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June 3, 2008
One reason that we chose to retire in Southern Pines, NC is its proximity to the ocean and beaches. Most people around here will tell you that the ocean is only “a couple of hours” away depending upon which part of the coast that you plan to visit. This is a good thing from our point of view. We’re close enough to the shore to be able to get our beach “fix” whenever we want but, we still have a hundred mile buffer from the occasional hurricane strike on the coast. Margo and I have had our fill of hurricanes having been hit by three of them when we lived in Florida.
This morning we hooked the trailer to the Dodge and took off for the Holiday Trav-L-Park Resort (www.htpresort.com) located in Emerald Isle, NC. We know from experience that Emerald Isle is a little over three hours from Southern Pines driving at a relaxed pace. The route we chose to travel on this trip included a combination of 55 mph two lane roads all the way up to a stretch of 70 mph interstate highway. It’s a nice drive that is free of heavy traffic and includes plenty of beautiful North Carolina scenery. Emerald Isle is located in the southern most Outer Banks and is accessed via bridges on NC Highway 58.
Check-in time at the park was 2 pm but, we arrived there a few minutes early and there was no problem getting checked in and directed to our site “Yellow 26”. This RV resort has their rate schedule keyed to color coded areas on their park map with the rates getting progressively more expensive closer to the beach. Our “yellow” section was closest to the beach and our rate was $75 a night, this being a peak season.
We were able to pick out our site at the time we booked the stay, so we already knew that we would be close to the beach. We were pleasantly surprised at how wide and spacious the sites are in this park. Most have full hook-ups and all have a grass surface. Our space, located at the end of a row, was slightly pie shaped but turned out to be a perfect space for our trailer with plenty of parking space for the truck.
Once set up, we settled down to enjoy a nice lunch in our new surroundings. Being a Tuesday, the park was less than one quarter full, not counting the semi-permanent park model trailers that surround the resort.
This being our first day, we just sat around reading and enjoying the RV experience. We also took a short walk on the beach but mostly we just relaxed. Tomorrow we plan to head out for a little sightseeing.
June 4, 2008
After a good nights sleep we awoke this morning feeling chipper and ready to go do a little sightseeing. One of our favorite towns in the Emerald Isle area is the little coastal village of Beaufort, NC, located roughly 18 miles to the north on Highway 70. We headed there with the thought of having lunch at one of our favorite waterfront restaurants, The Spouter Inn www.spouterinn.net/Home_Page.htm . The Spouter Inn is a great place to have a quiet lunch or dinner if you enjoy dining on the water. The view includes boats riding at anchor, docks and piers and Carrot Island on the other side of the channel. There is seating both inside and outside offering guests a choice of where they would like to sit depending upon the weather. Being suckers for anything water or boating related, Margo and I ate outside and would even if there was inclement weather or a cold spell. Unlike some “view” restaurants, the Spouter Inn also has a great menu and the food is excellent. We highly recommend the Spouter Inn.
After lunch we walked around town soaking up the atmosphere of this great little coastal village. There is a mix of historical homes and businesses located along the waterfront that give the town great character. It’s fun to walk the streets checking out the historical homes and local businesses. We enjoyed time in a gallery featuring maritime art and picked up a few bottles of a wonderful Merlot at a local wine dealership. It was a super day in Beaufort, North Carolina.
June 5, 2008
We knew the park wouldn’t stay quiet for long and we were right. This being a Thursday, the park started to fill up with RV’s getting a jump-start on the weekend. There were lots of families, as well as what appeared to be retirees filling up the remaining available spaces.
I have to confess that I love to sit and watch people coming into an RV park and setting up their rigs. We watched as families came in loaded with every imaginable vacation accessory from barbeques to bikes. What would be an empty space one moment, would be filled with laughing kids and camping equipment the next.
Our day today was spent relaxing and people watching. Our evening hours were spent playing games like Dominos where, Margo beat me so badly that she simply has to be cheating! (Not really, she just has amazing luck at Dominos but, I like to think that she’s cheating).
June 6, 2008
We love this RV Park and have been enjoying it but, we’ve also been thinking about our day in Beaufort and how much we enjoyed it. We also thought of an item that we saw for sale in a local gallery and have regretted not buying so, we hopped in the truck and drove back up there.
We decided to hit the gallery first but, when we got there we found a sign on the front door advising that the proprietor would be back in an hour. Oh well, that gave us the perfect opportunity to search out a coffee bar, hopefully with a water view.
It didn’t take us long to find just what we were looking for. A quick walk down the waterfront and we came upon the Boardwalk Café located at 510 Front Street. The Boardwalk Café offers out door seating right on the water, which is our preference. Once seated, we noticed that most people were having full breakfasts, which made us feel a little awkward, as all we wanted was coffee. We need not have been concerned, as our server was friendly and nice. She suggested that we have some fresh cinnamon rolls with our coffee and we did. Wow, what a great recommendation that was! We can still taste those fresh homemade rolls. The coffee was great too and we knew then that we would be returning to the Boardwalk Café some time in the future.
After our coffee and rolls we headed back to the gallery to make our purchase. We got there about the same time as the proprietor, which worked out well for us. We made our purchase then headed back to Emerald Isle and the RV Park.
We will be heading home tomorrow and it will be hard to leave this area of North Carolina. This is our second trip over to the area and we just love it. In fact, the entire Outer Banks areas of North Carolina are just wonderful and we highly recommend them.
June 7, 2008
It was time to hitch up and head on home today. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, then packed everything up and secured the trailer for travel. Once on the road home we reflected on the great time we had had during the past four days. We didn’t do much but the purpose of this trip was to relax which we did.
One thing that we noticed on this trip was that people were definitely concerned about the fast rising fuel costs that all of us are suffering these days. We had numerous people come up and ask us about our trailer, obviously attracted by the “Micro-Lite” name printed on its side. They wanted to know how much it weighed and if we liked it. We also spotted several people who drove by slowly or stopped just to look. No doubt people still want to go RVing but, it looks to us that size and weight are going to be issues in the future.
Our overall fuel mileage for this trip came out to be 16.0 mpg. We thought was acceptable fuel mileage. As of this writing our average cost for diesel was $4.65 a gallon. Even with diesel at that price and having to pay $75 a night at the RV resort, we thought that we had gotten our monies worth. We had a good time and we feel that RVing is still well worth the money. Of course that may all change if fuel prices continue to rise at the current rate.
June 15, 2008
A special thanks goes out to Joe and Jonthea who live in Brighton, UK for their nice email. They are the first ones to notice that our website URL was inspired by a prop in a movie. Thanks again folks, and we hope to see you visit the USA at some point in the future!
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