SilverCliche' here with you... still on
the road... still living the island life on the tiny piece of land
known as Ocracoke Island, North Carolina.
I may
have shared last night that we are staying at a National Park Service
campground within the Hatteras National Seashore. Generally (and here is
no exception), National Park Service campgrounds are "no frills". No
electricity at the camp sites. No water at the campsites. No amenities
(that part is no issue for us... I wouldn't enter a campground hot tub
without fresh inoculations and a dry suit and neither Mrs. C' nor I have
tuned up our game enough to play miniature golf in public.). What you
do get from the NPS is a place to park your trailer, a nearby dumpster
for your trash and a bathroom/shower (which ranks just behind the hot
tub on my list of "must see" campground sights... plus, we have our own
onboard so we are all set). Most significantly, at a NPS campground you
get direct access to our country's most amazing natural places (and a
few man made ones). In this campground that place is the Hatteras
National Seashore. It is... well... right over there... about 100 yards
from our place of temporary residence to the top of the dunes and
another 100 yards from there to the surf line.
Today
we explored Ocracoke. There is only one population center on the
island. Out here it is irrelevant to ask "what part of the island did
you see?"... there is only one part to see. You may have heard of "a one
stoplight town". Ocracoke is "a no stoplight town". However
there are probably more miles of shoreline than there are permanent
residents (I made that up... it's probably an exaggeration... but not
much of one). While every other resident and visitor here is staying in
some sort of house, cottage, shanty, hotel, motel, apartment or
what-have-you, we are staying a short walk from the beach itself. Thanks
NPS!
I was up before the sun this morning.
With no electricity, we make coffee in the electric drip machine by
boiling water in a pot on the propane galley stove, then opening the
section with the filter and coffee in it, pouring the boiling water in
there, closing the filter section, waiting for that load to drip through
into the carafe then opening, filling and repeating. Sound slow? It is,
but we used to use a French press. That was nearly as slow but a heap
more work to clean. So, I made the coffee and started my morning
reading. I could see the eastern sky through the window. The darkness
was starting to burn off. I said "naw... I'll stay here and read today"
then a few minutes later "how many sunrises can a guy capture on film
before there isn't anything new to see" then "this doesn't look too
special". A few minutes later I was out of my PJs, into my cargo shorts,
had a coffee in one hand, camera in the other, a telephoto in my pants
pocket and was scaling the dunes. Was it worth it? I don't know... you
be the judge:
And while I was there
(surprisingly, with about 10 other people from the campground... all of
whom were standing at the surf line looking out to sea) I decided to
turn around and photograph the dunes in the glow of the sky before the
sun had broken the horizon to shine directly on them. Here's what that
looks like:
As I said, if you want a place with
movie night, a camp store, and ghost tales around the the campfire to
scare the kids before bed don't come to a National Park Service place.
If you want to live in close proximity to beautiful spots of nature for a
few days at a time this is your place.
After
Mrs. C' got up and we had breakfast and read some more we got bored. It
was out intent to spend the day exploring Ocracoke, so off we went. The
little town is delightfully unpretentious. You can see the evolution of
the place from an even sleepier beach town to its present drowsy state.
Along that path of development there has been some effort (but not too
much!) to add some buildings that are pleasing to the eye of the
tourist. Mostly shops and restaurants. Some of the old island function
and life has been lovingly preserved including this place... The
Ocracoke Lighthouse.
Nice, eh?
So
we explored a few stores that seemed interesting. By the time we got to
number 4 in sequence we were down to gift shops with seashells,
pictures of lighthouses (no thanks... took my own) and new age jewelry
items. The intended placement of some jewelry items I couldn't quite
determine. Eyebrow? Nasal septum? Upper lip? Cheek? Navel? "Down South"?
I concluded that Old Age and New Age are not meant to meet. I'm
comfortable with the Neanderthal knowledge that I have and decided not
to explore the acquisition of new knowledge that I might later wish I
didn't have. One statement I did not want to come away from Ocracoke
muttering is "I regret that in my remaining life I can never "unsee"
that!". We moved on. Having arrived in town for our "explore" at about
10:15, it was now ten minutes to noon. Time for lunch before heading
back to the campground 3 miles away to attend to Kailey and Romeo. We
don't worry about the two of them alone in the trailer. It's kind of
like leaving Justin Bieber alone with Betty White. Nothing's going to
happen.
So, lunch was at a spot near the middle
of town. It was a "beach jumble" both architecturally and
gastronomically. They had an open air beer bar, a patio with picnic
tables outdoors under the oaks and an indoor section with starched white
table cloths. The service was "island rude". We even saw the waitress
and hostess mocking other diners behind their backs. Despite high praise
from reviewers on Trip Adviser (we we use a lot and even write for
occasionally) the food was mediocre at best. We've been in small towns
where we were clearly outsiders (when SilverCliche' rolled into Cabool,
Missouri nobody had to ask "Are you folks from around here?") and yet
the townsfolk accepted us as visitors, put up with our stupid outfits
(yes... I do wear Hawaiian shirts, cargo shorts and white sneakers
everywhere I go), answered our silly questions ("No, that's not named
'Washington Street' because George Washington slept here"), took our
money then made fun of us after we left town. This one Ocracoke
business gave us the feeling that Ocracoke has a side to it that usually
only appears in Stephen King novels... the surface and the core don't
always match at least in one business on this day.
So,
we returned to the part of the island that the Park Service claimed for
itself to share with us (they always have the best ground, unless the
Army Corps of Engineers or some other Federal or State agency got there
first). As we were leaving town we stopped at the US Post Office. I
failed to mention that in the time we were in town we noticed that on
this little island, most people don't get around in big ass trucks like
we drive. That makes sense. The dominant vehicle in town is the electric
golf cart. Close behind is the bicycle followed by gas powered scooter
then a range of cars. When local residents were polled about vehicle
preferences, "big ass truck" finished lower than Scott Walker in the
Iowa pre-caucus polling. Oh, that's right, he dropped out today.
Electric golf carts can be rented at a dozen or more places in town.
They are so common for residents and visitors alike that I had to snap
this picture when we pulled into the post office. Note that the sign in front of this cart (which is in Postal Service blue and white) reads "Postmaster Parking Only":
I
can almost hear a school girl in Ocracoke nagging her mother when she
knows a birthday present is coming by US Mail: "Mommy, I'm so excited!
Do you think the mailman is going to need to bring a big golf cart to
deliver my present from Grandma this year?" Sorry sweetheart...
We
got back to the trailer... chilled... started the generator to charge
the batteries on the trailer and before long... rain. Quite a bit of
rain. And wind. Between that and the earlier experience we decided to
hang here, make dinner and chill some more. An unplanned, relaxing
second half to the day. Maybe that's what we needed after all!
So,
tomorrow I think we'll go out for breakfast then prep the trailer for
the return to the mainland. We'll be taking the 1:00 PM ferry to Cedar
Island. That positions us to move south and towards Florida.
Good night!
SC'
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