Heaven.....On Earth

After leaving the Outer Banks we headed up to Virginia Beach. Mike found a really cool State Campground there. It’s kind of on the end of a piece of land sticking out. On the very end is a State park and then the campground. Since it is winter most of the campground was closed but a couple sections were open. Most of the spots are too small for us but we found one that we could just squeeze into.

The big problem was that there were huge stickers EVERYWHERE except right down the middle of the pavement. The dogs couldn’t even take one step out of the RV with getting their feet full of stickers. So Mike had to put down a large 6’x9’ piece of matting outside the door so the dogs could get out. Fortunately the beach was void of stickers so we’d walk down the center of the road to the beach. It wasn’t very far and there was a boardwalk from the road to the beach which was really handy.

The beach wasn’t accessible except through the campground. And since most of the campground was closed and the open part was fairly empty, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. We’d see a couple other people way down the beach once in a while but that was really it. I’d say the beach was at least a couple miles long.



I remember that I did a scrapping page once titled “Happiness is a deserted beach.” And it is still true. We took the girls off leash and within seconds they were down the beach and out of sight. Sparkie just loves having room to run. There is nothing better than seeing a dog run just to be running. And just like the old days Wazzu chased Sparkie all the way down the beach. A little while later Sparkie would come running back just as fast as she had left. Wazzu on the hand took her time coming back.

Sluggers eyes got as big as baseballs when he saw the water. This was a perfect spot for him – and the weather was in the upper 70’s and lower 80’s. Even at night it was so warm we didn’t need coats on the beach. How perfect.

When Slugger swims he doesn’t want to go anywhere so he is pretty safe off leash. But what he does like to do is get the stick out of the water and then rush off to some bushes to kill the stick. The problem is there are miles of bushes here. So just to be safe we decided to attach him to a long line so that he could swim way out in the ocean and we could keep him from running too far away to kill the stick.

He was in heaven. I think the reason we like to watch him swim is that it truly is the only time that his inhibitions are completely gone. It’s so nice to see him be able to spend some time not being afraid. He can just relax and not worry about a thing.

We find it interesting for a dog that is afraid of just about everything, he has absolutely no fear of the water. This wasn’t a smooth lake! This is an ocean with large waves. He’d rush out to get his stick, waves would come and literally crash down over his head. He’d disappear for a couple seconds – sometimes we’d see just legs stick up out of the water – and then he’d reappear and continue on his journey to get the stick. He didn’t want to stop. He wanted to do it again and again.









We found it interesting that after just a few times he learned the wave patterns and would actually try to push himself up out of the water to “jump” over the waves so he wouldn’t get tumbled about in the waves. He got really good at it.

Wazzu’s big joy on the beach was to dig – hmm, a familiar pattern do you notice. Up where the sand kind of meets the grasses there were holes in the sand. I don’t know what kind of animal made those holes but there were hundreds of them. Wazzu would stick her nose in the holes and dig and dig and dig. We never had to wonder where Wazzu was while we were playing with Slugger.



Wazzu did manage to go in the water a couple times to cool off after all her digging.




Sparkie like to dig in the holes as well. But she is multi-talented when it comes to beaches. She runs the length of the beach fast as she can. Then she wants to chase tennis balls on the sand and in the water. Then of course you have to check the entire beach for any food someone may have dropped! And just in case Wazzu is finding anything in the holes you have to go back to digging with Wazzu.



I love the beach. And there is only one thing better than a nice secluded beach – and that’s a WARM nice secluded beach! And this was it. And this one had additional perks. There was some kind of Navy station (is that what you call it?) nearby and we could see all sort of different Navy boats in the water not too far off shore. It reminded me of when I used to play the game Battleship. You could see all the kinds of boats we had in that game. We also saw a couple hovercraft zooming around and a large cargo ship with a full load. It was so interesting.





After getting the dogs tired in the morning we took off for a driving tour of some famous historical places. This isn’t my forte (as you well know) but I think we saw Yorktown, Jamestown, and the outskirts of Williamsburg. We were short on time (since there are so few hours of daylight this time of year – what’s up with that!) and my legs were bad so we didn’t get out of the car much. There were so many interesting looking places. And it was quite beautiful. Some of it was beautiful more than once! Mike got lost and we ended up going down some streets three or four times! I tried to give him a fun bad time about it but he didn’t seem too amused!

Anyway, even I thought it was interesting and was a little sad that we couldn’t get out and explore things more. Mike was very irritated that he didn’t really get to see anything. Too bad we didn’t have more time. He has now vowed that we won’t spend just a day in a place again and that we’ll come back here some day so he can really explore the area.

