Atlantic Coast Tour
April 29th - Joe and Kays Campground to Sandy Point Campground Resort, Knotts Island, NC

Last night high wind and occasional rain gave us a good excuse to visit a local pub down the road. When we arrive at the Blue Crab Tavern and start rubbing elbows we learn that a tornado had touched down only 50 miles from where we are camped. A tornado watch was in effect for the entire area. Local fisherman we meet at the pub tell us stories of water spouts in the area but have never heard of a tornado hitting land before. Apparently it is so rare that the local weatherman keeps saying "hurricane" than immediately corrects himself to say tornado. Film footage and interviews pre-empts regular television broadcasts. We watch for at least an hour before returning to camp. Louie says the chances of being hit by a tornado are very, very slim. Still, Becky was uneasy about sleeping outside last night. The next morning we see headlines on a newspaper saying there was a string of tornados in the region that were the worst that had happened in the past 50 years. Unfortunately for us what would have been a massive tailwind for us yesterday has become a headwind today. Undaunted we forge on.

The prospects of finding a campground with showers does not look promising today so we decide to keep a lookout for a motel, but there are no motels anywhere on the route. We did, however, come across a house with two bedrooms for rent for $600 a month. The problem is that the windows are broken out, the roof is caving in, and it is probably haunted. It is just as well that we do not find a motel, because we cannot even imagine what a room with an intact roof would cost us.

We stop for groceries and have a nice long conversation with an elderly gentleman who tells us about the monster trucks down the way in Grandy. Sure enough, we find Grave Diggers Dungeon, home of the Grave Digger Monster Truck. Louie loves to have pictures of us being chased by things so we stop for a picture.

We have another ferry ride today, but this time we are on a ferry with two busloads of school children. Oh my goodness. It is a riot. One bus driver and a ferry worker station themselves in the middle. Kids are banging and rocking the vending machines to make the chips fall out. The ferry worker even bangs it. We are very happy to exit the ferry and be on our way.

We pull into what used to be Barnes Campground. Two huge Labradors chase us right up to the door of the Barnes Family. Even though we see trailers parked in a field they tell us the Barnes Campground is no more. Louie spots a fire station and we go inside to ask where we can find a place to stay nearby. They tell us of two camps about ten miles down Highway 615 so down the road we go. We cycle through several miles of a wildlife refuge before we finally see a sign for the Sandy Point Campground Resort. They give us a site next to the waterway out on the edge of the park away from all of the RV campers. It is beautiful. Louie cooks a great dinner and we are done for another day.

NEXT PAGE