The Erie Canal

We are in Walworth, NY with friends Sharron & Judy, fellow winter campers at Jekyll. There is access to a large amount of history in this area.  We have visited the home of Susan B Anthony, The Women's Rights National Historic Park, The Women's Hall of Fame & will be traveling to Niagura Falls (the Canadian side) on Friday.

Tonight we took a walk along the Erie Canal.  A little history....At the beginning of the 19th century, New Yorkers, led by Gov. De Witt Clinton, had the vision and conviction to build the Erie Canal, a 363 mile long waterway connecting the Hudson River at Albany with Lake Erie at Buffalo.  Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal provided the first all-water link between the Atlantic seaboard and the Great Lakes.  It quickly became the most successful and influential canal in North America.  Although its success sparked a canal building boom throughout the eastern US & Canada, the Erie remained preeminent.  It made New York the Empire State and confirmed New York City's status as the young nation's most prosperous and vibrant seaport.

Moving North

Just a short note to say that we are out of the Outer Banks, NC tomorrow morning & making our way to Fredericksburg, VA for our first stop on the way to Walworth, NY.  We will spend a few days with Judy & Sharon, our good friends from Jekyll.  We will also be stopping the 2nd night in Williamsport, PA, the home of the Little League World Series.

This has been an interesting stop with a lot of history, some good beaches for shelling, and wind, wind, wind, but I guess it makes sense that this is where the Wright Bros made their flight as one of the requirements for flight is wind.

We will be in Durham, ME around May 1.

Ocracoke Island, NC. - Rated as the #1 Beach in the US and we agree!

Ocracoke Island is another beautiful barrier island in NC that is owned by the US National Park Service (except for the village).  We caught the ferry from the south end of Hatteras Island at 11am for a 45 minute lazy ride on the ocean.  One thing we couldn't believe is that this ferry is run by the State of NC and is FREE! That includes both ways!  We were shocked that a ferry that takes a while to make the trip and employes at least 12 employees did not charge a penny.  Shocking in this day and time but very appreciated.

Of course, the first thing we had to visit was the light house which began operating in 1823.  It is the oldest lighthouse in NC and the second oldest in the nation.  Of course we all know which is the oldest - that would be Portland Head Light in ME.

An interesting fact I wasn't aware of or may have forgotten (probably forgotten) but there were dozens of US ships sunk off the coast of the barrier islands  during WWII by the Nazi subs.  Including a 170ft British ship named the HMS Bedfordshire which was sunk on May 11, 1942 losing all 37 souls.  Four of the British sailors washed up on the island and a plot of land was donated to England to bury the dead.  A ceremony is held every year to honor these fallen sailors and the cemetery is kept by the US Coast Guard stationed on the island.

Norma  enjoyed seeing five of the Ocracoke Ponies.  It's not know exactly how they arrived but the two theories are they were victims of early Spanish ships that sunk off the coast or were brought over during the 16th century by the British.  There are now 24 of  these horses on the island and are rotated in a 180 acre pasture area.  Interestingly the Ocracoke Ponies have distinctive physical characteristics including five lumbar vertebra instead of six found in most horses, 17 ribs instead of 18 and a unique shape, posture, color, size, and weight.

The 3rd and 4th pictures are of a single  Laughing Gull followed by a group saying goodby as we headed back to the Hatteras Island.  For you west coast readers you won't see these gulls unless you had east.  They have the odd name because when they began calling they do sound like a lot people of laughing.  No, really, I wouldn't make this up.

A wonderful day and we are both tired and a little sunburnt but we had a great day and hope to return someday..

From Kitty Hawk to the Moon in 66 years!

Visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kill Devil Hills, the actual site of the first 3 flights the borthers conducted.  Pretty amazing museum with a significant amout of coverage of important people in aviations history.  Interesting fact that it was only 66 years from the date of this flight to the first space exploration.

Hatteras Island RV Park

So, we have been on Hatteras Island, NC for several days and Norma says it is a photographer's dream.  It is very clean, owners are very friendly and highly recommend it if you are ever coming this way.  You will love the beach but most days do have some wind.

Cape Hatteras, NC Outer Barrier

We are currently in the Camp Hatteras Campground.  This is a huge facility and I can imagine its wall to wall rigs in the summer. 

A thin broken strand of islands curves out into the Atlantic Ocean and back again in a sheltering of North Carolina's mainland coast and offshore sounds.  For thousands of years these barrier islands - North Carolina's Outer Banks have survived onslaughts of wind and sea.  The long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes, and woodlands are set aside as Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

There are literally hundreds of "stilt" homes here from the beach to some ditance in.  This area just says "Mr. Hurricane, come get me".  This campround suffered major damage in 2011 from one.  You have to wonder why people build here.

There is however, many things to see and visit here.  We will be here until the 17th of April and may extend for another 8 days so will blog on the sights we visit.

Heading North (sorta)

So we get away yesterday headed for Aiken, SC where NJ is speaking at the local humane society.  Talk went very well and had a great Italian dinner with them.  We were able to dry camp on their property so that worked well. 

Well as we are leaving I notice a strand of rubber sticking out from one of the rig tires, the new one,by the way, that we got in Houston.  Yup theres a hole in the side wall near the tread line and the tire is down 10lbs.  So we call a local tire guy who says bring it over.  They take the spare and mount it on the rig wheel and put this tire on the spare wheel and it appears to be holding air so win-win at least from a temporary standpoint.  Appears it will work for any short distance we may need.  So finally out of Aiken 2.5 hours after we left the shelter.

So we're finally rolling and make it to the I95 which is packed with traffic with nearly all northern license plates going back north.  We get about 45 miles from the exit we need and traffic comes to a dead stop.  This has accident written all over it.  We crawled to an exit as we needed gas, got that taken care of & back on the 95 and traffic still packed, then we come upon the problem.  What is left of an 18 wheeler being loaded onto a flat bed.  OK so now we're back moving but we are still 25 miles out and I am just about to say to NJ "this day is not thru screwing with us" but I decide not to, then here comes a rock and hits the windshield and puts a chip high left on the drivers side.  Its enough chip that if we don't get it fixed it could start a crack.  NJ & Tammy (daughter) both have had fun in the past calling me Eyore and I have window stickers and a stuffed one inside & this was definately a Eyore day.

Onto Cape Hatteras tomorrow and will be there unti 4/17.  Looking forward to seeing some country we've not seen before.