Why Brookings?

When we came up to Brookings, Oregon, we knew we wanted to take a break from our traveling, but we didn't know for how long. There are still some areas of the country like the Southwest that we would eventually like to get to, but those high elevation areas are not ideal places to see in the winter months. At the same time we both were feeling the need for a little more stability. We had taken a couple trips down the coast and had enjoyed the Brookings area before, but now that we have stayed here for over a month now, we are thoroughly hooked on the area. It seems we find something new everyday that makes this area even more unique. We are looking to make our stay more permanent, but that will take some time and we have just recently put our boat on the market and we will need to sell that before we do anything.

First there is the weather! We have always visited Brooking in the summer months, and the weather was nice, but we had heard rumors about unseasonably mild weather even in the winter. If you look on a map, Brookings is actually south facing and protected from the frequent north winds and somewhat blocked by Crescent City Headlands from the south. Also, there is a unique weather phenomenon that only affects Brookings and 5 to 10 miles up or down the coast called the "Chetco Effect". Air masses pile up over the Siskiyou Mountains to the northeast and when they spill down into the south facing Chetco River Valley, this causes heating. The amount of this effect varies, but we have seen days here where the daytime high temperatures are the warmest on the coast until you get all the way down to Santa Cruz, CA. Meanwhile, Crescent City just 25 miles to the south may be 5 to 10 degrees cooler. Below is the Forecast from last week; we hit 68 degrees last week, no other place in Oregon even came close to that. In fact, since we have been here, clear sunny days has been the norm probably 75% of the time. When it does rain, it rains hard, we had one day where we got 2 inches in one day, but we actually appreciate that, over the long duration drizzle we have become used to in Portland. Brookings does actually get about 65 inches of rain, nearly twice what Portland does, but it gets way more sun as well. The climate is described as "mediterranean" and because we rarely see freezing temperatures in the winter, palm trees and some hardy citrus trees like lemons will grow here outside.

Last week's weather here in Brookings

 

Palm Trees outside Superfly Distilling a good restaurant and vodka distillery

 

A Sago plam outside a residence in Brookings

The ocean views around Brookings are spectacular. There are lots of rocky headlands, pocket beaches, and haystack rocks sitting just off the coast. Nearly all of this is accessible public lands and all the parks down here are free. North of Lone Ranch Beach the Pacific Coastal Trail links all of these oceanfront public lands so you could hike the entire length to Cape Blanco. Last week we discovered an area that the locals call "Secret Beach". It is no longer a secret since everyone down here seems to know about it, but it is one of the most amazing sections of beaches I have seen. Smooth brown sand between rugged rock outcrops, a creek with a waterfall that flows through the beach and at the south end a natural tunnel through a rocky headland that you can cross at low tide that leads to another secluded beach encircled by cliffs for two-thirds of the way around except for the side facing the ocean. It looks like one of those idyllic settings you only see in a movie. If it wasn't so well known down here I actually wouldn't say anything about it so that it doesn't become overrun with people, but Brookings is so remote with no major cities nearby that most beaches are rarely busy. During the week on our hikes we have had beaches all to ourselves on occasion.

A few from above Secret Beach

 

Secret Beach

Just can't get tired of seeing the beaches here (North from Secret Beach)

A view through the woods while hiking the Pacific Coastal Trail

 

Point St. George Lighthouse off Crescent City

Aside from the ocean beaches, you have the huge Redwood forest just a 20 minute drive south of here and even the northernmost Redwood forest just up the Chetco River. The Chetco River is a popular fishing river especially for steelhead. We are staying at Riverside RV Park on the Chetco River and we like to go out to the river in the mornings to watch the sea lions barking and hunting in the crystal clear waters. Brookings is a small town and like most coastal towns, it was hit pretty hard by the recession, so there are many vacant businesses in town, but it is not just a coastal vacation town, lots of people live and work here and because of that, all the basic amenities like grocery stores, hardware stores and many decent restaurants are here. There are even two breweries and I am happy to report that one of the grocery stores has a growler fill station ... score!

