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We left Virginia Beach via U.S. Highway 158 south on Thursday, November 2. Several miles into North Carolina, we turned east across Currituck Sound to Highway 12 and the Outer Banks. This thin, broken strand of islands curves out into the Atlantic Ocean and then back again in a sheltering embrace of North Carolina’s mainland coast and its offshore sounds. For thousands of years, these barrier islands have survived the onslaught of wind and sea. Today, their long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes, and woodlands are set aside as Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the country’s first national seashore, dedicated in 1953. Cape Hatteras stretches north to south across three islands - Bodie, Hatteras, and Ocracoke. The islands are linked by NC Highway 12 and the Hatteras Inlet ferry. There are eight villages on Cape Hatteras. The villages are not part of the park. The isolated island of Ocracoke and its small harbor village have retained much of their early charm and character. Ocracoke has served as a home for fishermen and as a hiding place for pirates. Blackbeard often escaped his pursuers by fleeing to shallow waters near Ocracoke Inlet. The remnant of a horse herd that once roamed free on the island can still be found here.

The treacherous waters that lie off the coast of the Outer Banks bear the name "Graveyard of the Atlantic". Here, more than 1,500 ships have wrecked, victims of shallow shoals, storms, and war. Seafarers often risked Diamond Shoals, a bank of shifting sand ridges hidden beneath a turbulent sea off Cape Hatteras, to take advantage of north or south flowing currents that passed nearby. Many never reached their destination. Fierce winter nor’easters and tropics-born hurricanes drove many ships aground. During World War II, German submarines sank many Allied tankers and cargo ships here. As early as the 1870s, villagers served as members of the U.S. Life Saving Service. Others manned lighthouses built to guide mariners. Later, when the U.S. Coast Guard became the guardian of the nation’s shores, many residents joined its ranks. When rescue attempts failed, villagers buried the dead and salvaged shipwreck remains. Today, few ships wreck but storms still uncover the ruins of old wrecks that lie along the beaches of the Outer Banks.

Our first stop was at Kill Devil Hills, just south of Kitty Hawk, where we visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial, administered by the National Park Service. For those who have read our past journals, you will remember that we crossed paths with the Wright Brothers while visiting the Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Detroit. Henry was so enthralled with the Brothers that he had their Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop and the house their family lived in moved to Greenfield Village. We visited both the shop and house and were intrigued with seeing where their crazy flying experiments really took place.

Orville and Wilbur were both bachelors who lived with their father and younger sister in Dayton. They traveled to the Outer Banks each fall for several years to conduct their flight experiments. They chose this location because it provided isolation, high dunes, strong winds and sandy soil for soft landings. They first perfected their glider model then on December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers were successful with four powered flights. The first lasted 12 seconds and carried Orville 120 feet and the last, longest flight lasted 59 seconds and carried Wilbur 852 feet. Hence, Kill Devil Hills is the site of the world’s first powered, sustained and controlled flight. Interestingly, the brothers were dressed in coats and ties that December morning - a touch of private ceremony for an event that would change the world. One witness of the event proclaimed, "They have done it! Damned if they ain’t flew!" This feat is another reminder of the amazing courage and determination that seemed to have been naturally instilled in Americans of that era. And men like the Wright Brothers have served as examples for many who followed. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, carried a piece of original fabric from the wing of the Wright Flyer, encased in plastic, with him to the moon and back. It is now displayed in the Visitor Center here, along with other exhibits on the Wright Brothers and full-scale replicas of both the 1902 Wright Glider (non-motorized) and the 1903 Wright Flyer. On the grounds are markers that designate the length of all four flights that took place on December 17. There are also replica buildings of the Wright brothers’ living quarters and hangar. On top of the 90-foot dune known as Big Kill Devil Hill is a 60-foot granite monument to honor the brothers. The dune is now covered with grass to protect it from the incessant winds present on the Outer Banks. There is a walkway that leads up the hill to the monument where there is a beautiful view of the town of Kill Devil Hills, the ocean and Albemarle Sound.

From the Memorial, we continued our journey south to our campground in the village of Waves on Hatteras Island. There aren’t many campers this time of year so we were able to camp in one of their premier oceanfront sites, separated from the water only by the dunes. That provided the opportunity for a long walk on the beach, though it was terribly windy and cold during our entire stay there. We spent Football Saturday (November 4) there.

