The morning after our night at “no name” campground we woke up pretty early to make it to Fort Macon State Park by opening so that we could make it back to the ferry and on to Ocracoke by early afternoon. Our campground was about 30 minutes away from Fort Macon and then from Fort Macon, it was about an hour back to the ferry and then about a three-hour ferry ride to Ocracoke.
The day started pretty smoothly and we spent a good hour or so at Fort Macon. We’d both been to Fort Macon many times before so we didn’t stay here as long as we had at the previous parks. As we began to make our way back to the ferry we called the ferry service to make sure that the ferry was on schedule to go out to Ocracoke. The woman on the phone let us know that the last ferry for that day (during the off-season) would be heading out in just a little more than an hour and that we’d better hurry if we wanted to make it.
We had called the ferry to check about them being on schedule because this was right in the middle of Hwy 12 being washed out near Cape Hatteras and we had been hearing for the previous few days that the roads were completely closed. It wasn’t until we made it all the way to the ferry that the guy in the ticket booth let us know that although we could get to Ocracoke, the roads were still closed near Hatteras and we would eventually have to turn around rather than driving all the way up the Outer Banks.
So we made the decision to ditch the lighthouse idea (for the second time in the past eight years we have tried to visit these darn lighthouses and both trips were a bust. we swear we’re never trying again. Feel free to ask us about that later. 🙂 ). Thankfully we both saw almost all of them as children so at least we’re not skipping out on them all together.
At this point, we had to change our trip plans around a bit and rather than going out to Jockey’s ridge and then making our way back towards the parks nearer to Greenville, we actually decided to head to Goose Creek State Park which is the closest State Park to our home. We visit this park a few times every year, with lots of trips during the summer to spend time on the water with the dogs. While we were in little Washington we actually decided to stop by the Washington Crab and Oyster Co. to pick up some oysters for dinner that night before heading on to Pettigrew State Park.
This park might have been my favorite of this trip. For one thing, this park is out there. Like the middle of absolute nowhere, out there. Will and I tend to take the scenic route on our trips so we ended up driving along these ridiculously long, straight, flat Eastern NC roads that were flanked on both sides by massive farming fields and huge canals. Pettigrew State Park is also home to Lake Phelps, which is the second largest natural lake in NC at 16,600 acres and is believed to be 38,000 years old. The lake is incredible! We walked out on two long ramps and were in awe at how rough and windy the water was. It really didn’t seem like a lake at all because of how big it is but rather it seemed much more like standing out near the ocean.
After visiting the lake we walked on the boardwalk at the State Park and accidentally walked up on the historic Somerset Place. This was such a neat surprise! I’ve mentioned before how much Will and I enjoy learning about history so we were really excited to explore this home site. We walked around with the dogs and looked in every window of the house and in every one of the other open buildings on the property. The site also gives daily tours if you’re interested in visiting yourself.
When we’d finished exploring Somerset place we made our way back to the campsite to work on dinner before turning in for the night. This day had actually turned into quite a cold early March day, so we ended up letting the dogs stay cozy and bundled up in the teardrop. They were so cold being outside on the ground, but they loved being inside the toasty drop with the small heater running.
We ended up having steamed oysters for dinner which was really neat and a first for both of us on a camping trip. We’d been frustrated a bit because of making the drive to Hammock’s beach just for it to be closed and then driving all the way out to the ferry just to have to turn back around again. The drive out to this park is also a bit of an experience. The scenic route out there, rather than taking the highway, is very bumpy (riding up and down in my little red wagon bumpy) and the galley of the teardrop was a bit of a wreck when we opened it up. Almost every single one of our eggs had busted and leaked out of their plastic containers so we ended up having to clean out the entire cooler. And then we realized that some of our pots and pans had banged together so much that the coating had been scrapped off. So naturally, the oysters were a nice treat.
The last bit that we learned about Pettigrew State Park happened as we were finishing up watching a movie (Remember the Alamo) before going to sleep. One of Will’s buddies grew up visiting this park as a kid and generously shared some information about the Somerset Place being haunted and about the werewolves that inhabit Pettigrew State Park. He told Will a story about the former lady of the house who screams and cries out during the night because she is mourning the loss of her child who drowned in one of the canals near the home. Unfortunately, my immediate fear reaction presents itself as anger, so although it seemed like I was pretty pissed that I happened to find out about all of this while we were laying down to go to sleep in the middle of absolutely nowhere, right next door to this haunted house and right in the middle of the apparent werewolf sanctuary, I was actually only slightly more than terrified rather than angry. Thankfully though we made it through the night with zero werewolf sightings and zero screams coming through the woods. Maybe we’ll have better luck during our next visit.
Life in the right lane,
Rachel
DMG Exploration 
So awesome! Daddy
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