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Touring North Carolina's Outer Banks,
April 12-19, 2003, continued

Days Five and Six - Thursday/Friday

Thursday

We drove back down the road once traveled one more time and spent the rest of the day at Ocracoke, finishing the visit with dinner at Howard's Raw Bar. Wow, the place, while touristy, was a great venue for dinner, really recommended. The scenery was excellent as well with the place teaming with young co-eds on spring break. On the ferry crossing back to Hatteras Island we were swarmed by gulls because some of the passengers were feeding them potato chips. I spent my time trying to capture some in flight with my digital camera.

Once back at the Hatteras Island Resort, I packed Jeanette's bike back in its bag, ready for it's flight home. I kept mine assembled with the idea of retracing my first day's ride so I could say I did the tour, "full circuit."

Total miles traveled - 24

Friday

We awoke to 15 to 20 mile an hour winds and light sprinkles with threatening skies. I had been determined to complete the ride but the wind would have been directly in my face, a real slog for close to 35 miles. We still had some items on our agenda that we wanted to complete and plodding along at 10 to 12 mph would have put me in Kill Devil Hills about 11. Add a half hour to pack the bike and change and it would have been close to noon. I decided against the ride. Doing so would allow us to drive over to Manteo Island and explore an area that we would not have had time for by bicycle. When we were through packing we decided to take a walk on the resort's pier so we could say that we saw the ocean at least once in our travels. The wind was howling on the pier and the waves were white as they crashed against the beach. It made for a majestic picture. If this was a mild storm, it could be imagined what Cape Hatteras was at its worst and how it got the name as, "The Graveyard of the Atlantic."

The resort restaurant was closed so we decided to be on our way. Forty-five minutes later we were entering the town of Manteo. What a change just a short way from the ocean. The town was picture perfect with the exception of some unplanned growth on main street. We had skipped breakfast so it was time for lunch. We stopped in at Darell's Seafood and had a good lunch. Looking at the brochures we had collected at the start of the week, we decided to look at the Roanoke Island Festival Grounds first, Fort Raleigh second and the North Carolina Aquarium third. As we drove the island I was surprised to see a beautifully groomed bicycle path running alongside the road for most of the island. It would have been a great place to start our tour rather than Kill Devil Hills.

Even the approach to the Roanoke Island Festival Park was picturesque with a seafront village with at least seven restaurants and several hotels at the entrance to the grounds. A replica of one of the original colonizing ships was moored to a dock in the sound, the focus of the entire bay. When we entered the festival grounds we found we could buy a pass to all three of the attractions we wanted to see, the festival grounds, the Elizabethan Gardens and the N.C. Aquarium, all for $17. We bought two passes. The Festival Park is really geared for the summer tourist. Many of the park's activities were either scaled down or not being presented when we were there. A number of people were dressed in costume and gave information on the life of the early colonists. The museum provided a complete history of the attempts at colonizing the area from the failed colony sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh, through the pirates to the present. The "settlement" was neat in that it was hands on, even allowing one to put on a breast plate, helmet and brandish a matchlock musket. The reenactment theater would not open until the summer.

We left the park and drove the short distance to Fort Raleigh, the original site of one of the attempts at colonization. We were amazed that the earthen fort was so small, not much of a defense against a determined band of native Americans. We looked through the museum and then walked over to the Elizabethan gardens. What a treat. The 11 acre grounds were meticulously groomed and bright fields of tulips were everywhere in every variety. Flowering pansies were intermixed with them and the color combinations were stunning. We met one of the gardeners and asked how many people it took to care for the grounds. She told us there were eight full time gardeners plus one weekender and a host of volunteers. She said that on the coming weekend the volunteers were scheduled to come and dig up all the tulips and plant the next group of flowering plants. The routine is repeated throughout the year so that the garden is always in full bloom. If you're a gardener, this place should definitely be on your list of things to see.

We finished with the North Carolina Aquarium. The theme of the place was the varied environments of North Carolina and the fauna that inhabit it. Since it is an aquarium, the major focus of course was the marine environment, the highlight of which was a huge tank with a reproduction of the wreck of the ironclad "Monitor."

It was time to head back to the airport. We decided to take the long route and drive east before heading north to Virginia. With the exception of dinner, and the flight back home, our vacation was over.

Total miles traveled - 0    Total miles traveled by bike for the trip - 176

Thoughts on the trip or what I'd do different if I had my druthers

Assuming that it's a five day trip, the first thing I would do different is change the start point to Manteo, I'd find a place to park the car and spend most of the day riding the beautiful bike path and visiting the three attractions, the festival grounds, the fort and gardens and the aquarium. If the trip was made in the summer it would still allow time to ride from Manteo to Nags Head to spend the first night. The next day's ride would be from Nags Head to Avon or Buxton, skipping the towns of Rodanthe, Waves and, especially, Salvo. Day three would take me to Ocracoke for the night. Day four would find me doubling back to Buxton or Avon and day five would put me back in Manteo. While the towns selected are a little touristy, they are still appealing and offer excellent accommodations and dining plus a number of things to do.

If you do a tour of the Outer Banks and find any of this information of help, please write. If you find any glaring errors, again, please write. I hope you have as much fun on your ride as we did on ours.

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