me, the wind, & the sweet hills of tennessee: July 2013

so we landed the truck at atlantic beach nc right after tropical storm andrea had moved through and the sea was definitely angry that night; i waded out but the suck on my legs was so hard i deemed it best not to night swim. the sea stayed rough for 3 days after, tossing and flipping me every time i ventured forth; i was fully denuded on ocracoke, but she finally calmed down enough for fun swimming on the 4th day. so we proceeded to find the one bar open and it served food so we proceeded to begin the 12 day orgy of seafood, huzzah. next day, we stowed the truck at cedar island campground(for 3 dollar a day, so cheap) and proceeded to ride the bikes to the ocracoke ferry, fully stoked. the 2 1/2 hr ferry was being battered by pretty rough wind-n-waves until it made the first turn out in the sound, we hovered worriedly over our bikes until that point but were able to enjoy the ride after. being ex-navy jack found it old hat, but i had never been so far out i couldn't see land. after landing, right at lunchtime, we rode through the village til we found a restaurant not completely inundated with tourist and sat down but after we quit the town shortly to ride out to the national park campground out in the wild undeveloped part of the island to make camp as soon as possible. the campsite choices were lame, i can't recommend this campground to any one, it is bleak and unvegetated so by 9am everyday we were forced to ride into town to find shade. the only good thing about the location was the beach, scantily populated by people you had unblemished views and at night you could see 15 miles in either direction up the beach and not a single light to be seen. i have never been to any beach that this was possible. loved that part. AND there was bioluminescent algae so we had many drunken sand kicking sessions over the course of 3 nights. the shell-picking was good here also, small but good color; i thought it was the best shell beach i had ever been to until 9 days later... we both fell in love with ocracoke, coolest sea town ive ever been to. completely uncorporate, there is nary a mcd/kfc or holiday inn to be found. i think there might be one hotel chain in operation there up around the ferry but otherwise the entire island is mom and pop. and the vibe is completely different than your average beachtown, the locals are their own breed of redneck...like the cajuns or appalachian hillfolk, really cool to suss out the peculiar traits inherent there; really put to use the old rusty anthropology skills i learned 20 years ago for the first time. we fell in with some locals at the third bar we went to and would pick up conversations with em for the days after when we'd re-meet em. spent 3 days diggin the place and checking out local spots like the lighthouse and the point where it is claimed blackbeard held the infamous largest pirate party ever on this continent and the subsequent place where he was captured and beheaded... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard we didn't want to leave, but we had plans for a little reggae at the beach, so we tore down the camp packed and strapped everything back onto the bikes and caught the ferry over to hatteras. except for a stop at bodie island lighthouse the chain of islands was a blur until we reached kill devil hills, having limited time to reach the top of the island chain to make our date with pato banton. by the time we reached our motel across from the concert spot we felt rotisseried and sandblasted, the winds are extremely strong there and it whips the sand over you brutally even when standing still, much less at 55-60 miles an hour. the stretch through pea island convinced me to buy some goggles, damn, nothing worse than 30mph sand in your eye while doing 60mph. we stayed at the cavalier motel which was a really well taken care of motor court from the 50-60's that had an awesome porch opening out onto the beach. the sea had calmed down enough at this point for me to have an awesome afternoon of wave swimming and then off to the concert. the port-of-call club was really cool with this awesome balcony resting above the entire showroom, and we got there early enough to grab the balcony right above the stage, best seats in the house. i can't say that pato banton's performance was stellar, being 30 years since he was a superstar, but for a concert at the beach i'd have to say it was the best one i've ever been to, reggae or otherwise. plus he played all the songs i wanted to hear. was a good night... the next day we checked out of our room and proceeded to wander north with no clear plans but to hit a beer garden/coffee house i had seen on the net that looked really cool up at the end of the road in corolla. shortly into the trip we realized what a mistake it might have been when noticing all the outbound bumper to bumper traffic once we hit the town of duck(that we had to come back through) but we pushed on only to find the coffee house closed. we began bs-ing with a guy running a wild horse tour kiosk and within an hour he had invited us to rent out his guest cottage, wow what a score such a nice pad. definitely will be hitting him up again for rental. we went to his show that night and discovered he was a badass bluegrass musician = bonus. after hitting the obligatory tourist spots like jockeys ridge and the wright bros monument we left town 2 days later and headed back to explore the islands we had blown through to make it to the concert. we eventually set up camp in frisco, after visiting all of the national park campgrounds on the island the only one i could recommend would be frisco; it has plenty of shade and in a good portion of the park you can set up your tent right up under the trees far enough that you have morning and afternoon shade. all the others are bleak desolate places with no shade whatsoever. frisco was also a cooler town, nowhere as upscale/expensive as some of the other towns we rode through. more of a middle/working class vibe and prices, and the sand dollar has the best damn crab bisque ever; i'm still regretting not getting a full bowl. not a lot of places to party down, in fact they all shut down quite early, but on two wheels we did most of our partying back at the campsite anyway. we stayed here for 2 killer days, it was a damn good town and campsite but ocracoke was calling to both of us so we broke camp and hopped the ferry. that night we met up with a wandering hippy while hanging at the end of a dock and then met a man as he docked the sailboat he had been stuck on for 3 days in calm waters. he had only packed enough food for a one day trip so was down to 4 slices of bread and some peanut butter by the time he reached ocracoke. he was so delighted to have made it to somewhere to eat that he bought us all drinks. crazy night.... the next day i caught the last dinghy over to portsmouth village, a ghosttown over on cape lookout island across the inlet from ocracoke. the last residents left in 1972, but at one point this town was the largest in the entire obx. the only current residents were a swarm of horsefly like bastards the locals called greenheads; they ate my ass alive, i had natural bug spray with me but that stuff was like salad dressing to em. sheer torture but the village was eerie and cool, a lot of the houses still had complete furnishings and stuff laying around where the owners had just left em when they split. really cool. and of course my camera crapped out and died 4 pictures in, so lame. but the day got even cooler once i hiked out to the beach, the shells i gathered were as big as my hand and of vast quantities but of course i had to pick wisely because it all had to fit into my packs. i left more cool gigantic shells than i had ever seen in my life, definitely worth the side-trip... the next day when we left, it was like leaving summer camp as a kid; neither of wanted to go, we both stood at the rail and watched as the lil village disappeared over the horizon. definitely will be going back, and soon....