Rodanthe, North Carolina

Photo courtesy mapsoftheworld.com

Photo courtesy visitob.com

After I saw the Richard Gere movie 'Nights in Rodanthe' a few years ago, the area lured me to check it out. I discovered that Rodanthe was a little village on the Outer Banks (location marked in red to the right of the map above). The Outer Banks are a finger of land, an island in North Carolina, not far south of the Virginia border. It has the Atlantic Ocean on one side, and the Albermarle Sound on the other. The Outer Banks are about 200 miles/380 km long, and 3 - 40 miles wide. The Wright brothers' first flight took place here at Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks in 1903, and there is a museum and memorial - we checked it out in 2009. Many shipwrecks have occurred along this coastline, aptly named the 'Graveyard of the Atlantic'. It might explain why there are 4 lighthouses along this stretch of coastline. We saw three of them during our time here.

Our first visit to Rodanthe was in 2009, and we just drove through without stopping. There is only one main road, and the side streets are usually for residents only, with 'no parking' signs everywhere to deter people like us stopping for a look - they get hordes of visitors to this area, and people pay megabucks to rent a property for the holiday season so that they can walk to the beaches. Not quite the beaches of Destin mind you, but for the Atlantic Ocean, they are some of the best.

The houses here are very unusual - built high to withstand flooding during storm surges (hurricanes are common here) from either the ocean or the Sound, and painted in beautiful colours. Many are multi-storey, and most are rentals for large family or friends' groups. I apologise as the photos have blurred on magnification, and our internet here in the woods of Virginia where we are now is not conducive to starting all over again.

A variety of the houses here in Outer Banks

When we checked into our campground near Rodanthe, our kind campground hostess (Jeanie) noticed that we didn't have a tow car, and generously offered us the use of her jeep for our day trips to check out the area. Although the weather wasn't always cooperative and we got caught in one very heavy rain storm that fell from nasty dark clouds, blue skies soon returned. The storm providentially provided an interesting background to some photos!

Photo courtesy nytimes.com

We particularly wanted to see the wild mustang ponies that are remnants of a herd of Spanish mustangs that arrived here over 500 years ago. We drove about an hour north to the Corolla area that you can see on the map above, but the ponies were elusive on the day. Jeanie showed us some photos she had taken of the ponies, and I borrowed a photo from a newspaper for you to see them too! They would have been magnificent to see in real life. 

Rodanthe Pier and view from the Pier and up the beach

During our day trips we saw 3 of the 4 lighthouses on the Outer Banks, and visited 2 piers - the Rodanthe Pier was still operational, but the Hatteras (Frisco) Pier was damaged in a hurricane last year and you can see how it looks now! 

Remnants of the Hatteras Pier 

In the photo above you can see the day and night shots of the beach beside our RV park and the left hand side, and the sandy trail leading from our RV park to the beach on the right. In the photos on the left you can just make out the Rodanthe Pier in the background. If you click on the photo to optimise it, you will be able to see the campfire in the night version. The sand bank to get down to the beach is about 12 feet high near our campground, thanks to erosion from Hurricane Arthur last year and his predecessors. Winds were 100 mph and surges of water from the Sound (not the ocean) came up to around 4 feet. Jeanie and her husband Ray were here at the time (3/4th July 2014) and will never forget their experience. Their van rocked, and water from the Sound came to the last step on their RV, and they were as far away from the Sound as you can get (they were only a few yards from the ocean side). The photo below (taken by Megan Cable of Pittsburgh) shows one view of the flooding following the Hurricane last year. Glad we weren't here! Jeanie said they would never stick around for another one - they were care-taking the campground last time, and felt obligated to stay as some campers chose to remain in the campground. 

Our stopover in the Outer Banks was all the more enjoyable thanks to meeting Jeanie and Ray, and having the use of their Jeep. Jeanie didn't know us from a bar of soap, but she had no hesitation in offering us the use of her Jeep within minutes of meeting us. Our travels in the USA has resulted in many such instances demonstrating the generosity of local American citizens. I'm sure my blog wouldn't be anywhere near as comprehensive if it wasn't for the opportunities provided by the friends and strangers that we have met along the way. 

The Jeep

Ray, PK (neighbour), Jeanie, and Murray (back to camera) 

It seems strange to think that our RVing lifestyle over here is all coming to an end this year. We are planning on selling the motorhome when we get to North Dakota in July this year. During future visits to the USA we plan to book a rental car and cabins for a month or so in various locations, and also do similar rentals in the UK and Europe. In the USA we plan to re-visit Utah, Arizona, Montana and several other areas. Flying to Anchorage, Alaska and getting somewhere to rent for a month in Homer or somewhere like that is also on the cards...