To the east in Cave Junction is this eclectic art gallery called It's a Burl featuring wood carvings

The "It's a Burl" gallery even the building is pretty funky

In the Northernmost Redwood grove 5 miles from Brookings

The amount of wildlife in the area is amazing as well. There are a couple turkeys that we frequently see hanging out here in the RV park. They seem to be semi-domesticated and are probably used to being fed since you can walk within 10 feet of them. Deer chomping the grass in the yard next to the RV park or even wandering through neighborhoods in town is a daily occurrence. Just south of here down by the Smith River, we saw two herds of elk as we drove out to Point St. George with over 45 elk in each herd. North of here near Gold Beach we have seen a whole flock of turkeys. Although, up north of here you do have to watch out for the wild cows on the road. We were coming back from Portland a week or two ago on Highway 101, it was dark and rainy and we slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop only about 15 feet from this big bull that was munching a piece of grass; he didn't blink, he didn't budge, we had to drive around him. Later we found this "tongue and cheek" website where people can post their run-ins with these cows, http://www.wildcowsonroad.com

Elk herd down by the Smith River

Neighborhood turkeys in the RV Park

Flock of turkeys near Gold Beach

Of course being right here on the ocean, we see lots of marine wildlife. We see whales spouting in the distance, harbor seals laying around on the rocks, sea lions barking around the marina, we have heard elephant seals growling from offshore islands and every trip to the beach we see birds, all kinds of them.

So we are going to take a break from constant traveling and see if things can come together for us here in Brookings, at least this is what we have in mind now.  However plans do change, so it will be interesting to see where we are a year from now.

Harbor Seals near Secret Beach

Oystercatchers on Whaleshead Beach

Painted Eagle Tree up the north bank of the Chetco River

Cactus Country

We probably could have stayed in Big Bend National Park for a few more days and done a few more hikes, but the good weather we have had all the way up until mid-November was about to end for us. A wet rainy system moving over Arizona and New Mexico was going to collide with an intense arctic blast coming down from Canada to bring record low temperatures and even snow all the way down to Big Bend. We wanted to get west ahead of this, so the worst we would have to deal with was a little rain.

Heading west out of Big Bend, we soon left the Chihuahuan Desert environment and all of the rest of West Texas, was nothing but brush and tumbleweeds. You don't even see many cactuses out there. Following I-10 we went through El Paso and stopped for the night in Las Cruces, New Mexico. About the only thing notable about this area except for how barren the area was, were the occasional Pecan groves growing in very neat rows. Pecans must be a very hardy tree, since we have seen them being farmed everywhere in the South from Georgia all the way out to the dry desert environment of New Mexico. We stayed the night in Coachlight RV Park, tucked behind the Coachlight Inn. Not much more than a huge gravel lot enclosed behind a cinderblock wall, it did have easy pull through full hook-up sites. They had shower facilities at the hotel, but that required an access card which required a hefty deposit, so for one night it was too much of a hassle. Definitely a one night stop kind of place and not someplace I would want to stay a while.

We left early the next morning and promptly hit the rain that had been predicted. They were also predicting high winds of 20 to 25 mph, but for the most part they were blowing from the east. These actually gave us a little bit of a boost and we hit 14 mpg instead of our more typical 10mpg average. It wasn't until we were just south of Tucscon that we started seeing tall Saguaro cactuses and shorter fishhook barrel cactuses growing wild. Similar to areas near Big Bend, while still desert-like conditions, we started to see a wide variety of vegetation and a lot more green than we had seen for the past several hundred miles. We stopped in Tucson and decided to stay for about a week. We stayed at Whispering Palms RV Park inside the city, north of downtown. With our Passport America rate of about $15 a night it was one of the cheapest places we stayed on our trip. Online reviews had given the place a bad rap, but we found most of the complaints had been addressed. They had excellent wi-fi, newly remodeled bathrooms and decent laundry facilities. I have come to find that most RVers equate "bad neighborhoods" with areas that are look different from the suburbia in the northern US and have little to substantiate the neighborhood as being dangerous. For the first couple of days, it dumped rain and for an area unaccustomed to that much rain there was a lot of localized flooding with roadways blocked in some areas. However, once the rain cleared it returned to beautiful blue skies and warm in the 70s.

