Names and Places

Chocowinity, Hatteras, Kiptopeke, Chincoteague, Assateague, and last, but not least, Chicamacomico. These are the places we’ve been to along the east coast. I’m sure they are originally native names, and I don’t know the exact interpretation of these words. But I’m pretty sure every one of them means “place of great seafood”, because that’s what we found at each spot. 

No matter what town along this coast we stop in, we can always find a fish market with freshly caught shrimp, scallops, crab, and flounder. We even lucked in to finding one having a “customer appreciation” day that served us a free lunch along with our purchase.

In Virginia the clams and oysters (pronounced “orr-sters” by the locals) were plentiful.

South of Chesapeake Bay, they specialize in blue and soft shelled crabs. In fact, one town put up blue crab statues all around the town because they were just so darned proud of them.

The focus of this trip, besides overeating, seems to be the barrier islands along the U.S. Atlantic. Our first campground in Delaware was on a thin strip of land between the Ocean and Indian River Bay. Hubby rushed right out and got a fishing license so he could surf fish off the beach in high tide, and then fish in the bay when the tide was out.

We were in a similar spot when we camped on the Outer Banks, the barrier islands of North Carolina. 

Hatteras Island is a sliver of land about a hundred kilometers long that protects Pamlico Sound from the unpredictable Atlantic. The entire strip is little more than an overachieving shoal, made entirely of sand. Before the locals finally bolstered the dunes to strengthen the shores, during storms the ocean would wash entirely over the island and into the sound on the other side. 

All the houses are built on stilts, using the underneath as carports and boat storage, even today.

With all these geographical drawbacks, it is hard for me to understand how this was the perfect place for the Wright brothers to attempt flight. But Kitty Hawk, which is on this barrier island, was specifically chosen by those two because of it has no trees, and it is made of flat, ocean washed sand with a steady ocean breeze.


There is a huge monument there to celebrate their success.

And in a fitting tribute, the kiteboarders and sailboarders frolic in those same winds, just off the island on the sound side.

Unfortunately, success hasn’t been the word to use when it comes to my “hunter-gatherer” bringing home the bounties of the sea. It’s not his fault. He certainly tries hard, and I am very glad that he at least enjoys the attempts. But the schedule on this trip is very tight, and between tours and dinners, group meetings and travel days, there hasn’t been a lot of free time to dangle one’s hook. Let’s just say that we are grateful for the many local seafood stores.

The tours we have taken so far have run the gamut from aquariums and bird banding stations, to a NASA flight facility, and we even took in a river cruise. Local history is always a favourite with us, and we did a walking tour of a small town called Washington, North Carolina. Of course, right on the coast as it is, it had its share of catastrophes in both the American Revolution and in the Civil War. We found a house built in 1785 that still held a cannonball lodged in its façade.

And to take history just a little farther, we were given a tour of the Aurora Fossil Museum.

When potash was discovered just outside this little hamlet, the fossils uncovered in that mine were rejected in favour of the economical benefit of the fertilizer. To appease the historians and archaeologists, the mining company does give the rejected material to the town to be sorted over. As an attraction, the town and museum allows tourists to also dig through these piles of discarded dirt in hopes of unearthing a fossil or two.






I found the tooth of an extinct snaggletooth shark. Hubby, not to be outdone, spent half an hour on his knees and came up with many more shark teeth and some small vertebrae bones.

We expect to have more history lessons on the way south. But hopefully, the tongue twisting names are finished for this trip.

W

Caravan

car-a-van:  noun;  1) a community travelling in wheeled conveyances along a route. 2) A convoy of trailers. 3) A rolling party.

We were promised seafood on this caravan. We got it in spades. I forgot to notice whether they promised a 3 o’clock wine and cheese.

The trip down to Delaware was uneventful –as all the best trips are. We met up with an Airstream owner in Upper New York State who allowed us to occupy the field next to his house overnight.

