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On the Big Ferry Headed for Ocracoke Frisco Campground, Frisco, North Carolina
How do you travel 150 miles while only driving about 40? The answer is 'by Ferry'. Originally I had planned to drive about 200 miles north and then east to our destination on the Outer Banks. I assumed, without looking into it, that ferry trips with the trailer were either not available, or were prohibitively expensive.
Turns out, that just isn't true. Although we had to pay $15 extra for the trailer, the entire ferry ride between Cedar Island and Ocracoke was just $30. I would have paid that much in gasoline with the drive I had planned. And the ferry between Ocracoke and Hatteras, at the other end of the island was free. So we moved several islands up the Outer Banks chain, but I only put about 40 miles on the car.
It is a very strange sensation to be sitting in your vehicle on a ferry boat. If you look out the left side you see movement with ocean waves, boats and islands passing you by, just like you were driving in a car. But look to the right and you see the ferry infrastructure which is decidedly, and thankfully,
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Our Rig is up about two cars on the right NOT moving. Seemed even the dogs had a hard time with the ferry ride.
The longer ferry ride, from Cedar Island to Ocracoke island took about two and a half hours. After making sure the dogs were OK, we got out and surveyed the lower part of the boat and watched the waves. Then we went upstairs to the passenger deck, got a cup of coffee, and played a game of cards (I won the game, just saying). After that we went back to the car and ate a lunch of leftover cold chicken and potato salad, all while looking left and right from our moving/not-moving vehicle.
Ocracoke is just a charming ocean village and Joan has talked about going back down there for a day. Involves a ferry ride back, but might happen. But we drove north to the tip of Ocracoke Island (about 12 miles), and caught the second ferry over to Hatteras Island. The boat was smaller, but so was the ride (about an hour). We then drove through two more charming villages up to Frisco where our campground is located.
Frisco Campground is a terrific place, but finding just the right campsite isn't
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Little Ferry from Ocracoke to Hatteras easy. It is dry camping, with no hookups, so we wanted to find a place with some shade, especially if we needed to leave the girls by themselves for a few hours. But the sites with shade didn't have the views out over the dunes and onto the ocean that some of the other sites had. And then we needed a location that was long enough for our rig. There were plenty of open sites, but getting just the right one was challenging.
They also didn't have any fresh water here, which was a bit surprising. So we had to go north six miles up to Buxton campground, and fill the tank with water before coming back to this one. Traffic on the island on Sunday afternoon was a little heavy and that didn't help matters.
At any rate we are here now, camping on the Outer Banks with views of the ocean. And the weather promises to be perfect. Looking forward to the next couple of days. (17.1.61)
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