Tucson is in a valley between the Tucson Mountains to the west and the much taller Santa Catalina Mountains to the east. A short drive over the Tucson Mountains brings you to one of two parts of the Saguaro National Park. While the entire region is covered with Saguaro cactuses, you can get up close and hike through them here. Also like Big Bend, we found there is an exceptional amount of wildlife in the area, mostly we saw lots of birds and a few lizards, but there are rattlesnakes, deer, Gila Monsters, coyotes and a small pig-like animal called a javelina that can apparently be aggressive. Got to watch out for those piglets going for your jugular vein!

Saguaro cactus landscape in the National Park

 

A Saguaro family ... waving

Ancient Indian rock etching in Saguaro National Park

Heading east from Tucson, you quickly climb in elevation, passing out of the Saguaro cactus zone, through a scrubby brush zone, and then you enter Ponerosa Pine forest and the snow zone in the winter. It is amazing that with temperatures in the 70s you could be up in snow at the Palisades area in less than an hour. In fact, at the peak of Mt. Lemmon at 9157 feet there is a ski area.

Palisades area on Mt Lemmon

In general Tucscon seems like it could be a very livable place if you could deal with the heat in the summer. You wouldn't have much lawn to mow, but many of the stucco style homes had neatly planted cacutuses around creating a little desert oasis around each house. Also, Tucson seems to have resisted what I call "big box americana hell" that I observed of so many other cities on our trip around the country. So many cities these days lack any unique character since all the stores are the same and even the massive huge developments of houses built ten feet apart all look the same, the only thing that changes is the landscape around them. While Tucson has its share of big box stores, they were spread throughout the city and did not dominate any particular area of the city. The downtown area has a number of interesting restaurants including El Charro Cafe the oldest continuously running mexican restaurant in the country since 1922. While the food was good but not spectacular, the facility with an open air courtyard and a fountain in the middle had a lot of authentic charm. Also a thumbs up for Thunder Canyon Brewery downtown. They make several of their own beers, but also have dozens of unique beers on tap. You are sure to find something you will like. With freshly ground in-house and locally sourced beef, I can also recommend their burgers.

Courtyard inside El Charro Cafe

On previous trips and traveling for work, I have seen much of California and knew there was not much more I wanted to see in Southern California, so our next travel day was a huge one. We did 659 miles from Tucson to Tulare, CA in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. With south winds and lots of semi trucks that we could keep pace with we saw the best mileage on our trip of 15mpg coming up the valley on highway 99. We stopped at the Sun and Fun RV Park in Tulare. Lots of long-termers here, friendly but strange is the nicest way to put it. A decent park with great bathroom facilities paved roads and well-maintained concrete pads at each site. A good place to stop for the night, but really not much else in the area that would encourage you to stop for a few days.

The next morning we were off on a much shorter trek to Calistoga, CA in the north end of the Napa Valley. Finding decent RV facilities in the wine country can be a challenge, most are quite expensive and that does not equate to nice facilities. The Calistoga RV Park at the Napa Valley Fairgrounds was a great find. You can stay up to four nights at the Passport America rate of $21 a night, which is a bargain in that area. It is pretty much a large paved/gravel yard with a few trees along the perimeter, but it is within walking distance to downtown and a short drive to most things in wine country. We stayed for a week.

