East Coast Tour - Day 15

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Day 15 - Charlotte to Virginia Beach

After saying goodbye to the Zoutewelles until our next cruise together, we headed east to the North Carolina Coast. We were headed to The outer banks and Kitty Hawk and then eventually to our stop at the Virginia Beach KOA. On our way we passed a sign for the town of Wilson, NC. we decided to detour and find some lunch there. We stumbled across Parker's Restaurant. A BBQ place with a very simple menu. Judging by the number of cars in the parking lot and the age of most of the patrons it's been very good for a very long time. We decided to go for the family style BBQ and fried chicken meal. There was fried chicken, pulled pork, coleslaw, some kind of tomato-bean thing, boiled potatoes and corn sticks. they even brought out pitchers of iced tea and water so you didn't have to wait for a refill. We stuffed ourselves and then hit the road again. We drove through some interesting towns on our way to the Outer Banks and saw lots of farms and some intercoastal communities. Our path took us on the Island of Roanoke just before getting to the outer Banks. We didn't get there in time to see the exhibit on the Lost Colony but the drive was nice. We drove north on the coastal highway looking at yet another different style of archetechture. We drove through Kitty Hawk and then headed inland again towards Virginia Beach. We hit another brief, but heavy storm before getting to the KOA around 7:30. The Virginia Beach KOA is huge, with tons of stuff to do. It's also next to a Naval station, which we never forgot due to the FA18 fighter jets flying overhead all evening. Tony was entranced and kept running outside to see them fly directly over (then back into the AC). We were originally going to stay 2 nights and go to Colonial Wiliamsburg from there but after seeing the variety of things to do we decided to stay an extra day. We set up camp and headed out to get some dinner in Virginia Beach. Atlantic Avenue was full of color and activities and we decided that tommorrow would be a good day to go to the beach and to check out the avenue in the evening.

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Photos

Entering Wilson, NC
We love towns/places named Wilson

Parker's Bar B-Q
We found it... The quintissential Southern Fried chiken joint. I don't think I need to eat fried chicken for a long time. This will certainly be the standard against which other fried chicken joints are measured from now on.

Family Style
Did we mention it was all-you-can-eat... though we all filled up on the original batch.

Roanole Island
It makes sense they settled here. It was the flattest and most accessable coast you could see from the harbor, and it was protected from the ocean.

The Outer Banks
Outer banks look pretty much the same no matter which southern coastal state you are in.

Virginia State Line
Entering Virginia... State lines are starting to lose their lustre.

Another Great Bridge
This was the only bridge between north and south during the revolutionary war. The british knew this and tried to hold it, but the peons with pitchforks and hunting rifles won the day. If they hadn't we might be saying God Save the Queen. For the record, we didn't actually see the bridge, just the sign.

Virginia Beach KOA
I can fly, I can fly. A lot of Naval praise all around town, and in the campground.

F/A-18 Hornet
ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR, BOOM, Rumble Rumble Rumble. Oooooohh... Ahhhhhh.

This is Not Cuddle Weather
I need my space.

Dinner in Virginia Beach
Dark interior, dark windows, subdued atmosphere... Poe would have loved it. The food was good too.