be worth a fortune.
We continued on and crossed back to the mainland at Nags Head. Kill Devil and Kitty Hawk are just ahead of the bridge crossing. That is where the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane too. But we ran out of time and had to keep heading around the loop, after a little bite to eat it was approaching 4 pm and we had another 100 miles to cover for a hotel room. We found a good room in Washington, NC and in the morning headed back to our campground in Croatan National Forest. It was quite a long ride and to be quite honest not one of our favorites for the views; however so much history is tied to this geographic location it nagged at us to visit.
We left at 8am to catch the 10am ferry at Cedar Island. At first we thought we had lots of time but it was farther than we anticipated; however no worries we got there with 30 minutes to spare. Good thing as it only holds 40 vehicles and it looked pretty full when we pulled up. There were at least 8 motorcycles going too. The crossing was 2 hours 25 minutes, only 24 miles. We did not have to tie the bike down as it was smooth ferrying waters.
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| Billy checking our motorcycle |
Once we landed on Ocracoke (pronounced Okra- coke) there is a very pretty little ocean side village but knowing we had only today to ride we did not stop to snoop around. An interesting tidbit is that this is where Edward Teach - better known as Blackbeard the Pirate was killed. This island is only 14 miles long and so away we went to the other end to catch the next ferry to Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks.
We continued on and crossed back to the mainland at Nags Head. Kill Devil and Kitty Hawk are just ahead of the bridge crossing. That is where the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane too. But we ran out of time and had to keep heading around the loop, after a little bite to eat it was approaching 4 pm and we had another 100 miles to cover for a hotel room. We found a good room in Washington, NC and in the morning headed back to our campground in Croatan National Forest. It was quite a long ride and to be quite honest not one of our favorites for the views; however so much history is tied to this geographic location it nagged at us to visit.
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