A very modest Thanksgiving dinner in our cramped trailer

When I first visited the wine country in 2000, most of the wineries had free-tastings and maybe a reserve list that you might pay a tasting fee for. Today, that has all changed, nearly every winery charges between $10 and $25 just for tastings. For two people visiting three or four wineries you could easily spend $80 to $100 in a day on tasting alone. Now that we are on a fixed income we can't splurge like we might have in the past. I think many visitors to Napa today no longer go to the wineries with the intention to purchase wine, instead the tasting is the event and wineries are now charging high tasting fees to recoup a profit. I was amazed by the number of bicyclers going winery to winery and surely they are not able to carry purchased bottles of wine ... so I blame the bikers for ruining a fun time in wine country. :) However, we did uncover a couple of wineries that are bucking the trend and still had free tastings or maybe $5 tastings. Kenwood in the Sonoma Valley has free wine tastings still, but I can't say much about the wines we tasted. We saw a recommendation for a tiny and newer winery called Loxton and we were not disappointed, the Australian winemaker focuses on shiraz, but they had a good fruity zinfandel that we picked up a bottle of. We stopped by Roche and Hawkes, but both of those were just mediocre. Of course, we still think Cline cellars makes some of the best zinfandels anywhere and they have free tasting, lots of wines to try and a really nice facility.

The area along 101 north of San Francisco is a mecca for breweries with Lagunitas in Petaluma, Bear Republic in Healdsburg, Russian River in Santa Rosa, 3rd Street Aleworks in Santa Rosa, Moylan's in Novato and probably a couple others I forgot to mention. We didn't make it to all of them, but we did do the tour at Lagunitas, had a beer and some food at Russian River and 3rd Street Aleworks and got a pint or two at Bear Republic. Lagunitas and Bear Republic were really the standouts with some of the tastiest beers. I had high hopes for Russian River, but they have gone to the dark side and jumped on the sour beer bandwagon and that is just not for me.

On our trip we have been on the hunt for good bike trails that aren't just the shoulder of some highway. The last time we got the bikes out was back in North Carolina, but north of San Francisco near the Point Reyes National Seashore, we found the 5.3 mile paved Sir Francis Drake bikeway that goes along Lagunita Creek. This was a very scenic ride through redwood forests and one of the highlights of our stop in Calistoga.

From Calistoga, we headed north up highway 101 and stopped in Eureka for a few days. The whole Eureka/Arcata area has many of the aspects we appreciate about the Northwest and was definitely interesting enough to spend at least a couple of days. With Lost Coast, Six Rivers, Redwood Curtain, Eel River and Mad River breweries there is plenty of variety to check out. Most of Six Rivers beers were outstanding from their Chili Pepper Beer to their Sasquatch Double IPA, Lost Coast has their seasonal Winterbraun that we were pretty fond of and Mad River's barleywine is pretty solid in that category.

Eureka also is large enough to have a wide variety of decent restaurants. One of the most interesting was across the bridge to the little town of Samoa on the barrier island. Samoa is the remains of logging town back when the logging industry used to move in and literally build a whole town with nice houses, streets and stores. Today the Samoa cookhouse still serves three meels a day much as it was when it was an active logging area. There is no menu, you get whatever they are serving, but it is always lots of good home cooked foods served family style at the long banquet style tables. When we were there for $15 for dinner they were serving pot roast with gravy, fried chicken, a hearty soup, salad,  a couple of vegetable dishes and cake for desert. All the plates are "all you can eat" and they will keep bringing more. We did not walk away hungry. They have lots of memorabilia on the walls, like 15 foot saw blades and a small logging museum that is definitely worth a look. You get an idea what it must have been like to be one of the first settlers in the area amongst the giant Redwood trees that grow in this area.

Samoa Cookhouse

After leaving Eureka, we knew we wanted to stop someplace in the Oregon area so we could be closer to family over the holidays, but a nasty cold snap with below freezing temperatures was hitting the Portland area and our trailer's water system between the hook-up and the trailer is completely exposed and frozen waterlines is not much fun. We have heard rumors about Brookings, Oregon on the coast having unseasonably mild weather, but I will save that for the next post.

West to Texas

Wow, it has been a while. I thought I should write down some things about our trip across the Southern states before I forgot where we had been on this trip. When I left off last time, we were near St. Augustine. For the most part, we just blew across the South until we got to Texas. I had been down in the South a couple times before and to be totally honest, was not really impressed. It is unfortunate that when it comes to scenic wonders and national parks, the South kind of got the shaft. While the swampy cypress groves are impressive in their sheer expansiveness, that can only last for an hour or two until it all starts looking the same. It is also how amazing how economically repressed the area looks and has probably been that way since the civil war. It is not just the style of the homes, but the care of those homes by their owners. We stopped in a non-descript campground in Defuniak Springs, Florida that was barely hanging on and we seemed to be the only visitors besides the long-termers.

