Everyone pretty much got up on time, although with our group it seems that the younger you are, the harder it is for you to get up early. All the old folks were washing clothes, doing dishes, emptying trash, and trying to get the young ones out of bed! We had planned to hit the road by 0600.
Robin volunteered to stay behind and clean up the rooms, empty trash, and gather stuff to bring home from both refrigerators. This allowed the rest of us to get on the road by 0630. Thank you Robin!
Rain was forecast and we expected to have a wet morning. I don't know what happened, but it seemed that the rain had always been to an area just before us. We ran into some wet roads, but no actual precipitation.
Our route took us north on Rt 17 and through Wilmington, Jacksonville, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The fence along the frontage road of Camp Lejeune is decorated with bedsheets that have welcoming words from the families of Marines returning from duty in the Middle East.
We continued on through Cedar Point, Morehead City, and Sealevel on our way to Cedar Island. Signs at Cedar Island indicated that there was a restaurant at the ferry depot so we decided to have lunch there and relax until it was our time to board. The restaurant was only open for dinner, but the owner was there and allowed us to use the bathroom. That was worth lunch! She directed us back down the road to a little general store that had a hot dog bar. JOY!
While everyone headed back down the road, Will and I went to the ferry check-in area and made sure that there were no problems with our reservations. Everything was OK and the attendant suggested that we just have one person present the money and she could print all of the tickets at one time. She did not have to handle each bike separately. Having established this, Will and I rode down to the general store for gourmet hot dogs and some good old southern porch sittin'.
After a round of indigestion and naps, we headed back up the road to the ferry depot, got our tickets and pulled in line for boarding. We were scheduled to board last and had us line up in our own lane.
When it was our turn, the gates opened and all of the cars were loaded first. We were directed to load the motorcycles on the aft port side.
The trip was very relaxing and we met a bunch of really nice people on the ferry. There was no shortage of sights and sounds and some great views. There was an observation deck and also an air conditioned cabin with tables and benches. The GPS on Mark's bike had the motorcycle symbol in the middle of the water and going 10.2 miles per hour!
Of course, all of these sights are only wonderful and scenic if you can keep your dead ass awake long enough to enjoy and share them with the rest of the group. Some of our party seem to not be as tough as the classical image of bikers. See for yourself........
And just in case there is not enough clarity in this group shot.........
Everyone finally regained consciousness.....or at least as conscious as any of us are.....and prepared to debark. The ride we had just taken was on the Cedar Island-Ocracoke Ferry and lasted about two hours and twenty minutes. Not surprisingly, this deposited us on Ocracoke Island. We still had one more ferry to take, the Ocracoke Island Ferry, which takes us from Ocracoke to Hatteras. There was about twelve miles of beautiful seashore to ride along to the next ferry ride. We stopped at one point and got some pictures by the ocean.
Before you know it, we are on another ferry and taking about a 45 minute ride to Hatteras. Thsi ride was much rougher than the first one. At one point we held on to our motorcycles just so they wouldn't be tempted to fall over! Fortunately no one had an accident.......how would you report that to your insurance company?
After debarking on Hatteras, we took another scenic drive to Buxton and the site of our motel for the evening. There was a lot of standing water on the road and it was necessary at times to ride on the wrong side of the road to avoid it.
Safely in Buxton, we checked into the Comfort Inn and had a great seafood dinner at a restaurant next door. After dinner, half of walked to a local bar for a drink, and the rest of us just headed for bed.
It was a fabulous day, filled with a rich variety of sights and experiences, shared by friends. I just don't know if it gets any better than this.
