Whew! We’ve made it! This post will cover the last full day and night of our spring break camping trip, which means that I’ll back up a bit from so many updates back to back. We’ll probably post a few more times just to write about some of the modifications we’ve made to the drop and to post some pictures so you guys can have a tour of our little life in a teardrop.
After leaving Pettigrew State Park we headed towards the Outer Banks again. Our first stop was at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, which is considered England’s first home in the new world. We took the dogs for a walk to see the reconstructed earthworks from the original site and to take a look at the outdoor theatre used for the Lost Colony drama.
Our next stop was Jockey’s Ridge State Park. We took the dogs out onto the dunes and they were both able to make it to the highest point (top picture), which was quite a feat for our short-legged hounds. Gus and Lilly both did surprisingly well on the dunes and we were really glad to be there at a time when the sand wasn’t too hot for them. After finishing at Jockey’s Ridge we drove a short way to the Wright Brother’s National Memorial to check another park off of the national park list. Will and I had both been here before as well, so we did the short walk to see the distances of the first three flights and then enjoyed another lunch in the parking lot. Driving with your kitchen behind you really does make the stopping to eat thing really easy!
We made our way to Dismal Swamp State Park next. George Washington was actually heavily involved in the founding of the Dismal Swamp Canal Company so we were excited to visit this park again. Did I mention we like George Washington? After visiting this park for a bit we made our way to our last stop of the trip, Merchants Millpond State Park. This was another neat park with a great campground and a very nice bathhouse. The park rangers kept a running list of recently spotted animals on a whiteboard in the visitor’s center and we were a bit shocked to see that someone had spotted a 14-foot alligator just a few days before.
After having started our trip in a very full campground at Carolina Beach, it was nice to end our trip being one of two campers in the entire campground. We made dinner out in the cold again but were happy to have warm showers and a warm, comfy teardrop to settle down in for the night. We ended our trip with a slow morning the following day and a short drive back to Greenville.
Even though some things didn’t go as planned, we’re learning that it wouldn’t be an adventure if something didn’t go wrong. We’re learning to have patience and be present in the moment rather than worrying about absolutely sticking to our schedule no matter what. We’re learning that if we didn’t make it to one of our destinations this time, then it gives us a reason to go back (I’m not sure we’ll ever get back to the lighthouses though. They’re cursed for us). We’re also learning quite a bit about things we will need to modify before our Great American Adventure (after this trip we were mainly worried about switching out our cooler for a dometic, getting our battery and solar system finalized, and getting our shower system finalized). And mostly, I suppose we’re learning to enjoy camping life to the fullest.
Life in the right lane,
Rachel
DMG Exploration 