Our next stop was at a campground just to the west of Lafayette, Louisiana at the Frog City RV Park in Dunos. While it was the typical grassy lot with paved drives, they did have very well kept facilities and eight individual shower rooms. The people were incredibly friendly. The lady at the check-in commented "I knew yall weren't from around here 'cause you don't talk funny like us." Turns out she was actually from Michigan.We asked about restaurants in the area and they gave us some great recommendation for local food. The one thing that the Lafayette area is known for is their great cajun cuisine ... lots of crayfish dishes, etoufee (a heavy gravy usually with shrimp or fish on top of rice) and fried alligator bites. I've tried alligator before years ago in Florida and had a friend of a friend that had a permit to take one wild alligator. That alligator I remember being somewhat chewy, with a texture like shark and a little bit fishy. The alligator we had in Lafayette, was likely farm-raised and except for the high price for this novelty food, you could also pass it off for chicken.

Next we blasted through Houston and headed for San Antonio where we stayed for three days. We of course had to see the Alamo and as most people mention it is not nearly as large as you thought it would be. However, inside is a model of the original compound and what remains is just the main building of a much larger walled complex that probably covered a couple acres.

Of course another one of the features that San Antonio is known for is the unique riverwalk which is a largely manmade canal with restaurants and shops all along it. Tour barges go up and down the narrow canal and most of the restaurants have seating right on the edge of the canal. I'm sure this has provided a huge economic boost to downtown businesses and I wonder why other cities haven't tried to emulate this?

We stayed at a campground on the south side of San Antonio down a dusty road called Hidden Valley RV park. I would probably only stay there for a night while passing through. Strangely they have lots of space, but all the RVs are packed in together on one side of the campground. The wi-fi didn't work and while the camp host was very friendly, her only comment about the wi-fi was that another camper a couple days ago also had the same problem. No mention of actually fixing it. Also, the "shower" is actually the bathroom in a mobile home trailer converted to a "clubhouse" a pretty far walk from the campground area.

San Antonio is very divided economically and culturally. The south side is predominantly a Mexican-American community with small stucco homes packed into tight neighborhoods, with ubiquitous grafiti, while the north side is big box americana with large cookie cutter houses in large developments and malls with all the brand name stores. We did check out Freetail Brewing on the north side that had some tasty brews on tap (thumps up for La Muerta). On the south side, everyone shops at the huge HEB grocery store and the Mexican influence was obvious with fresh made in store tortillas and a meat market with stacks of huge roasts that rivaled all other grocery meat counters I have ever seen.

As we headed west from San Antonio on our way to Big Bend National Park it quickly becomes more desolate with town far between. Pulling our trailer, we only get maybe 150 miles between fill-ups so it became critical to plan our gas stops. In between there is nothing but miles of small hills covered with prickly pear and brushy mesquite and ocotillo. As we neared Big Bend the environment slowly changed as we entered the Chihuahuan Desert area, we started to see a wider variety of cactuses and the area was actually much greener and we started to see more wildlife. Whoever drew the Wiley Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons must have been to this area as we saw lots of roadrunners running into the bushes and each night were heard coyotes howling. With the towering mesas and hills you wondered if an anvil were going to suddenly drop from the sky. We stayed just outside the park on the north side at a place called Stillwell's. Given how remote this area is, Stillwell's is an oasis. They have a small convenience store (with ice cream!) and maybe a dozen or so full hook-up RV sites under the prickly-pear covered bluffs with a nice view of the mesas to the east. (Great wi-fi too!) There is a small museum onsite with information about Hallie Stillwell, Grand Dame of West Texas who was an early settler to the area and passed away in 1997 at 99 years. In her early days, it was the time of PanchoVilla and bandits were a constant threat, but even worse was the environmental conditions with periods of extreme drought and unrelenting summer heat that made cattle ranching a challenge.