 

 That gave us an early start for the attack on the traffic and construction at Binghamton. Once we reached the flat shores of Delaware, it was an easy drive to the State Park where we were to meet our travelling group. We even made it before my afternoon wine time. 

Which unfortunately, I never had because immediately after unhitching the trailer, the transmission linkage on the truck broke. It would not go into any gear, even Park, and needed the parking brake set to stop it from rolling. The tow truck came and took it away at 5pm, just when the dealer closes, so we knew we were going to be without a vehicle overnight.

The benefits of this lifestyle are that at least we are home. We had supper, slept in our own bed, and got up in the morning to walk on the beach.

 A phone call determined that the dealer did not have the part for the 2 hour fix, so we got a car rental for the day. I'm sure if we hitched it up right, it would pull an Airstream.

But we also needed groceries to replenish the fresh produce and meat that we had consumed just to cross the border without grief. All of the tours and meals of the caravan were also off site, but most people carpooled, so that wasn’t an issue.

We got our groceries away just in time to head off to the first group meal at the aptly named “Hook ‘em and Cook ‘em”.  The buffet dinner of flounder, scallops and shrimp reassured everyone that seafood was going to be plentiful on this trip.

This was our first look at our group. It consists of 43 retirees, and most of them have done this “caravanning” thing before. Very few are full-timers like us, but they are all avid travellers. Our convoy has 18 iconic Airstream trailers, and 4 Airstream motorhomes (yes, they make them, too).

The second day, we had 3 tours and a group lunch that kept us busy until late afternoon. 

We saw a museum about a Dutch shipwreck off the coast, an aviation museum, and a tour of a “lightship” – a floating lighthouse that sat a few miles out from the harbour in the early 1900’s.

 And we got to pick up our truck.

I finally sat outside that evening with my wine and cheese.  As people walked by, they would come visit and join us, until we had about a dozen of our group sitting with us, drinking and snacking until dark. I think we were immediately labelled as “party animals”.  As if.

It took only 2 hours of travelling to get to our next campground in Virginia. But 45 minutes more to merely go the 500 meters from the front gate to our allotted site. More trailers than just our 22 were lined up coming in. This was going to be a very busy area for the next 2 days.

We were barely set up before we had to dash off to another tour, and then had a group meeting after a quick supper. At this rate, the 3 bottles of wine I bought in Delaware will last all 6 weeks of the caravan. 

The reason the campground was so busy was they hold OysterFest in this particular campground every fall. Tickets are sold to keep the number of participants down to 3500. Booths are set up that offer clam chowder, steamed crab, and oysters raw, cooked, and frittered. 

Side dishes were also available: salads, fries, and hush puppies (fried bread that looks kinda like an unfrosted timbit). Everything is free with your purchased ticket. Our group tickets were bought last December before they were all sold out.

Some eating groups were claiming their space by decorating the provided picnic tables early in the morning.

Our caravan group followed suit. Although, unprepared, the best we could do was to post flags and flamingoes and cover our tables with aluminum foil – Airstreams for eating on, one could say. 

We certainly couldn’t outshine our neighbors, who dressed as hippies and had psychedelic clothes and décor.

Once the feeding frenzy began at noon, we had to negotiate long lineups. They meandered so deep among the picnic tables that one had to start at the booth you wanted and follow the line back to find the end of the queue. This event lasted 4 hours, and by the time it was finished, nobody was interested in dinner.

Our caravan leaders allowed us to relax the next morning to recover from our bloat. And then got us an afternoon tour of nearby Assateague Island, where wild ponies graze. This is a National Wildlife Refuge, so vehicles are confined to a small area. They do have a large trail system for hiking, biking, and the tour bus. We were able to get a good view of the beautifully coloured horses, mostly paints and palominos.

With our evening free, I was able to enjoy my wine while hubby grilled up some scallops. We started a campfire, and again drew people in for another impromptu party. I think we’ve got a reputation.

W