Barefoot in the sand dunes

Last night we woke up again and again to the sound of rain pelting our Bella. It was loud and aggravating. The rain would let up for a little while and then boom! it would start again. We thought we were going to wake up under water. It finally had stopped raining by morning.

When we got up, Bernie went down to the water on the sound side. It was a very hot day out there with almost no sign of the rain. It had all dried up from so much heat. Meanwhile, Mar got Bella packed and ready to go.

Bernie said the water was almost boiling hot. She didn’t get to see any crabs. She walked almost a mile out and the water wasn’t even knee deep out there. With the sun beating down on her she decided to return to Bella.

We left camp and again headed north on route 12. Along the way we got to see two very famous lighthouses … and a spaceship. The first one is known as "Americas lighthouse", built in 1870, it is the tallest brick beacon in the world, with its spiral black and white stripes, it is the international symbol of the North Carolina coast. The second lighthouse we saw today was the Bodie Island Lighthouse, equally as impressive, yet not as tall, and this one has horizontal black and white stripes.

The spaceship was very interesting (see pic) with alien faces on the windows, pretty neat.

Our next stop was Jockey's Ridge State Park, which has the highest living sand dunes on the east coast. Amazing. We climbed up the sand dunes barefoot. Once we got to the top we sat down to watch the hang gliders and the many people flying their kites. You could see all the way from one side of the island, the ocean, to the other side, the sound. A truly amazing place. If you’re ever in the area you should definitely visit Jockey’s Ridge. It is quiet and fun and a great place to spend the day. www.jockeysridgestatepark.com

We passed several campgrounds on our way. We stopped in one and asked about using their dump station. They wanted $10. We haven’t had to pay to dump yet so we decided not to dump here and asked if we could just get water. We filled up our water tank and kept going, on the lookout for another place to dump.

Dinner was a cheeseburger and beach fries, sitting at a picnic table outside at Kill Devil's. It was the sign for "beach" fries that got us. We wanted to know what they were and of course once we stopped we just had to get some. Turns out beach fries are unique to this little food stand. They are homemade French fries made with Idaho potatoes with the skins left on. Pretty tasty and the burger was good too.

Not far from there we found the beach access in Nags Head NC and parked for the night and went to check out the beach.