15 Oct – Outer Banks, North Carolina

The Outer Banks is a spit of wind blown sand jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean and has three claims to fame as I can tell. Kitty Hawk at the top, the final resting place for hundreds of ship in the middle and at the bottom end on Ocracoke Island the final resting place of Black Beard the pirate after the Royal Navy done him in. Frankly there is not much to see on the way down the spit except sand dunes and the strangest 3-storey houses that look for all the world as if they were props for a horror movie complete with graying shingles on the walls and faded paint. There are some spectacular bridges connecting the spit at the northern end and a couple of ferry rides necessary to get off at the other. I have made it to Wilmingham, NC on the Atlantic coast so I have ridden from the Pacific to the Atlantic.