Driving Trip – Part 3 – The Outer Banks

Outer Banks Dunes

Out in the Atlantic

Getting away from South Carolina’s Charleston to the Outer Banks is easy… find Highway #17 and go north. Driving along the coast line was a surprise, no ocean views from #17. Instead, there were continuous waterways to cross, water, water, water all the time with the accompanying luscious celery green grasslands. No doubt many love Myrtle Beach, the resort town plunked at the half way point. From evidence, tons of hotels, the amazing amount of miniature golf courses and a Technicolor water park, people here are enjoying themselves.  

As our goal to visit the setting of many novels, the South Carolina Outer Banks starts with a two hour ferry ride to the most southern island, enchanting Ocracoke. Immediately fanning out is a merry harbor filled with welcoming outdoor cafes, treasure shops, trails to bicycle and wandering alleys to explore. Sunsets sit down in the bay so the silver and pink trail of light etches the sailor’s way out to the Atlantic.

Kill Hill Beach

Moving on, another ferry carries cars to Cape Hatteras, that most easterly point spoken of in weather reports and that won the honor of one of the three best beaches in the US. Continuing, names like Buxton, Avon, Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Duck, and Corolla, book end the north and bring long ago heard stories and history alive.

Fishing on Kill Hill Beach

Traveling along the skinny dune bordered islands, that marvelous sense of being free of the busy world comes alive.

The multitudes of newer homes

mimic the southern style, three stories and straight up in the air. But future trees and natural island growth will soften the popped-up look, as if these structures are surprised to have found themselves so far off the terra firma of the mainland.

Living on the Outer Banks

The miles of ever shifting sand beaches and grayed down brown shingle homes tell another story, one of many years of weekends of play and happiness for those fortunate enough to wander onto the far-away Banks.