On Friday, we drove to Roanoke Island, the location of the first attempt at a permanent English settlement in the New World. The quiet wooded area at the northern tip of Roanoke Island was the scene 400 years ago of the struggles of some 250 colonists. From this site, 116 men, women, and children disappeared forever. Included among the group was the first child born on American soil, Virginia Dare. To this day, these colonists are remembered through the outdoor drama, "The Lost Colony", which runs every summer on Roanoke Island. Interestingly, it was here that Andy Griffith gained his first experience as a professional actor as he portrayed Sir Walter Raleigh during two summer breaks from college. And it is on this island, near the town of Manteo, that Andy and his wife now live on 60 acres.

Why all the interest in this continent? Well, in the century after Columbus’ voyage had put the new continent on the map, Europe’s seagoing nations rushed to participate in the discoveries, to claim part of the prize. England was something of a latecomer to the race. By the time the English began to send out voyages of exploration, Spain was already entrenched in what is now Florida and Mexico. Sir Walter Raleigh obtained a charter from Queen Elizabeth to "inhabit and possess . . . all remote and heathen lands not in actual possession of any Christian prince." Reports from his expedition in 1584 sang the praises of the rich land, and by the middle of the next year, England had made its first tentative move to transplant English culture to foreign soil. The new colony was to be called "Virginia", after the Virgin Queen. England’s motives for settling the New World ranged from the mercenary to the idealistic. One was the prospect of an ideal base for forays against French and Spanish shipping. Another dealt with putting "needy people" to work there. The anticipated Northwest Passage was another strong lure and, finally, the English wanted to spread the Protestant religion.

Well, the colonists made it here and most survived the first winter. However, as supplies dwindled, a group was sent back to England to resupply. By the time they returned, the colonists were gone. No one has ever been able to determine what happened to them. The theory was that they moved to a nearby island and either perished or, more likely, were assimlated by the local Indian tribes.

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Ocracoke Island which required a ferry ride to and from (Jerry, of course, loved it!). On the way to the ferry, we visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse which, at 208 feet, is the tallest in the United States. Its light can be seen for 20 miles, warning ships of the submerged sand bars where so many ships have foundered. The present structure, the second tower of three, was erected in 1869-70. There are 268 steps to the top of the lighthouse, open for climbing during the summer months only.

We noticed that it was a little warmer on Ocracoke and the winds were a little lighter. While on the island, we visited the British cemetery, the final resting place for four British soldiers from the HMS Bedfordshire, which was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Ocracoke in May 1942. The Cemetery has been deeded to the British Government. A British flag flies over the graves that are maintained by U.S. Coast Guard personnel.

We were thrilled to get to see a couple of the Ocracoke ponies, likely descendants of livestock kept by islanders for centuries. They were once used by the life-saving service and later the Coast Guard to patrol the beaches during the early part of the 20th century. They are unique in that they have only 5 vertebrae, one less than regular horses. Additionally, they have 17 ribs instead of the normal 18 and are considered to be Spanish mustangs. There are only about two dozen horses left and they are corralled in a 180-acre enclosure about 7 miles north of the village of Ocracoke.

We also visited the Ocracoke Lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse in North Carolina. The present structure is the third and was built in 1822. It is 75 feet tall and shines 14 miles out to sea. We had dinner that night at Howard’s Pub then took the 6:30 ferry back to Hatteras Island. It was dark and scary!

One of our treats while on the Outer Banks happened quite by accident. We had to find a wi-fi cafe to work on the website and get it uploaded. We found the Good Life Cafe at Nags Head and settled in around 3:30 to begin our work. As usual, it was more time-consuming than we anticipated and when they began serving dinner at 5:00, we were still there. At 7:00, when the evening entertainment arrived, we were still there. So we ordered dinner and it was the absolute best dinner we have had on the entire trip. The special of the evening was salmon with some kind of sauce - we both agreed that it was the best and the freshest salmon we have ever had! And the singer, whose name was Kim Kalman, was really good - so good that we bought one of her CDs! And we never would have gone there were it not for the blog.