In light of this, he’s changed our travel plans for next week so that we’ll see one area in more depth and skip others altogether. Totally fine with me….remember, I’m just cargo.

It was time to leave to head to our next trial but we just had to get in one last romp on the beach before we went. And what a glorious time it was. None of us wanted to leave. We’ll definitely come back here some day.

Debbie
11/8-9 /06.

Tahiti All Over Again?

An island, super strong winds, and pouring down rain don't bode well with us. Last night was a very difficult time for us. There were flood warnings, the RV was rocking like we've never felt, the rain was coming down in buckets (and we know rain being from the PNW), and the winds were up to 60 miles an hour.

It was impossible to sleep as not only were we moving around so much but the noise of the wind was so loud. We couldn't wait for morning so we could get out of here. But about 7:00am everything calmed down and by 9:30 the sky was clear and it was sunny and in the 70's. Now it's time to leave and we don't want to go. But there are more places to see so onward we go.

I'm pretty sure we won't be going to any more islands as this experience brought back too many memories of our trip to Tahiti were a hurricane struck, our hotel fell to the ground, we had to be evacuated two different times from two different places, as we were evacuating we came extremely close to being swept into the sea, the car just behind ours did get swept into the sea (we watched it go) and the people were killed.

So as you can see, islands and storms are a little scary for us.

Debbie
11/8/06
PS By the time I finished writing this the fog was so thick you couldn't see across the little road in the RV Park and the wind is picking up. Guess it is a good thing we're leaving!

Beach Play

This morning we decided to take a trip to what we thought was Duck Beach. It turns out that Duck is the name of a city on Bodie Island. We were going there because all the beaches in the city of Duck allow dogs to be off leash.

On the way there we passed the Bodie Island Lighthouse. The people - well at least the tourist brochures - seem to think the lighthouses are a big attraction. Well we certainly didn't want to miss a tourist attraction. So we stopped to take a picture of the lighthouse. I actually do like lighthouses so this seemed like a fine idea.



















Then it was on to the task at hand - finding a beach. We drove up and down the entire city of Duke and couldn't find a public beach access. After much "discussion" we finally just pulled up to someone's house that didn't look home and used their beach access.

We hadn't been on the beach more than three minutes when Slugger came across something that he considered to be a big threat. It looked like some sort of empty shell. But according to Slugger it was the scariest most dangerous thing on the planet. He would lean way forward then jump back like he'd been electrocuted.










After doing this for a good 15 minutes he then decided to bark at it.














While the other dogs were playing on the beach, he stood there and barked non-stop for at least thirty minutes before we decided he should play on the beach.

Sparkie and Wazzu had a great time playing with the tennis ball for a while before Wazzu was just too tuckered to play. While I don't normally post many pictures of the dogs, I try to post pictures that show all of you different parts of the country, I just couldn't help sharing these pictures.

Wazzu is standing in the ocean but it looks like she's standing in soapy foam.













My Wazzu just looking adorably cute!













Wazzu concentrating hard on the soon to be thrown tennis ball.














And the chase is on!














Got it!














On the way home I noticed a store called "Outer Bark." Well of course I can't pass a specialty pet store. Oh my goodness, this shop was great. We had left the dogs in the car and when we entered the shop owner asked if we had our dogs in the car. She wanted them to come in. The dogs had a great time checking everything out. Slugger didn't care about anything in the store except the people. He just wanted to visit and everyone happily obliged. The dogs got their picture taken and got LOTS of treats.

This store was great. They had a huge selection of things that were hand made by locals and not found in other stores. It is a really good thing that we don't have a house as I would have bought SO much stuff. Even though it was a fairly small shop there was a huge selection of items that I haven't seen anywhere else. And the lady that owned the shop was such a kind and generous person.

She just lost a dog to cancer and was trying to raise awareness and money to help find a cure. Of course we had to donate to that! She is also huge on rescue and in fact just adopted a dog a couple days ago. She does a lot of work on educating people on the evils of puppy mills and buying dogs from pet stores. It was so visitng with her.

If any of you ever go to the Outer Banks be sure to stop in to the Outer Bark!

After that we were headed to the Hattis Lighthouse. But the rain started, the fog came in, and the winds started whipping up. There was no chance we'd be able to see the lighthouse so we just skipped that and went home. The island is narrow and there is water on both sides....guess that's what makes it an island! Anyway, we saw many signs about cautioning about water over the roadway etc. The forecast is for non-stop rain and wind. I'm a little worried that we may just wash away overnight.

Hopefully, we'll still find land in the morning when we wake up so we can make our way back to the mainland. The only one of us that has a life jacket is Slugger. Now that I think about it that's kind of backward - he's the only one of us that can swim well. Guess we'll have to rethink that one!