Stillwell's Ranch Store

Big Bend National Park is a remote corner of the US that is largely unknown to most people. Here the Rio Grande river winds through slot canyons, dodging slow tarantulas on the road is a necessity, the higher elevations are cooler and have Douglas firs trees, black bears and mountain lions. The park rangers turn a blind eye to Mexicans coming across the border and setting up small "illegal" displays of locally made arts and crafts. (Note - this is not the "official" park service stance, but what we observed while there.) Not long ago, before 2011, there was an open border crossing to the small Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen and going across to a couple small restaurants, buying locally made crafts or going on a donkey ride was all part of the "Big Bend Experience." When the border closed after 9/11 the sole livelihood for the town was pretty much decimated. Unofficially, park service personnel have sympathy for the town and so while buying crafts is illegal, it continues even today. Most of what we saw were just small craft displays of beaded scorpions or walking sticks with an "on your honor" jar for cash and a cardboard sign with prices. While we were there, a Mexican on horseback was collecting cash from his displays and at one area Jesus the singing Mexican would do a song for tips. Because both sides of the border are so remote and the difficulty of transporting anything across miles and miles of desert to populated areas so great, the Mexican drug cartels that occupy many areas of the US/Mexico border have left Big Bend alone. Aside from the natural beauty of the area, Big Bend has a vibrant history of bandits, illegal border trade and ranching that has gone through boom and bust cycles. Remnants of these ranches and the area history can be seen today; I think we will be back here again.


A typical landscape in Big Bend




"Illegal" Mexican craft display

4-inch tarantula wandering across a road

Rio Grande winding through a slot canyon

Remnants of a hot spring soaking pool right on the Rio Grande

Old abandoned store along the Rio Grande

Dusty road scene typical of the Big Bend area

Part 5: The Ancient City

• Next we headed south to the oldest city in the nation, St. Augustine, which was founded by Spain in 1565. We often forget that Spaniards had a presence in the new world long before the British or French laid claim to much of North America. Today, the original Castillo de San Marcos built to protect the city in 1672 can still be toured. The fort is maintained by the national park service and is in very good condition. In many places you can still see pictures and graphitti carved into the coquina rock walls by the early soldiers. Unlike many forts left in the US that are actually replica's built on the old location, this is the real deal. Its amazing to walk through tunnels where Spanish soldiers fought the British over 300 years ago. In my opinion the $7 fee to get in with all the interpretive displays, cannons and access to roam nearly all of the fort was well worth it.

Castillo de San Marcos

Presbyterian Church in Old Town St. Augustine

Accordion Player on the street

• Another trip worth taking was the free ferry across to Fort Matanzas just south of St. Augustine on the coastal banks. While much smaller in scale than Castillo de San Marcos, the narrated tours by the park staff really give you a good idea what it must have been like to live at this garrison in 1742 when it was built. Again the entire fort is open to the public including the ladder up to the upper deck.

Fort Matanzas

• We stayed at Pellicer Creek Campground about 15 miles south of St. Augustine. This campground was re-opened just a couple of years ago and most of the facilities are pretty new. In fact some of it is still a work in progress. The campground manager is in the process of installing cable, only got wifi set up earlier this year and they do not yet have bathrooms. However, because everything is new, the facilties are in very good condition. The washer and dryers looked brand new and at $1.50 to wash and $1.00 to dry were some of the cheapest we had seen anywhere. It is inland, not on the coast and the rate reflects that, but with easy access to I95 and US1, we had no issues getting around. It is located right on Pellicer Creek which at this point in the creek is a dense jungle stream surrounded by palms reminiscent of something you might see in The African Queen. 

