Day 9: Jacksonville to Cape Hatteras

By Bridget

Happy 4th of July from the OuterBanks! We woke early in Jacksonville and drove for a couple hours until we got to Fort Macon State Park. There we had breakfast in the RV and then played soccer on the beach. After that we drove for an hour and a half to the ferry. The ferry would take us from Cedar Island to Okracroke. The ferry trip was about two and a half hours. There were about 75 cars on the ferry and we had no trouble getting the RV on the ferry since we had a reservation. The ferry workers made sure to put us in the middle of the boat. We made sandwiches in the RV and then ate them on the deck of the ferry. Then we played games for the rest of the ride. The ferry finally arrived at Okracroke. We drove for about a minute but then got turned around because of a 4th of July parade. Eventually, we got to our second ferry. We had to line up for this ferry because there were no reservations and it ran every half hour. There were about 35 cars on this ferry and the ferry ride only took about 40 minutes. While we were on the ferry we saw people swimming/walking on sandbars and it looked like they were standing in the middle of the ocean!

After we got off the second ferry we drove north on Hatteras Island until we got to our campground. The campground was a really crowded KOA but we had a spot right by the ocean. The campground had a pool, gameroom, beach volleyball, mini golf, and a playground. There were lots of dogs and kids and people obviously came here every year. There were over 300 RV spots in the campground packed together. Most spots had bikes, grills, motorcycles, wind socks, fire pits, rugs, golf carts, scooters, and strings of outdoor lights.

As soon as we got settled we went to the beach. We were lucky because our campsite was really close to the beach and we only had to walk over one sand dune to get to there. We played soccer and then went swimming. After a good swim we showered and had a good dinner of tortellini. After dinner we walked to the beach to watch people set off fireworks (which are illegal in North Carolina). A park ranger came but too many people were setting off fireworks for him to stop them. The ranger eventually just parked his truck on the beach and watched the fireworks. We went for a walk on the beach and saw tons of crabs scurrying at the shoreline. After watching some more fireworks, we went back to the RV and went to sleep.