I'm thinking we should also buy an anchor to hold us down in this wind. Gads this is a little scary for me. Guess I won't think about living on a small island!

Debbie
11/7/06

Admiral Debbie Cruises Again.....

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t exactly a cruise but it’s the closest I’ve come in many years. We went on a small ferry in the Atlantic Ocean for a 2 ½ hour cruise between the NC mainland and Ocracoke island. One side of the ferry held 10 or 12 cars and the other side held us! The ride was smooth although the RV was a rockin’ due to the wind. I was surprised that we couldn’t see any land the entire ride.

We did however come across six or seven shrimp boats. There were seagulls and pelicans galore around the boats and all along the lines and ropes on the boats. It was quite interesting to see but you sure had to hold your hat on as on some sides of the ferry it was really windy.













We were so suprised to see the number of birds around all these boats. A few minutes later we saw a small sand island. There was nothing on this island but sand - it was probably the size of a basketball court - maybe a little bigger and it was covered with birds. There were seagulls, pelicans, and some kind of black bird. They were beautiful sitting there resting for their trip back out to the boats I imagine. Then a bunch of them decided to take off. It was so cool that I took a bunch of pictures. I'll share just one of them here with you.














Mike took the dogs out onto the ferry deck – one at a time. He lifted each one of them up so they could see over the edge. Surprisingly enough, Wazzu enjoyed it the most. She was so content just being held and watching the ocean and birds – which is unusual as she HATES being held.













Sparkie seemed the most scared. In fact, she doesn’t even like it in the RV. The minute the ferry started to go she got very worried. When Mike walked her to the back of the ferry where the engine was she got really scared. In the back the engine really vibrates the floor. Sparkie walked like she was 102 years old. Slugger thought it was a little bit interesting but was scared because of all the metal clanging and making so much noise. Even though he really wanted his turn to go out he was more than happy to get back inside to his safe spot.

On the way to board the ferry we had to drive out onto an island. We came to the bridge to get to the island and it looked like we were driving off the edge of the world.














But there was land on the other end of the bridge. But it was skinny land. If you looked about 50 yards to the right of the road you saw the ocean. And if you looked about 100 yards to the left of the road you saw the ocean. This worried us as on the map this island didn't look as skinny as some of the ones we were going to be going on. If fact, one island on the map shows the road wider than the island! Yikes.

As we neared the end of the island where we had to catch our first ferry we saw a sign that said "caution smoke ahead." We couldn't figure out what we were supposed to do when we saw smoke. We actually didn't see any smoke but did smell it a little bit. Mike thought they must have just finished a little controlled burn.

But after we got out quite a ways on the ferry we looked back and saw a lot of smoke. I guess they must have been just starting the burn as we went by.














We got checked in for the ferry and got in the appropriate lane. We had about half an hour before boarding started so we took the dogs on a little walk on the beach.
--walk on beach













It was a pretty little beach with many birds sitting out on a spit area. There were some pretty ones that we didn't recognize from the west coast so they must be something we don't have at home.














As we walked by they decided to fly around and put on a nice little show for us.













When we landed and got off the ferry we drove the length of Ocracoke Island - about 15 miles to catch another ferry to Hatteris Island. Oh my goodness, I thought the last ferry was small. This one was even smaller. There were four cars on one side and us on the other. And we took up from the very front to the very back. Another foot or so and we would have been too long!













After a few trials and tribulations we arrived at our destination. We have a nice spot just on the other side of the dunes from the Atlantic Ocean.














Problem was we got here just before dark. But we wanted to walk on the beach so off we went. We walked until it was just about dark and turned back. Don't go to a beach for the first time in the dark. We couldn't find our way back. First of all, it was dark and secondly we couldn't tell where we had come from. The dunes were steep and there were numerous trails leading over them. We chose one we thought was right. It did end up leading into an RV park....just not ours! So back over the dunes to the beach again. After quite some time we managed to find our house.

Even though it was a very scenic day it was a difficult day on me and the dogs. Time to rest up for another day.

Debbie
11/6/06

Ocean to Ocean

As of today, the dogs have officially been from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. They thought the beach was fine but didn't understand why they had to pose for a picture. This beach didn't allow dogs off leash so the dogs didn't really see why we bothered to go there.














We started the day off by going on a nice hike in the Croantan National Forest. Interestingly, it was in the upper 60's, no wind, sunny, and a weekend yet there it was deserted. It wasn't a particularly interesting or pretty hike but it was just the kind of hike the girls like. The forest was sparsely treed and had very bushes so they could run and run (off leash) easily. There was a swamp that ran here and there so they could get wet and dirty. Mike and I like that kind of forest as the girls can run quite a ways and still be in sight. Although I will say we didn't see them much anyway! When Sparkie did come check in with us she always had a big smile on her face.













