Camp Hatteras RV Park

Thursday - 17 October 2002: Outer Banks, North Carolina - Hello from a wonderful part of the world! This "no where to go and nothing to do" is really working out! I think My Driver had plans to skirt the coast, but I wanted to visit the Outer Banks and, gee, here we are! The Outer Banks are a thin strip of land hugging the shore of North Carolina. Actually, the Outer Banks (OB, as the locals say) are several narrow islands, connected with bridges or ferries.  The eastern-most-point is Cape Hatteras, home to the most famous lighthouse in America. We had a beautiful, though short, drive from Virginia Beach. The weather was perfect. We stopped only once - at a farm stand to load-up on fruit and veggies.

At noon, we pulled-into a 5-star RV Park, Camp Hatteras, near Wave, NC. We are camped right on the Atlantic Ocean! The Camp Hatteras campground is very nice (I am talking $44-per-night-off-season-nice) and covers both sides of the island - you can camp on the Atlantic, or across the street, on the sound. No kidding - the island is THAT narrow. Barry Bonds could easily hit a homer from one side to the other!  Dolphins swim in the sound. We went immediately to the beach and spent the afternoon enjoying the hot sun and the view. Many people fish from the beach. DT said we are having the same luck as the fishermen, and we don't have to mess with all that stinky bait, equipment and licenses! One guy told us he hadn't caught a fish in 10 days! There were a few brave swimmers, but the water was a bit chilly. All afternoon we watched Sandpipers eat and fight for territory, saw Pelicans dive for fish, and watched our favorite of all species - humans - walk up and down the beach. Snickers met a few dogs, ran on the beach and slept in the hot sand. Snickers is so easily pleased - give him food, water and be with him and he is happy. We are camped on a lovely beach, Camp Hatteras RV Park is great and if they had water pressure, I would just move here.

Except, well, the local restaurants leave a bit to be desired. In the Northern part of the OB, there are better restaurants, and to be fair - many restaurants are closed/closing for the season. We drove out to look at a few dining establishments, but everything looked so awful. We stopped at a less-awful looking place near the campground called the "Down Under"... not to be confused with the Outback Steak House. The Down Under serves wine from Greg Norman's vineyard, Kangaroo Burgers and Kangaroo Kebobs. Same as rat to us, so we ordered the grilled tuna steak - and beer. It was okay, and they served HUGE portions. Such huge portions in fact, that my brain started working on the lovely left-over tuna sandwiches I could make for a picnic tomorrow the moment my plate hit the table. Okay, so we have been spoiled from a week of gourmet dining in Washington. And, maybe, just possibly, not too many bad meals come out of Goldie's kitchen... we need to eat in more often in these strange towns... no more of this dining roulette.

RV Park: Camp Hatteras, near Wave, North Carolina