road trip Destination: Outer Banks, NC Consider visiting the Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina. If you could simply drive south on the beach from Virginia Beach, you could arrive in minutes, but you cannot drive on the Virginia side of a barrier that exists to stop the wild mustangs of Corolla, NC, from traveling up into the Sandbridge area of Virginia. So, you need to travel west on Interstate 64 and then south on state routes and highways, over the Wright Memorial Bridge and into Dare County. You will find it well worth the trip. I am biased. I live in Dare County. We have pristine beaches [1], quaint shops, wild horses, four-wheeling, wreck diving, fishing and history. The area still has a southern, rural feel to it. I live in the town of Nags Head, and recently my brother-in-law, Rick, and his wife visited for the weekend. The wives made reservations to go hang-gliding off of Jockey’s Ridge [2]. Rick and I had a few hours that morning before we had to form the wives’ support team/cheering squad. We grabbed cameras, binoculars and water, and hopped in the Tacoma. The Outer Banks has the nickname “The Graveyard of the Atlantic,” for good reason. Many shipwrecks sit just offshore. After a storm, there is no telling what will wash up. Last fall, a storm uncovered the remains of an unidentified shipwreck and within a month it was once again covered by the sand. Several years ago, a local beachcomber found a cannonball thought to be from Sir Francis Drake’s ship. Drake, an English hero and Queen Elizabeth’s favorite and most successful privateer, sailed back to England in June of 1586 after successfully plundering the Florida coast, and stopped to check on an English colony on Roanoke Island. They lacked food and constantly fought with the native Algonquian people. The group of approximately 100 men pleaded with Drake to take them back to England, which he did. A year later, not to be deterred from what he viewed as a great business
[ by craig jones ]
The string of peninsulas and barrier islands, known as OBX, offers a quiet escape with much to see and do
[ PHOTOS by Rick Blanton ]
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boulevard | nov 2021-jan 2022
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