Bryans 60th Birthday Trip - The Outer Banks, North Carolina

November 29th, 2020

HaPpY 60th Bryan.

After celebrating with Ryan, Christina & Trystan yesterday, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Jacksonville via the Outer Banks in North Carolina where we will stay for 2 nights.

                                              

 We stopped at Elizabeth City on the way.  There is a small military campground here that we wanted to check out.

The campground is very small but well kept and we would stay here if we come through this way in the future.

After leaving the base we headed toward the Outer Banks.

Kill Devil Hills is where we have booked a room at the Great Western Hotel.

We checked in to the hotel.  We had an awesome room with balconies off the living room and the separate bedroom.  

An awesome view of the ocean from the living room.

Here's two views from our balcony.

We had separate living, kitchen and bedroom areas and found out that these used to be small apartments. I could easily live in something like this with the ocean views.

However we did have some problems. We had no hot water and the night porter didn't know how to fix it.  He offered us another room but when Bryan checked the water there there was no hot water there either. Needless to say we weren't very happy and I couldn't have a bath, one of the reasons I love staying in a hotel occasionally.  Bryan went to turn the TV on and there was no remote.  The night porter did find another remote for us though.

November 30th, 2020

I took a couple of pictures of the ocean from our balcony this morning before we went out for the day.

We had a busy day today as we wanted to visit the Wright Brothers National Monument and Currituck Beach Lighthouse.  Before we could do that Bryan went to find out about the hot water. The lady in reception told him the trick was to let the tap run, it would eventually get hot, and be ok after that.  She said it could take up to 30 minutes!!! We found out that the hotel has only just reopened and there were only 3 rooms occupied!!! It took about 20 minutes and it did eventually get hot. It remained hot for the rest of our stay without needing the 20 minute warm up.  Hallelujah!!!

If you haven't read the blogs about our visit to the Wright Brothers National Monument and Carrituck Beach Lighthouse, the links to the blogs are below:

 Wright Brothers National Monument

 Carrituck Beach Lighthouse

After a busy but awesome day we returned to the hotel.  The views were still amazing.

I took this VIDEO.

We had an awesome sunset and managed to get some pictures of the Wright Brothers National Monument from our bedroom balcony during dusk and the sunset.

Monument on the right

and the moon over the ocean from the living room balcony.

What an awesome finish to our day. 

December 1st, 2020

We are leaving today but were up early enough to see the sunrise from the living room balcony. 

                       

This was a close up of the ocean at sunrise. Taken from our living room balcony.     

I love, love, love this room especially after we sorted out the initial problems.  We checked out and the manageress was in the lobby.  We found out that today was her second day as manager here and she was trying to sort out all the problems.  She apologized for everything and told us if we came back she would look after us.  We told her we may return next year as there are still more lighthouses we want to see.  We will probably park the motorhome in the RV park at Elizabeth City and come here for a night.

We went for one last walk on the beach.

Lifeguard Station next to the hotel

On the beach behind the hotel

There were lots of gulls on the beach.  This one came to see us.

There's our hotel.  Our room was on the far right, 2nd floor down from roof.

Walkway to beach.

From the front of the hotel.  Our room next to Best Western Sign.

We left the Outer Banks on our way back to Jacksonville.  

The water was quite high under this bridge

The red light indicated that the swinging bridge was going to open to allow a boat through. I don't think we've seen one of these before.

Here comes the boat.

See the white bridge opening.  That's the road ahead of us swinging open to allow the boat through.

Spot the mast of the ship in the middle of the picture as it has passed through

Looks as though the bridge has closed and we will be on our way again soon.

Barriers Opening

Green for go!!!

On the section that minutes before was open to allow the boat through. The whole process from start to finish took 5 minutes, not too bad.

Going into South Carolina.  Sorry about the blurred picture!!!

We spent the night at the Best Western Inn, Latta, South Carolina again, to break up the journey.

 December 2nd, 2020

We did a short detour after leaving the hotel to visit Darlington Raceway.  The museum was closed, so we could only get pictures from the outside.

Florence was my maternal grandmothers name. She taught me to sew and I inherited her sewing machine, although I have to confess I never really enjoyed sewing.  It did help me make curtains, seat covers and a few other things though. Unfortunately I had to leave it in England when we came to the States, due to the difference in voltage.

Crossing the border into Georgia.

One thing about traveling in the car is we have to use rest stops for the facilities.  No RV toilet on board!! They were very clean and adhering to stricter Covid precautions with regular cleanings.  This Georgia one was very nice with a lot of information on Georgia inside, although I didn't hang about in there to look at any of it.

We eventually arrived home exhausted after a long drive.  Oh well, we have plenty of time to recuperate. 

It was an amazing trip even if the drive was exhausting.  Sitting in one place for over a year has softened us up, and slowed us down. Hopefully we can rectify that next year.