The Outer Banks, NC

It's a beautiful place and it doesn't need any help from Old Man Nostalgia, but the Outer Banks get it anyway as my family made vacations there somewhat of a summer tradition when I was growing up. I love this place. Michelle and I arrived on the Friday which would kick off Memorial Day Weekend. The traffic surprisingly did not make me want to put a brick on the gas pedal and blast our beloved home on wheels off a cliff, but the RV parks and campsites were compleeeeetely booked up with weekend patriots so we were just not gonna find a slot. We ended up pulling into the "Salvo Marina and Campgrounds." This name was not as official as we took it to be as the "marina" was one boat ramp and a couple slips and the "campgrounds" turned out to be not much more than a nice man's backyard. We handed him $20 as we pulled in and parked on a nice private peninsula of yard right on the sound. We were very happy. The map shows just how far out into nowhere we were. Our options for dinner were slim so we ended up at Uncle Pauly's drinking local beer and peeling steamed shrimp. Celtics/Magic were on the many tvs. We were happy again.

The next morning our goal was simple enough: go to the beach. The Outer Banks have little more to offer than beach in every direction, so this all seemed reasonable enough. Upon spotting some surfers parked on the opposite side of the road, I made a quick u-turn, overestimated the van's off-road abilities and got us good and stuck in the sand. To get your wheel this far sunk into the ground is not something that happens spontaneously. I refused to accept that Vanpira couldn't dig herself out of this jam so I leaned heavy on the gas until we could literally sink no further. Stupid tourists.

AAA winched us out of this one and we were grateful. We were stuck for a bit more than an hour... at the beach! Oh, boo-hoo! So, while we waited, all this happened:

First surf of the trip! The conditions were not ideal, but I paddled out and caught a few anyway.

Freddie you look insane.

After the big Winch-Out of 2010, we stopped at Brew Thru to pick up some t-shirts for my pops and some Weeping Radish, our new favorite coastal NC craft brew.

We went to Sonic!

And the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk. Actually pretty awesome, even having been here before. I didn't realize until this trip, though, that they were from Ohio not North Carolina. I don't think NC should be taking as much credit as they do. Get on that, Ohio! Take back man's conquest of the sky!