Happy Belated Thanksgiving!
We have been spending the past couple of days – including Thanksgiving – with some of John’s family in Wilmington, North Carolina. And I wanted to take a minute to fill you in on what we’ve been up to as we’ve made our way here.
We arrived in Connecticut in early November and spent some time with my (Emma) family there and in Vermont. It was so nice to get a good rest in after the long drive. We left Connecticut and headed south to New Jersey. We spent two amazing and freezing nights in some of New Jersey’s beautiful and underrated state parks. On our last trip, we spent an unforgettable night in a New Jersey state park and made a point, this time around, to see some of their other parks.
New Jersey State Parks are incredible. We stayed at Bass River State Forest on our last trip and we surprised by how stunning it was. This time around, we stayed at Allaire State Forest and Belleplain State Forrest, both exceeded our expectations again. We had no clue that New Jersey had such beautiful woods.
After New Jersey, we headed to Assateague Island National Seashore, just south of Ocean City, Maryland and spent some time on the beach in a storm (which is where John’s epic surfing day happened).
When traveling south along the eastern seaboard, you may find yourself traveling on ferries and across bridges. The east coast is littered with stunning capes that require water crossing to continue south. One bridge of note is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. This is a 20-mile stretch of water that is only passable by driving across this series of bridges and tunnels.
We experienced it on our last trip in mildly overcast weather and this time we were not so lucky. From Assateague, it is about two hours to the toll at the beginning of the bridge and the crossing is typically only a half hour. The weather had been pretty crappy for our time in Assateague and that morning we had woken up to a beautiful sunrise, expecting the day to continue. As we ventured further south, rain started to fall and the winds began to increase in speed. As we arrived at the toll, the winds were howling. Unfortunately, we learned the hard way that if the winds are high, they do not allow all vehicles to cross. We pulled up almost at noon and we told immediately that we were not able to cross due to our vehicle size (10 feet 5 inches high). They ushered us to the waiting area with other big rigs, campers, trucks towing boats and other travelers who could not cross. We were bummed, to say the least. We had planned to arrive in Virginia Beach around lunch time, just in time to find a Pho restaurant that had been recommended by fellow van dwellers. But instead of filling our bellies with warm soup, we parked, only to be told that they wouldn’t let us cross until the winds were under 40 MPH, which they said could be around 5 o’clock.
So we made ourselves lunch, used our mobile wifi to watch some Netflix and waited. We were hoping to get to Virginia Beach in time to do laundry, go grocery shopping, eat some good food and arrive at our campsite before dark. We waited an hour and fifteen minutes before we heard the announcement that the winds had died enough to cross in any vehicle. So we hopped in line with all the other big rigs and large vehicles, paid the $13 toll and began the crossing.
Looking down at the water, we were glad we had waited. The wind pushed the van around and the rain pounded at the windshield. The water below the bridge looked angry, with swells that looked to be 3 meters/9 feet in height. The tunnels had turned into wind funnels, instead of the break from the wind that we had hoped for. The two-lane road through the tunnels was treacherous and John’s knuckles on the steering wheel turned white as he gripped the wheel, trying to avoid any side to side movement in fear of the massive trucks coming in the opposite direction. (We don’t have any photos of this because of how terrifying the drive was. Check out our Instagram story highlights for footage of our experience.)
We finally arrived to the other side, took a deep breath and made our way to the laundry mat I had found on Google. We loaded the machine and sat down, finally able to relax after the drive. We ran our errands, filled the fridge with food, finally made it to the Pho restaurant for dinner and finally made it to the very flooded campsite that we would call home for the night.
We woke up to blue skies and found the beach. John got in the water where – for the first time this trip – there were other surfers! And even though, it was freezing outside, John got out of the water with a smile on his face. As the day started warming up around noon, we continued south.
If you can’t tell by now, we’ve been moving pretty quick up until this point. The weather had not been favorable and we really just wanted to spend some time outside. So when the sun was shining as we arrived into the Outer Banks (North Carolina), we were sporting big smiles and t-shirts. It was the first night we didn’t have the heater all the way up and ate breakfast with the door open in the morning. Mind you, it was still in the mid-50s out and everyone else was layered up, but we had been freezing out butts off for over two weeks and it was so nice to not have to wear multiple layers.
This was not our first time to the Outer Banks. We love it there. We have only been in the off-season, something we’re finding that adds to the magic of a place. Pretty much empty campgrounds paired with endless beaches is our idea of a good time. Most of the beach on the Outer Banks is National Seashore, where you can pay $50 for a 10-day permit to drive on the beach. Our last visit here, we spent our time talking about getting the permit and, this time around, we went for it. It helps to be in a vehicle that is 4-wheel drive and has its own onboard air compressor.
We ventured out of the beach, found a nice place to park at tucked in. The weather was not ideal, but at least it wasn’t pouring. We spent the low-tide period on the beach and pulled back into our campsite each day to kick back and relax from the days’ fun.
From Nags Head and Hatteras (the northern islands in the Outer Banks), it is an hour-long ferry ride to Ocracoke, an island only accessible by boat. A large part of Ocracoke’s magic is its remoteness. There is one road that goes from end to end on the island, a small town, a campground, and two ferry terminals – one at either end. We explored the island and the town last time, but this time, we spent the majority of our time driving the beach, almost from end to end.
After five nights in three different campgrounds, we boarded our final Outer Banks ferry to mainland North Carolina, a two hour and fifteen-minute passage. We took the first ferry of the day, departing Ocracoke at 7:30AM and made our way to Jacksonville, North Carolina, for a Pho restaurant that we had found on our last trip (if you can’t tell, we love Pho). After lunch, we finished the drive to Wilmington and John’s aunt and uncles house there.
It has been an awesome month on the road so far and we are really excited about what’s next. We arrived in South Carolina yesterday – a state that is new to both me and John – and will be making our way to Florida by the end of the week. We can’t wait to see what’s next as we venture into a part of the US that neither of us has experienced.
Until then,
Emma
Emma and John by Van 