Leaving the Land of Sand

 Woke up to a final beautiful sunrise at Cape Hatteras.  If we had the time, we would have walked down to the beach for the pictures but this is packing up and moving on day so there was no time to spare.

We are going to miss the beautiful sunrises and sunsets we have seen at Cape Hatteras.

Yesterday I posted pictures of the trucks of fishermen here.  The trucks with their fishing poles and gear would be comparable to the trucks in the west with guns hanging in the back window.  As we were leaving camp at 8:15 a.m.  I saw these two men with their fishing equipment and dog heading down to the ocean to fish.  These are serious fishermen.

We took Highway 12 north and I snapped a few final pictures of the Cape.  This is a beautiful place with interesting buildings and landscapes.

I love the different colors used to paint the houses.

If your job was removing sand from Highway 12, you would have steady work.  The three days that we drove this highway, these men were busy moving sand.

If you have a four-wheel drive vehicle, you can get an off-the-road permit to drive on the beaches.

One final picture of Bodie Lighthouse.

North Carolinians believe in political  yard signs.  Many yards and businesses had big and small yard signs for their politician of choice.  This one was my favorite.  If you have ever seen the movie "Forrest Gump,"  you will recognize the phase "Run, Forrest, Run."  In the beginning of the movie, Forrest is running away from bullies and his girlfriend is encouraging him with the words, "Run, Forrest, Run."  I thought this was a cleaver way to advertise Dan Forrest who is running for governor of North Carolina.

We pretty much drove from 8:15 to 4:15 with only a break for gas and a rest area stop for lunch.  We drove 378 miles.  Carol is a master of driving the motorhome.  He drove through cities with five lanes each way, condensed down to two, highways coming onto and off of I-40, cars merging onto the highway, road construction, and heavy traffic.  He was cool as a cucumber.   The last twenty miles was under heavy road construction.  There were two lanes and a sign that read "Remain in two lanes until the merging point."  Normally the signs tell you that one lane will end in a certain length of mileage and to merge.  Every vehicle stayed in their lane and at the merging point the sign read "Take turns when merging."  Believe it or not, the vehicles actually took turns merging into one lane.  I think traffic moved better and you didn't have the jokers waiting until the last minute to merge.

I was glad to see that the trees were beginning to change colors.  We are camped at Statesville KOA in North Carolina.  It is a small campground but adequate for one night.  After we set up, I had laundry to do.  We are not turning on the air conditioning.  It feels cool enough to sleep.  The weather forecast calls for rain.  I hope that forecast is wrong.  Two more days of driving and we will be home and this trip over.