Ocracoke in Our Rear View Mirror and Wild Horses Ahead of Us

We both fell so in love with Ocracoke-it was very difficult to leave.  We almost decided to stay through July but we pulled ourselves away from the beach and headed for the mountains.  But first a stop on the north end of the Outer Banks to check out the Spanish Mustangs-the Wild Horses of Corolla.

The beach was so close to our camp site, just up over the dunes and we could listen to the ocean all night long

In search of Blackbeard !

You  can find some really good mussels in this creek -it's the 2nd creek north of the campground

The picture of relaxation !

 

Good bye Ocracoke

The ferry from Ocracoke to Cape Hatteras-I still can't believe they run these every 30 minutes and there is no charge-that's right FREE - a 40 minute ride to Cape Hatteras -unbelievable.

The difference between Ocracoke and Cape Hatteras was incredible-we went from the quiet laid back Island with small sweet beach houses to the land of the giants !  The size of the houses in Hatteras was unbelievable-who builds these ?  And the traffic increased 100 times-oh I so miss Ocracoke.

By the time we reached Rodanthe-things had calmed down a bit; less houses, less people but still lots of traffic.  But I loved the look of this surfer trying to cross the highway.

And then wide open spaces-until we got to Nags Head.  Busy,busy,busy.  And tons of stores, miniature golf,restaurants,strip malls and mini amusement parks-not at all how I imagined it.

And then we entered the little village of Corolla-ahhh quiet again.  What a wonderful little village that's been restored and this is where the office for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund is located. You will hear a lot more about them in my next post .

We wandered around Corolla and enjoyed the stores and the gardens.  It's amazing what culture shock you encounter even when you're gone from "civilization" for two weeks. Jim and I have both decided we really need to avoid the cities-at least on this trip-maybe someday we will do a road trip that will be only cities but for now we are really enjoying our peace and quiet and we will continue to seek out those opportunities. Are we anti-social ?  I don't think so-we meet lots of people along the way who feel the same as us and we make friends with them and end up keeping in touch.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that for almost our entire lives we have lived in big cities-Pittsburgh,PA; Phoenix,AZ; Salt Lake City, UT; and Seattle, WA.  And now when we have the chance we tend to choose the less populated areas !

Here's a little teaser for the Wild Horses.  The tour was a combination of excitement and unbelievable wildness to a sad melancholy for the horses to a gratefulness for an organization that is doing everything they can with what they have to make a better life for these beautiful animals.

Happy Trails my friends-always try for a little bit of wildness in your lives.