Pellicer Creek Campground from the water

• Just downstream from Pellicer Creek Campground is Faver-Dykes State Park. Unlike state parks in other states many of them here in Florida are barely developed dirt roads back into the woods. While Faver-Dykes is no different, you can rent canoes there and we did. The lower section of Pellicer Creek is grassy marsh, but we really wanted to see the upland portion where it goes through the jungle near our campground, so we paddled hard against the current for an hour and a half to get up to the campground, spotting herons, egrets and vultures along the way and only one alligator. The upland portion has a couple tributaries and is dense and jungley, we went up each branch until we were stopped by logs that had fallen across the creeks. It felt very remote even though two highways cross over it. On the way back we again were against the current and this time the wind was blowing against us as well. I thought for sure my arms would fall off before we got the canoe back to the dock inside the park.

Pellicer Creek Jungle Section

• We heard that there are sometimes manatees in the coastal waters near here, but not this time of year. However a quick google search turned up Blue Springs State Park just an hour south of here where they congregate in the winter due to the 72 degree spring water, so we had to check it out. Fortunately for us, the manatees had just started to arrive for the winter. However aside from the manatees it is still a pretty amazing area. The spring water comes out of a chasm in the ground well over 100 feet deep and flows down a channel to the St. John River. Cave divers go scuba-diving here. The water in the channel is so clear that you can see every fish in the channel in addition to the manatees. There are gar over 4 foot long and catfish and dozens of other fish and lots of turtles. The $6 park fee was well worth it, but we heard it can get pretty crowded at this park at times. We went mid-week in early November and there was absolutely no issue with crowds, aside from a visiting school group. 

Manatees at Blue Springs

Turtle Party!

We are now in Pellicer Creek Campground contemplating our next leg of the trip, which is to return back west. Much of the south across the gulf states does not hold much draw for us, but there are a few things in Texas we would like to see. Specifically we would like to make it down to Big Bend National Park. While there is lots we would like to see in the Southwest, due to the elevation and the weather this time of year, that may need to wait until another trip. At this point we are thinking we will work our way back to the West Coast and find someplace we like out that way to hunker down for a month or two. However, our plans are always changing.

Part 4: Down to the Low Country

• Next stop was the Outer Banks of North Carolina where we stayed for a week. I had been there nearly 20 years ago, but Rhonda was seeing it all for the first time. While campground prices in the Outer Banks can be pricey, the weekly rate at the OBX Campground in Kill Devil Hills was only $200 (http://www.obxcampground.com/). With huge lots with elbow room between your neighbors, a view of the water with a dock and well-maintained bathrooms this was one of the best campgrounds we have stayed at. I also have to plug Billy's Seafood less than half a mile away where we stopped several times to pick up some the freshest and suprisingly inexpensive locally caught fish for dinner on the grill (http://www.billysseafoodobx.com/).

• There was plenty in the Outer Banks to keep us busy for a week. Since it is on a barrier island the chain has its share of lighthouses and we went to four of them; Currituck Lighthouse, Bodie Lighthouse, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the Ocracoke Lighthouse. We went all the way down to the south end where a ferry takes you across to Ocracoke Island and just happened to stumble across the Blackbeard Pirate Festival in Ocracoke where this mock ship battle was going on.  

Currituck Lighthouse

Bodie Lighthouse

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Ocracoke Lighthouse

Blackbeard Festival in Ocracoke

• On Roanoke Island between the Outer Banks and the mainland, we went to the quaint little town of Manteo and then up to the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site where an early colony was founded and then mysteriously disappeared when the founder returned from England three years later. We spent a couple hours wandering through the Elizabethan Gardens right next to Fort Raleigh with its manicured grounds and statues.  

Garden statue in the Elizabethan Gardens

Macro photo of flowers in the Elizabethan Gardens

• Back in Kill Devil Hills we wandered all around the memorial where the Wright Brothers made their first manned flights. Now the area is covered in grass and even a few prickly pear cactuses, but back in Wright Brother's days it was only sand dunes and was selected for the consistent winds that blow through the area.
• Recreational activities have been drawing mainlanders to the Outer Banks for years. While fishing is still a very hot activity in the area, water fowl hunting used to be a major draw. The Currituck Banks National Estuarine Research Reserve has a free museum where this history is explored and then you can wander the grounds of the Whalehead Club and imagine what it must have been like to be part of the well-to-do crowd coming to the Outer Banks in the early days for recreation. 

