One of our longer and more adventurous trips of 2023 was to the Outer Banks of NC,
specifically Oregon Inlet. The drive was about 5 ½ hours, but given that we stayed
roughly 10 days, it didn’t seem that bad at all. We left early on Saturday morning and
were there by noon. The campground itself was super tight getting in. It’s kind of
amazing that we were able to get parked at all, given our size. Luckily, we had 50-amp
service & water, but unfortunately, there was not a sewer connection.
Matt & his friends were there when we arrived, so we joined them on the beach once we got ourselves all set up. Doreen and Mike joined us on Monday but were delayed as there was a major accident on highway 12 that shut down the entire highway.
We had a lot of great days on the beach, although the trail to the beach was a bit
lengthy. To our surprise, we were treated to an unexpected aeronautical delight on day
2. Fighter jets came out of nowhere and dazzled the coastline with flips, twists and turns
like they were Maverick. One of my most memorable moments was going out into the
ocean in basically a foot of water and getting absolutely destroyed by the rip current. I
fell over, spun around and somehow managed to lose my prescription Gucci sunglasses
in the process. Now, by nature, I am not a very impressive ocean swimmer, but this was
ridiculous. I was horrified all around. Not only did I look like an absolute idiot who can’t
swim (I can btw), but I also lost my favorite pair of sunglasses. I didn’t realize what had
happened until Ryan came running up to me and told me. I knew something was wrong.
He looked more pissed & bewildered than concerned. No doubt his reaction was more
rooted in the concern that we might have to foot the bill to buy another pair of glasses.
Given his angst, he walked up and down the beach looking to see if they had washed
up. Matt and I sat on the beach and mocked his efforts until a guy from down the beach,
who had seen what happened and saw Ryan looking around feverishly, started walking
towards Ryan with glasses in hand. I thought a miracle had happened on the beach that
day. In reality, the sea just spit my country ass back out and then decided it didn’t want
my fancy sunglasses either. Fine by me.
Outside of our time on the beach, Ryan and I took Dolly out for some shopping and
lunch in Nags Head one day. It was fun just to get out and we found a beachfront bar
and restaurant (that had beyond challenging parking) but allowed her to be on the back
side of the patio where we still got an ocean view. The food was ok, but the coronas
were delicious, and they even garnished Dolly’s water with a lemon.
We went to the Outer Banks so that Mike & all of the boys could go out on a deep sea fishing trip. Mike was there the year before and saw all the boats come in loaded to the gills with Tuna and various fresh catch. He was so inspired and excited that he coordinated the trip right away. He even bought a special freezer for the camper to transport all the fish, planned an extra day at our site just to be able to clean the fish, and everyone went and got prescription sea sickness meds. They were ready. They headed out super early to get on the boat and rode out into the ocean for almost 45 minutes before they were ready to get going. Meanwhile, Doreen and I started our mornings separately. We slept in, relaxed, and had some breakfast. We met up for a while to have mimosas and ease a little further into the day. We headed down to the beach with Dolly around lunch time with our coolers of beer and prepared to just relax on the beach. We saw deer on the dunes (the dunes are like mountains there) and people riding horses on the beach. It was pretty magical to be honest. We couldn’t talk to the guys because they did not have cell service, but we imagined them having just the best day. The weather was perfect, the ocean seemed calm, and we envisioned them hauling in fish left and right. What could possibly go wrong? Doreen and I decided to head back to the RVs just before 4pm. We were awaiting a text message to go and meet the guys at the docks so that we could get pictures and celebrate their success with them. The text came in. No fish. One bite first thing, but nothing the rest of the day. It was the worst possible news. At that point, we knew that our day was about
to take a serious nosedive and we were not wrong. The whole vibe was wrecked as the
majority of our party took a huge L and couldn’t overcome the defeat of the day.
All in all, it was a great trip and so many great memories were made.
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