Forty days! And coming up on 40 nights!
Just as I was waking up, I heard the pitter patter of rain sprinkles on the roof of our trailer. Now, I’m not worried about rain on the trailer; I’m just worried about having to take the dogs out on their morning constitutional walk in the rain. They get wet, dirty, and then stinky, not only that, they aren’t too excited about doing their business when it’s raining.
Lucky for all of us the rain stopped after only about a half hour. But the ground was still wet so they got wet and stinky anyway.
The young couple in the tent was packing up and leaving early. We’re not as motivated, so it took us a few hours to drink our coffee, have breakfast, do our Internet bit, and finally pack up the trailer, hook it up and get ready to go. The luxury of retirement and no time commitments!
We plotted our course for the Outer Banks of North Carolina, 150 miles away. We didn’t have any place to stay, but we weren’t too worried because it wasn’t a weekend.
When we were about 70 miles out, we stopped at a visitor’s center in Plymouth, North Carolina and received a recommendation of where to stay. The Refuge on Roanoke Island had one opening left for only one night. We were in luck! We pressed on.
We had been driving through rain squalls on and off all day, and the final push to the Outer Banks was no different. These islands are connected to the mainland via bridges that reminded me of Key West.
Roanoke Island was the site of the first English colony in the New World. It was financed by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585 settled in 1587, but by 1590 the inhabitants of the colony disappeared off the face of the earth, the only clue to their whereabouts was the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree, discovered by the crew a re-supply ship. No one knows for sure what happened to the colonists including Virginia Dare, the first English baby born in the New World. St. Augustine claims to be the birthplace of the first European in the New World.
Our campsite was closer to the southern end of the eight mile long island near the community of Manteo. The Refuge on Roanoke Island’s main office wasn’t too much larger than an outhouse, where Peggy, the manager, entered from her motorhome to welcome us in. The place was treeless since it was only about two years old. Its saving grace was that it was on a small pond that was part of the surrounding marshland. There were wooden boardwalks that allowed visitors to wander further into the marshes.
Nevertheless, we felt lucky to have found a place that offered full hook-ups and our site backed up right to the pond with only a sidewalk and a three-foot drop separating the trailer from the water. The drawback was that there are geese in this pond, and geese poop a lot, and it’s the size of dog poop. So our campground was a minefield of poop. Not only that, but our dogs found this stuff tasty. Yuck!Later that afternoon we decided to visit the site of the famous settlement, called Fort Raleigh, on the northern end of Roanoke Island. We briefly stopped at the visitor center, learned everything we could in about 10 minutes. The most important thing we learned is that we needed to see the play “The Lost Colony”, which is presented almost nightly during the summer season, and has been since 1937. This makes it the longest running play in the United States. Andy Griffith performed in the play in the late ‘40’s and early ‘50’s. In fact he liked the community of Manteo, named after the Indian chief at the time of the Lost Colony, so much that he moved here.
We walked the 500 steps to the play’s ticket office and purchased two tickets for the 8pm show tonight; getting seats just 6 rows back from the stage.
Then we walked another 500 steps to the site of the colony, but in actuality there isn’t too much there, just a recreated seven-foot high ring of dirt about 70’ in diameter. Although it isn’t that impressive visually, it gave me an eerie feeling just being on such hallowed ground, very metaphysical.
We also stopped by the Elizabethan Gardens, checking out only the gift shop and not paying the admission to see another garden, especially after we’ve seen Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile.
We returned to the trailer just long enough to walk the dogs and eat dinner. Then we got back into the truck to head north and see the play. Within a mile of the campground it started raining very hard, sheets of rain, large puddles were forming at the side of road. Not good for seeing an outdoor play.
But as we approached the northern end of the island the rain had miraculously abated. We arrived a quarter to eight, fifteen minutes before the start of the play. From the parking lot we walked to the entrance, but were informed that the start of the play would be delayed because of lightening in the area.
When we purchased our tickets we were informed that if the play was interrupted due to rain with the first thirty minutes, we would be eligible for a full refund, by mail. While the crew was waiting for the lightening to subside, we milled under the covered entrance area. We waited and waited and waited.
Finally an hour after its supposed start, we were allowed into our seats. I was worried that I would be able to stay awake for the next two and a half hours and then still drive back to the trailer.
But my fears were allayed once the play started. The actors were great, the scenery was great, the effects were great and the costumes were great. And the retort of guns would awaken any one who was foolish enough to try to sleep. Actors also appear on two stages to the right and left of the audience, as well as enter from the aisles. The scenery changed from 16th century London, to the ports, to the wilderness, to the colony itself. I thoroughly enjoyed the play, including the singing.
And we made it home shortly before midnight, tired but satisfied.
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