Wanda meditating on the perfect setting.

OBX - Today, we moved to the North Carolina’s Outer Banks. This is a thin strip of sand dunes that stretch far out into the Atlantic Ocean down the North Carolina coast for 175 miles. The large body of water behind the protective sand barrier is called a Sound. In this case, there are three large Sounds - Currituck Sound, in the north; Albemarle Sound in the middle, and the Pamlico Sound in the south. There are a few smaller Sounds, but these three make up the bulk of the waters behind the 175 miles of the OBX, as it is often abbreviated.

We settled in at the Oregon Inlet National Campground, located 1/3 of the way down the OBX. This gave us access to the entire northern peninsula of dunes that stretched from Corolla, where the road ends in the north to Duck, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, and Roanoke Island.

Oregon Inlet Campground is right next to the dunes. In fact, our site butts up to the dunes. We have a trail from our site over the dunes to the beach. After some dark and dismal days, we arrived at OBX on a perfect day. The air was coolish, the sun was gloriously warm, and the breeze was light. We were welcomed by the camp host. When I commented on the awesome weather, he grinned and said that it can change on a dime, which is what he loved about the place.

Our campsite nestled in among the dunes.

After setting up, we walked the beach for 5 miles. Unlike many beaches, once past the sand dunes, the nearly white sand was hard packed and pleasant to walk on. Cars were allowed, with a special off-road permit, to drive on the beach and the few people on this expanse were fishing. As you can image, we were giddy. If it were 10º warmer, we’d have gone swimming.

The gorgeous beach made me think of our friend, Jeff, in Bucerias, Mexico, in the heart of amazing Pacific beaches. Bucerias, near Puerto Vallarta, was hit by Hurricane Roslyn last week. We are scheduled to spend two months in Bucerias starting on New Years Eve. We called Jeff for an update on the damage. Thankfully, he reported no major damage, just a lot of clean up. He said that he had never seen such wind, 125 mph, in his life. He also reported that he was lining up plenty of gigs and asked if I wanted to play. I think I will commit to one gig a week.

The trail that starts at our campsite, goes up and over the protective sand dune, and delivers us to the exquisite beach.

From the top of the dune, you can see V-Jer (the small teardrop camper).

This little crab has near-perfect camouflage.

This fisherman snagged a baby shark.

Wanda is going after that perfect arty shot of the waves.

The Atlantic Ocean is an angry sea. The beach is wide, the sand is perfect to walk on, and it stretches on for as far as the eye can see. The 2.5 miles up and then back again barely made a dent in what is possible.

The entire 175-mile OBX beach is part of the MTS - Mountain to Sea Trail. Running 1175 miles from the Smokey Mountains to the Outer Banks, the trail drops 6,684’ at Mt. Mitchell down to sea level. I would suggest walking downhill from the Appalachians to the Atlantic. The trail takes over 2 million steps (who in the world checked that out?); connects 10 state parks, four national parks, three national forests, and two national wildlife refuges; and includes two ferry rides. We have logged 2.5 miles on the MTS (5 miles if you count the round-trip).

At the tail-end of a long delightful 5-mile stroll on the beach, a thick bank of fog rolled in, enveloping everything. The camp host was right, the fog came out of nowhere and it all changed instantaneously. If we hadn’t had the Gaia app on tracking our walk, we would not have found our trail back through the dunes to V-Jer.

You can see a hint of a fog bank in the background.

It’s coming.

Almost here.

Can barely see anything.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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