Lost Colony and Lighthouses

Today we explored to the south of Kill Devil Hills. We rode past where Caelan and Michael had gone hang gliding in July and on to Roanoke Island to our first stop, the Roanoke Island Festival Park. Here, we learned a little about the Algonquin tribe, the lost colony and the ship that brought them over from England in the 1580s. The story of the lost colony is a mystery whose answer is lost to time. Certainly today’s visit didn’t solve it, but the popular theories are explored at the museum and by the costumed staff at the various exhibits, like the smithy, where the blacksmith was making nails.

The ship, a fully functioning replica of the one that brought the colonists, is about 80 ft long, displacing about 100 t, and has virtually no amenities. Wow, it seems so small to carry 50 people across the Atlantic!

As we left the town of Manteo, thankful for what we learned at the park, we found an actual Piggly Wiggly, possibly the oddest name for a grocery store.

The next two stops were at Bodie Island and Cape Hatteras Light Stations. These two light stations play a critical part of the system that guides ships safely through the region nicknamed the graveyard of the Atlantic.

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The Bodie Island lighthouse celebrates its 149th birthday tomorrow – it was first lit 1 Oct 1872.The Cape Hatteras lighthouse, the tallest brick lighthouse in North America at 199 ft, has an interesting recent history. In 1999, due to erosion that shrunk the shoreline to within 150 ft of the lighthouse, it was literally picked up and moved in one piece about 1/2 a mile inland. It was quite the operation, both complex and controversial.

Once we finished at Cape Hatteras, we turned and headed north. As the sun was setting, we stopped for a few pictures in an area where the road was sandwiched between sand dunes that reminded us of times we’ve been in the Middle East.

It was a good day, and the first full day of riding and stopping that we’d done in a while. Michael is fairly pleased so far with the thin sleeves, water bottle carrier and the Loop brand ear plugs he’s trialing, and we’re both pleased enough with the nearby Thai restaurant that we ate dinner there again.

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