East Coast Trip Day 26,27 & 28

Day 26,

We left Savannah this morning and drove to Lumberton North Carolina. We spent the night at the Sleepy Bears RV Park. I give it a 2 out of 5. The people that operate it were very nice but the park could use some improvement.
It is a common theme here in the south. Every where we have been the people have wonderfully pleasant and polite.

Go Sleepy Bears!

Day 27,
We left Camp Sleepy Bears :-( and headed to the Audubon Center at Beidler Forest. This forest is not like we have on the west coast, it is a forest of trees in a swamp covered area. It is just as beautiful but in a swampy way.
The drive into the Center was on a gravel road just big enough to get the motorhome through. This made Sue very nervous. We made it in and out with only a few low hanging branches busted off. No damage to the motorhome.

Which way do we go? Can we make it?

The Audubon Center was very informative on all life that lives in or around the swamps.

We took a one and three quarter mile boardwalk stroll over the swamp. We kept our eyes open for any wildlife. Sue was first to spy a snake sitting on a log. We later identified it as a Eastern Cottonmouth. This is one of the poisonous snake that inhabit the swamp.

 Eastern Cottonmouth (poisonous)

This snake and the Brown Water snake (non poisonous) look similar but the difference can be seen in the head. If you look down from the top of this snakes head, you can not see its eyes. They are covered by the wide shroud over the eyes. The Brown Water snake (see below) eyes can be seen from the top.

 

Sue really wanted to see a turtle but none to be found. We did spy a frog, we think is a Green American Bullfrog.

American Bullfrog

 

 We spied about 10 snakes in total, 2 Cotton Mouths, 1 Red Bellied Water snake and 6 Brown Water Snakes.

 Red Bellied Water Snake (non poisonous)

 Brown Water Snake

Brown Water Snake 

 Brown Water Snake



Eastern Cottonmouth (poisonous)

We did see a couple of Downey Woodpeckers but they were too fast to get a photo of.

 

On our walk we saw the many different shapes of the trees and the so called Cypress Knees of the swamp. I guess they don't know for sure what these Knees actually do for the tree but they do make for an interesting and spooky looking swamp.

Cypress Knee Info

 Strange looking Cypress Knees 

 Not a swamp I would like to trudge through

 A 1000 year old Bald Cypress Tree

Bald Cypress Tree Info

 

After the Audubon we left and drove to Greenville North Carolina and spent the night at our favorite dry camping spot at the Walmart Super Center.

 

Day 27,

We got up and moved the motorhome to a Laundromat parking lot. Sue was doing laundry as I drove to Grady White Boat manufacturing plant in Greenville. I took a tour of the plant to see how they make the best fishing boats in the US. These boats are on the pricey side as their  top of the line 37 foot fishing boats starts at about $650,000. Maybe some day when we get rich.

After the laundry and tour was finished we drove east to Cape Hatteras. I guess the official island chain is called the Outer Banks. This is a thin strip of land that runs north and south off the coast of North Carolina.

We parked the motorhome at the Cape Hattaras RV Park. This area has a season where stores and shops are closed until April 1st. When we arrived there was only two other motorhomes in the park that can accommodate about 100 motorhomes. Needless to say we had the pick of anywhere in the park. We ended up with a nice spot on the sound side of the island.

 

Day 28,

Woke up today to pouring rain. The weather predictions here are very accurate. If they say it's going to rain, it does.

We loaded up the pups in the jeep and drove south to visit Okracoke island. After driving about 45 minutes, we got to the ferry that we needed to take to get to Okracoke island. There was a long line for the ferry and with the rain not letting up, we decided to turn around and head back. We camped out in the motorhome until the rain stopped at about 3pm. Being on the sound side of the island we were blessed with a very nice sunset. After playing ball with the dogs a few times, we decided to pack it in for the night.

We had our pick of sites, can you say empty?

 Beautiful crepuscular rays

 One big happy family

 Ducks are heading south for the winter

 Finally some blue sky

 Beautiful Sunset

 Beautiful Sunset Widescreen version

 

Till next posting, thank you checking out the blog and also for the wonderful comments. Keep them coming.