Sunday, May 12, Day 20 and Mother's Day
The outer banks are a series of barrier island that run about 150 miles along the North Carolina and Virginia coasts. It's a lot bigger than I thought. It includes towns we all know - Nags Head, Cape Hatteras, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hill.
And here's our friend Cedric. It's so good to see her! We lost GPS on our phone and had a little trouble finding her house, so we were a little later than we thought we would be. We have parked our camper in her yard and are ready to explore!
The first place she takes us is Fort Raleigh. It is here that the first explorations and attempts were made to establish a presence in the Americas in 1584. They were spearheaded by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had become a "confidant" (and much more) to Queen Elizabeth. Ironically, Raleigh never came here.
I was amazed at the thought and deliberations that went into this exploration. England was worried about the vast presence that Spain had developed in the lower Americas and they determined to
stop the nothward migration of Spanish settlements. And, although we are taught in school that the first Europeans came for religious freedom, in fact, they were after riches of gold and silver, just like the Spaniards. They also wanted a place where they could raid the vastly rich Spanish galleons that were taking their plunder back to England and using the Gulf Stream currents to get them across the Atlantic. They had to pass right by here like sitting ducks!
The first group of 600 tried to make it, but they tired of waiting for supplies, had lost a lot of people and decided to return to England with Sir Frances Drake, who had been pirating along the coast.
The first two trips were for exploration. They had artists and metallurgists along to test whatever minerals they could find. They even built earthworks and established laboratories. And here I thought it was just poor people looking for a better opportunity.
On the second voyage, 15 men had been left to maintain a foothold for England in the new colony. By the arrival of the third voyage, they were all gone, most killed by Indians whom they had managed to alienate both through the introduction of disease , misunderstandings and subsequent killings. They had relied on trade with the Indians for food, and when the Indians stopped trading, things deteriorated quickly. Only one skeleton was found when the third voyage came, the rest of the men had just disappeared. Foreboding of things to come!
It is the 1587 trip that we are familiar with. The one that brought families, (i.e. women and children) along to establish a colony. Two of the women were pregnant and gave birth within a few weeks of one another. But the first born was Virginia Dare. Her parents, Elenor and Ananias Dare, were the daughter and son-in-law of John White, an artist who had painted portraits of the indians and also the flora and fauna of the area on earlier voyages.
John White had gone back to England to raise more money and get provisions to bring back to the fledgling colony. Unfortunately, he arrived in England just as hostilities were heating up with Spain, resulting in the Spanish Armada and its defeat at the hands of Sir Walter Raleigh. The Queen and Raleigh were preoccupied and didn't have time to think about John White's family and the others they had left in Virginia. They had lost interest. When he finally got back to Roanoke three years later, everyone was gone.
They had made a prearranged agreement that the colonists would carve letters into a tree telling where they had gone. This is what they left, "CRO." And the word "Croatoan" carved into a post. White, thinking that they had gone south to the Croatoan Indians made an attempt to go there. A hurricane forced the ships to return to England, and they never did find out what happened to the colonists. Can you imagine the emotions of John White, who left his daughter and her husband and his new granddaughter to a fate unknown?
There is a outdoor play about the Lost Colony that has run for many years. It is in this amphitheater. It will start the end of May and run every night through August. It is packed for each performance. We are a little early for this, but we enjoyed watching the actors and students come in to prepare for the staging.
We went to downtown Manteo and had a wonderful oceanside view at the Waterside Grill, where we enjoyed fish tacos and sea trout sandwiches. Oh and some wine It's Mother's Day, you know.
After a brief stop at home, to get warmer clothes on, we headed south on the outer banks. The houses are all built on stilts, lots of new construction, and they all take on pretty much the same style.
And at last, we see the REAL Atlantic Ocean. Up until now, we have been on the four inner sounds of the outer banks, but this is the wide open ocean! This is our 3,830 mile mark!
John strikes his familiar pose. "It doesn't get any better than this."
And here we are! Coast to coast....
I'm a little apprehensive of that rogue wave that may come in while my back is turned! But one must dip their toes in the Ocean, right?
This is a great area to collect shells, and who can resist that?
It's late in the day, so Cedric and I have some fun with our shadows!
Cedric is finding that one shell that is better than the rest.
Time to move on. There is so much history along here, as evidenced by this famous event with the Monitor and Merrimac.
Big in WWI here as well, as the Germans took out a lot of our cargo ships along this coast with their submarines.
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