Whalehead Club on Currituck Bank

Cactus on Currituck Banks

Turtle Stretching

• Just a little ways north of the Outer Banks in Grandy, NC is the Weeping Radish Farm Restaurant, Brewery and Butchery (http://www.weepingradish.com/index.php). As its name implies, they are a restaurant where many of the items on the menu are from their own farm or local farms, they brew their own beer and make their own sausages. This restaurant is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but it was featured in Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network. Unlike most breweries in the US, their focus is German style lager beers and their seasonal Oktoberfest is probably my favorite of that variety of beer.
• Our next stop heading south was Myrtle Beach. We again saw my Aunt Jo since she spends the winters down there and my cousin Jann who lives there year round. We did not spend much time in Myrtle Beach, but I have never seen so many elaborate miniature golf courses in my life, complete with waterfalls, and dry-ice fog. We stayed at Myrtle Beach State Park Campground which was suprisingly close to everything. On a tip from Jo and Jann, we went down to Huntington Beach State Park, which was impressive. This time of year there are migratory birds passing through and I got to see a Roseate Spoonbill, which I haven't seen since I used to work in the Everglades. There were also several Wood Storks and supposed to be alligators, but we did not see any while we were there. There is also the Atalaya Castle that was built as a winter home for industrialist Archer Huntington in the 1930's. 

Roseate Spoonbill

Atalaya Castle

• We liked Charleston, SC so much that instead of just passing through on our way south, we decided to stay a few days. I hadn't expected it to feel "tropical" until we got farther south, but with saw palmettos growing everywhere and spanish moss dripping from the huge live oak trees that formed a canopy over the roadways so dense that only filtered sunlight came through, the environment felt very different than just a little farther north. Culturally, Charleston has a lot going for it as well. There is so much history in that part of the country and much of it has been preserved. We did take a carriage ride through the historic district and I am glad we did, since our tour guide was able to provide the significance of the history that we wouldn't have been able to get if walking on our own. For example, much of the spikey ironwork on some of the estates, was not merely for decoration, but was to protect the estates from a potential slave revolt which was a fear in those days. 

Charleston Cemetery

• We also got acquainted with "Low Country Food" which is making a resurgence at some of the finest restaurants in town. Really its just soul food that has been prepared for years that is now becoming avant garde; things like fried okra, collard greens, grits, fried ... anything, shrimp gumbo. Prior to coming to Charleston, our search for good seafood restaurants without breaking the bank was hitting a dry spell as we found even highly recommended places were serving previously frozen and breaded items. Just south of Charleston we found Gilligan's. They had some of the best freshly prepared yet inexpensive seafood around (www.gilligans.net).
• We also enjoyed the trip down Wadmalaw Island south of Charleston to go to the Charleston Tea Garden and take the free tour to find out how tea is grown and prepared along with some tastings (www.charlestonteaplantation.com). Then we stepped up the octane and went to the Firefly Distillery and were pleasantly suprised by their tea-infused vodka and the lemon vodka made with natural lemon (http://www.charlestonwine.com/firefly.php). Rounding out the trip we stopped at Angel Oak to see this impressive 1500 year old tree that is still alive and growing today with its 17,000 square foot canopy. We even saw one of the elusive white squirrels at Angel Oak which are very rare elsewhere. 

Angel Oak

Elusive White Squirrel

• We spent a half day hiking through the Caw Caw Interpretive Center south of Charleston as well. This park is only open Wednesday through Sunday, but is well-worth the trip. In the 1700s and 1800s before cotton became the predominant crop, rice was grown in flooded bogs that were dug by slaves. Today some of the area has returned to woodland and some has returned to marsh but throughout the park the maze of waterways remains and supports all kinds of wildlife. As you can imagine there all kinds of birds that stop here, but this is also excellent habitat for alligators. I didn't realize that alligators can occur as far north as the Alligator River in North Carolina, but as we looked for alligators on our way south, this was the first place that they seemed to be abundant.