On Monday morning, November 6, we packed up Bubba and headed south as we had reservations for the 2½-hour ferry ride across Pamlico Sound from Ocracoke Island to Swanquarter, on North Carolina’s mainland. We stopped in Hatteras Village and had breakfast at Sunny’s - grits, YES! Another sign of the South. We had hoped to visit the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum but it didn’t open until 10:00 and we had to be onboard the 10:30 ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island in order to make our 12:30 reservation from Ocracoke to Swanquarter. I was prepared for rough seas this time . . . I had armed myself with Bonine, a motion-sickness drug.

Once on the ferry, we trekked up to the top to get a good view of the island as we left but we found that it was pretty windy and cool so we headed back down to Bubba - the best seat in the house. We had an uneventful, but very pleasurable trip and landed at Swanquarter around 3:15. We spent that night at Tranter’s Creek Campground in Washington, NC - not a destination, but suitable for an overnight stay.

We left out Tuesday morning, November 7 around 9:30, headed for lunch in the Raleigh -Durham area with our longtime friend, Phyllis Blacksten. Phyllis moved to the area a few years ago after retiring from St. Vincent, where Jerry and I both worked with her. It was so good to see her! And we had a great lunch at Chee-Burger Chee-Burger. From there, it was on to Deep River Campground in Asheboro in preparation for our arrival at Mount Airy on Wednesday. The fall colors were beautiful in spite of steady rain all day. We have seen (and heard) a number of geese heading south for the winter and we’re following their lead! They are such a beautiful sight, flying in their perfect formations with only their destination in mind.

One "downer" on the trip came when we opened our recent mail shipment. Our Verizon bill was $132 higher than normal. We couldn’t imagine! Well, it seems that, while just over the border in Niagara Falls, Ontario, we used wireless internet for six minutes and were charged a "global roaming fee". Believe me . . . we won’t do that again!

We arrived at Homeplace Recreational Campground, just outside Mount Airy, early in the afternoon. After setting up, we drove into town to begin our exploration of the area. We both love Andy Griffith and have wanted to visit here for many year so we are pumped! For those who don’t know, Mount Airy was Andy’s hometown. He was born here, he grew up here, and the town of Mayberry in "The Andy Griffith Show" is based on Mount Airy. Every place in the show can be found here and every character is named after a Mount Airy resident. Aunt Bea was named for his Aunt Becky. Otis, the town drunk in the show, was actually a policeman in Mount Airy. Opie was named for Opie Shelton, one of Andy’s childhood friends.

We LOVED Mount Airy! It is a beautiful and extremely friendly little town and everything there capitalizes on their fame as Mayberry. We had a great lunch at Barney’s Cafe on Main Street where one of the locals inquired about our presence and told us all about what a wonderful place Mount Airy is to live. He had become a college professor and moved away for a number of years but moved back upon his retirement. He was a funny old guy, telling us that there was only one blight on the state of Arkansas and that was Bill Clinton. We couldn’t agree more! We also had a nice visit with the owner of the cafe, not to mention a great lunch! We took a walk down Main Street and stopped in at Floyd’s Barber Shop for a quick photo of the same barber who used to cut Andy’s hair and upon whom the "Floyd" character is based in the show.

One of our favorite activities was a tour of downtown, along with Andy Griffith’s homeplace, and the world’s largest open-face granite quarry. Bernie Phillips was our tour guide in the "Mayberry Sheriff" car, a 1964 Ford Galaxy 500 patrol car, complete with siren. Bernie grew up in Mount Airy and, though a few years younger than Andy, he remembers him well and was well-versed in Andy trivia. Andy was an only child and resented the fact that his family was very poor. He began working as a young boy and also worked his way through college. Andy and his first wife had no biological children but they adopted a boy and a girl. The daughter lives with her family in California. The son died of a drug overdose a number of years ago. Andy and his first wife divorced and Andy married a Swedish actress. That marriage lasted only about 6 months. Over 25 years ago, he married Susan, his current wife, and they now live in Manteo, on Roanoke Island, NC (see earlier reference). If only we had known that a few days ago, we could have paid him and Susan a visit! Andy is now 80 and just had a hip-replacement. He is recovering well. We had a swell time and what was supposed to be a 30-minute tour turned out to be over an hour.

