was partly cloudy. We headed out and caught the ferry from Cape Hatteras to Okracoke. Made it with 10 minutes to spare. While there, we made reservations for the Ocracoke to Cedar Island ferry.
On Ocracoke Island, we stopped at the Ocracoke Pony corral. The Ocracoke ponies used to run wild on the island, but were corralled in the 1960's for their safety. The Ocracoke ponies are unusual as they have more vertabre and ribs than other horses. Of course this gives them a distinct posture.
We also visited the Ocracoke museum and found it very interesting. We visited the Fort Ocracoke memorial. Fort Ocracoke was destroyed during a battle of the Civil War.
We also visited the British Cemetary from 1942. No that is not a misprint. In 1942 the HMT Bedfordshire which had been loaned to the US to patrol the coast for German boats. Well a German U-boat found them and destroyed the ship with a torpedo. All hands were lost at sea, but 4 bodies washed up on Ocracoke. 2 have been identified and 2 are still unknown. The people of the island buried them as heroes (I think they were right). Where ever British soldiers are buried is considered by the British to be British soil. Therefore the cemetary is kept up by Britian and the US. Many US and British ships were sunk by German U-boats along the US shore during WWII.
The ferry ride, which is 2 hrs, would have been rough except that the captain had made allowances for the rough seas and kept us comfortable. OK, it did rock some. But we were able to sit in the car and have our lunch while traveling. Yum, PB&J!
As we traveled on to Jacksonville, NC, we stopped at the NC Maritime Museum in Beaufort, NC. They have done a nice job and I recommend it if you are in the area. There is a boat building shop that is part of it, but we did not go into that. This is also the area where the CSS Hunley submarine was recovered.. The museum was instrumental in that recovery.
Beaufort is a beautiful small town. The houses in the historical district are well kept and each one has the date it was built posted on the building.
Jacksonville NC was a challenge. It is the home of Camp LeJune Marine Base and they had a group that had just arrived back from Iraq. All hotels were full. Of course, we had reservations, so we were fine. More or less. The hotel was awful. Our non-smoking room had been smoked in. There were ashes on the floor and the smoke detector had been wrapped in plastic to keep it from going off. The internet did not work, nor did the phone. The young man at the desk had a real attitude - and it wasn't a very nice one. Gr-r-r-r. When we check out the next day, we complained about the things wrong and the attitude of the clerk. As it happened we were talking to the manager. He was upset and said they had his number and should have called him. He discounted our room and said he would have a talk with the clerk. So we got a pretty good start to the day. It was also a beautiful day as the rain had decided to travel on.
Love and God Bless.