You may not be able to tell from this picture but one of the boardwalks over the swamp was damaged by a hurricane. Actually all the boardwalks were damaged but this particular one was sloped at a 20 degree angle. That doesn't sound like much but it was a LOT! And it was really jiggley. Didn't seem to bother the dogs but Mike and I had a more difficult time.














There must have been a fire in the forest sometime in the past few years as in one section some of the trees were very burnt. This tree was very interesting as it was so burnt that it fell over....but not all the way. How it could stay up at this angle with such a small amount of trunk left was very interesting.














Yes, you many notice this is a familiar view of Slugger. Sorry Mom, but that's the only end I see of him when we're hiking. He is always sticking his head in logs or holes.



















After the hike, we drove over a bridge to what they call the Outer Banks.














The Outer Banks are small strips of land just off the mainland. Some you can get to by driving over bridges and others you must take one or more ferries to reach them. As you drive down the road you can see the bay on one side and the ocean on the other side. Well actually it is hard to see the ocean much as it is wall to wall condos that are four or five stories tall. Since we were driving I couldn't get a picture but all the houses are built up on stilts anywhere from 10'-15' off the ground.


We found one place that had public access to the beach. So we parked there and walked on this really long boardwalk to get to the beach. Wouldn't you know at the end of the boardwalk were about three stories worth of steps. Arg!! When we got there we then noticed all these cars driving on the beach. Oh man, all those steps for nothing!!

This particular beach was a very popular place to fish.














The beach was lined with people fishing with these really long poles. They put the poles in these "pole holders" (I'm sure they have a fancy name!) and then just left them there as they talked with other fishermen, drank coffee at their trucks, etc. I couldn't figure out when they knew they had a fish on with this system. I stopped and spoke with one of the people and asked them what kind of fish they caught. The lady told me they catch trout, flounder and sea bass. This took me off guard as I thought trout was a fresh water fish. So I said "Well this is the ocean." She looked at me like I must be an alien from outer space. Then she said "Where are you from!" I didn't bother telling her why I said that but Mike thinks maybe what they call trout is different from "real" trout.

As we headed back up the boardwalk I took this shot of the beach.













At one point on the drive home, Mike asked me which way to go. I asked him how I'm supposed to know since he is the one with all the maps. I told him I just go where ever the car goes. He said "Oh, that's right you're just cargo." He thought he was pretty funny. (I think not.)

When we got back to the RV it was just sunset so I snapped a few more pictures. They sure do have pretty sunsets here.

















Debbie
11/5/06

Moving East

Slowly but surely we're headed east. Although we didn't get to go quite as far as we had planned today since the RV park we wanted to go to wouldn't take us. We've found that North Carolina discriminates against us fairly big time. So today we ended up in New Bern. Although we're not quite to the ocean, we are camped right on a river. We have a beautiful view from the RV.

It was another long day of driving and the dogs are really ready to do something. Hopefully tomorrow we will find something fun for them to do. They think they could have a great time here at the RV park if we'd just let them off their leashes. This park is packed full of squirrels. We walked around the campground when we got here and saw families of squirrels. At the base of one tree we saw 10 - 12 of them. They weren't too concerned about the dogs either. Neither were the flock of ducks that were waddling down the road. All three of the dogs were good - in fact they pretty much ignored the ducks as they were busy hunting squirrels.

Just after we got settled in, the sun started going down. I tried to capture the beauty to share with you. Enjoy.

Debbie
11/4/06


View from the dock at the RV park.





View of sunset from our RV.





View from the dock.





Pretty, huh?





I'm not sure if this is a full moon but if not it's close.

.....Capital of the World

Today we set out to discover Tennessee. It is so different than we expected. We're in the Gatlinburg area. And I must say I'm not sure if this is the wedding chapel capital of the world or the miniature golf capital of the world. It is truly amazing the number of each of those here.

After driving through miles of wedding chapels and miniature golf courses, we came to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Unfortunately, dogs aren't allowed on trails in National Parks. There was one trail at the very entrance to the park where dogs were allowed. So before driving through the park we stopped to hike the dogs.

It was a nice little trail along a river. The drive through the park was beautiful. It was a popular drive as it was bumper to bumper - always slow and often times stopped. The loop was only 11 miles but takes 2 - 3 hours. We ran out of daylight but enjoyed everything we did get to see.


A valley view in the park.





Debbie & Wazzu - you can probably figure out where we are!






A small but beautiful waterfall along the hiking trail.





View from the hiking trail.





Hiking trail.






Along the hiking trail.





Wazzu and the Great Pumpkin. Charlie Brown couldn't find it but Wazzu did!