We spent another day in Mount Airy looking at the area and soaking up the hospitality. We had lunch at the Snappy Lunch where Andy loved the pork chop sandwich. Of course, we had to have one, too, complete with onions, tomato, cole slaw, mayonnaise and some sort of chili sauce! Add our Coke and iced tea and chips for a total bill of $10.91. You can’t beat that! We knew Mount Airy was a good place when, while driving down Main Street, we met a tractor! There was also a coffee house on Main Street that had wireless internet so we spent quite a few hours there, uploading our Pennsylvania segment to our website.

That night, we had dinner at the 38 Vines Winery’s restaurant, Scuppernong’s. We first visited their beautiful tasting bar and found their red wines to be pretty darn good, especially their merlot and cabernet. All wines were only $10 per bottle - a good price for a pretty decent wine. Dinner and the evening were delightful, including our visit with the owner, Michael Thomas. Jerry noted that this was the best white tablecloth meal we’ve had in several months. We each had Black Angus filets with green peppercorn sauce with your choice of potato, a green bean/carrot medley, a green salad, and homemade bread, all for only $15.95! It was outstanding and the presentation was exceptional. We decided to help Michael out by purchasing three additional bottles of wine to take home with us. It was a late night . . . we didn’t get home until almost 10:00!

We were most impressed with Mount Airy. It is a tourist town but a real town, too and appeared to us to be a wonderful place to live. Everyone we met talked of how much community spirit there is and we saw it and felt it wherever we went. If it weren’t so far away, we’d move there in a minute! We LOVED Mount Airy. It may be our favorite stop so far.

We left our campground around 9 a.m. on Friday, November 10. We drove about 15 miles and picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway south toward Boone and the NC mountains. It was a gorgeous day, with a few wispy clouds - we had our shorts on and the windows open. Who would believe it’s November? However, the leaves are all gone from the trees. Again, we saw wild rhododendron everywhere. The Parkway is immaculately manicured without a speck of trash anywhere. And the speed limits are either 35 or 45, slow enough to slow down and enjoy the views. Luckily, this time of year, there is little traffic. It was beautiful. We climbed to over 3,650 feet and Bubba did just fine! We’re practicing for Colorado!

We spent two nights (November 10 and 11) at Grandfather Campground, just outside Boone, NC and at the foot of Grandfather Mountain. Our first side trip was to Blowing Rock, reportedly the only place in the U.S. where snow falls up! There is an outcropping of rocks that cause funny wind currents and when it snows, it blows straight up. We were very disappointed in that it was a perfectly still day without any breeze at all so we didn’t get to see the Rock in action. Oh, well - the drive over the mountains was beautiful and the scenery from the Blowing Rock overlook was spectacular. However, Jerry considered this a "super tourist trap" - not much for the $10 we spent to see it. Our recommendation would be - don’t go out of your way to see it. There are plenty of other spots to see much more beautiful scenery in this area of North Carolina.

The 11th was Football Saturday so I headed to town to do the laundry and to see a little more of the area. Boone is a pretty good size town and home to Appalachian State University. There are many services there - I even had what our friend Catherine Cockrill calls an "emergency pedicure".

We had an uneventful evening but were awakened at 4:45 a.m. Sunday by Civil Defense sirens. It seems that there were tornadoes spotted in the area and the wind was howling all around us. Ask me how scared I was knowing that motor homes, like mobile homes, are magnets for tornadoes? I got up and put my clothes on so I wouldn’t be blown away in my nightshirt. I lay awake for at least two hours while Jerry snored his way through it. Luckily, we made it through the night only to find ourselves in a snow blizzard when daylight came! It was beautiful and, thank goodness, it didn’t stick to the roads. We left the campground around 11:00 on Sunday, bound for the Bristol/Johnson City/Kingsport, Tennessee area. It was a beautiful drive through snow-covered landscapes. We have loved North Carolina, from the eastern border to the western. We will definitely be back here . . . especially Mount Airy.

Happy trails to you . . . til we meet again!

Sign on a funeral home in Nags Head: Trust - we urn it.