Wednesday 4 July 2007 - Fayetteville to New York

Chris and Joan, neighbours of JB and Betty, had driven us into town at 8.30 last night and we had dinner at the Hardware House Micro-brewery Restaurant before going to the railway station.

The Amtrak train was running late and finally, at 3.15am it pulled out of Fayetteville. We dozed on and off until daylight and then watched as we passed though Virginia, DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey before arriving at New York Penn Station at 1.30pm.

After we had collected our bags and made our way to the station exit we were swooped on by someone who turned out to be a taxi touter- illegal!! However, it turned out OK for us because he lead us to where the taxis were and I don't think we would have found the street easily without him. Despite all the stories about rude New York cabbies, we got a nice friendly and informative driver who brought us to The Benley hotel at 500E 62nd Street where we checked into a nice room with a view of the East River and the Queensboro Bridge and the cable cars which run regularly to Roosvelt Island.

We dumped our bags, admired the view and then went out to explore the neighbourhood...I think I saw Seinfeld's building and Becker's diner!! I was bouncing off the walls with excitement and Ian was telling me to SLOW DOWN!! I couldn't, so I went off to find Bloomingdales and look around a bit more before coming back to th hotel to shower and change for the 4th July fireworks.

We went up to the 21st floor of The Bentley where they have a restaurant and bar and a better view of the river than that from our room. We were told that they were fully booked - gloom! We asked them to call us if they had a cancellation and they did - joy!! It turned out to be a great night despite that fact that the fireworks were a bit obscured by a king sized spray painting booth over part of the bridge.

New York

Thursday 28 June to Monday 3 July 2007 - Fayetteville

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TANYA (2nd July)

R and R in Fayetteville. After all the excitement of driving about 10000km in 6 weeks we have enjoyed staying put for the past 5 days. During this time we have enjoyed visiting the local malls, drinks in the evening at Charlie Mike's Bar and sampling different restaurants from Korean to Southern Chicken to Mexican. Heather has got back into training in an effort to be able to last the distance in this year's Bridge to Brisbane on 5 August 2007! Whew!!

35Fayetteville

JB, Betty and Bryan took off on Saturday for a work commitment in Oklahoma City. Betty is the manager of the JFK Special Forces Museum at Fort Bragg. She is a one-woman powerhouse! I helped her load the Chevy cargo van with merchandise to be sold at the Special Forces Convention over in Oklahoma. She can fit more stuff into a small space than anyone else in the world...amazing!

We have been left in charge of the house, Sachiko the cat and JB's lawn. Ian's rain dance worked on the first night and the lawn got a really good soaking.

Sachiko is 14 years old and is recovering from being very ill. He is fighting fit again now and eating like a horse - 4 cans of cat food in one day! Betty also feeds the neighbourhood feral cats and we have discovered a mother and four kittens living under the trees in the back yard.

Across the road neighbours, Joan and Chris, have kindly offered to drive us to the train station tonight so that we can board the Amtrak Silver Meteor bound for New York where we will experience 4th July celebrations.

Wednesday 27 June 2007 - Rocky Mount to Fayetteville

From Rocky Mount we slowly headed South stopping at the Smithfield Outlet Mall for some retail therapy and lunch at the Cracker Barrel, a country cooking restaurant which has become a favourite.

The photo shows that Ian has adopted the American way of driving!!!


It was good to see JB and Betty in Fayetteville again and their son, Brian had arrived home from Hawaii where he had been based with the US Army. Their other son, Bradley is due home this weekend from Iraq to be with his wife for the birth of their fourth child. JB and Betty's worries for their boys can be put on hold for a little while.

Tuesday 26 June 2007 - Nags Head to Rocky Mount

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAYDEN!

Drove to Kill Devil Hill the site of the Wright Brothers first flight. The site is administered by the National Parks and is very well preserved and includes an excellent museum. The large monument in the photograph was erected in 1928 for the 25th anniversary of the first flight. In one of the photos you will also see four granite stones marking the distances of the four flights of the first day, 17 December 1903. The brothers took it in turns to fly the aircraft..the first distance being just over 100 feet and the last being in excess of 800 feet. The photos also show a sculpture of the Wright flyer celebrating 100 years of flight.

Wright Brothers - Kill Devil Hill

We then took Highway 64 West to the mainland, crossing Roanoke Island the place where the first English child was born in the new world. On through the low lying country of Dismal Swamp to the little historical town of Plymouth which has a great Civil War museum and a 6:10 working model of the Confederate States ironclad Albemarle. For those of you who are interested, the story of the ship is well worth a Google search as it was quite unique.


We walked through the historic part of town admiring some of the buildings which still show damage from civil war days. A replica of the original lighthouse was interesting as you can see from the photograph.


We pushed on to Rocky Mount for the night.

Sunday 24 and Monday 25 June 2007 - Cedar Island to Nags Head

We drove on to the ferry for the 2.5 hour trip to Ocracoke Island at the Southern end of the Outer Banks. This is where Blackbeard had been captured, beheaded, his head hung from the bowsprit for the 5 day journey up to Virginia to show the Governor that Blackbeard would be causing no more trouble.

Ocracoke with its lighthouse is a very pretty place. We walked around the marinas, checked out the shops and found The Flying Melon Restaurant which had been recommended to us by the crew of a local yacht charter boat. They were right...it was very good.

It was time to say goodbye to JB and Betty who were returning to Fayetteville.

We drove on Northward to the end of Ocracoke where we got on to another vehicular ferry to Hatteras Island. Drove to the Northern end admiring the scenery to Cape Hatteras the location of the famous Hatteras Lighthouse. At nearly 300 feet high it is the highest brick lighthouse in the world. It was openned in 1870, but due to the shifting sand and the danger of it being claimed by the sea it was moved in 1999 about half a km inland...a great feat of engineering. It was basically jacked up onto a sled and dragged on railway lines to its current position.

I climbed to the top to enjoy spectacular views. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are also called the graveyard of the Atlanic. In the last 400 years well over 600 vessels have come to grief along their Eastern shore.




The only thing allowed to be picked up off the beach and kept are seashells and driftwood. There are still stories of pirates and Spanish gold being washed up after heavy weather.

After more sightseeing we arrived in Nags Head and found a motel right on the beach. We spent Monday on the beach and looking around the area. We enjoyed the architecture which is unique to the area. Nearby was the Beach Road Bar and Grill which served great chicken wings.

Saturday 23 June 2007 - Fayetteville to Cedar Island

Betty and JB in their Subaru and us in the Blue Goose departed Fayetteville for the Coast.

Tom took us through rural areas of Eastern North Carolina through Jacksonville, a big US Marine town, through Morehead City and on to Beaufort, a wonderful old historical seaside town.

It was in the vicinity of Beaufort that Blackbeard the Pirate's ship, Queen Anne's Revenge was sunk in the early 1700's. There are quite a few artifacts in the local maritime museum which we visited after a great long lunch at the Waterfront Bar which overlooks local anchorage. There was a great deal of activity with people fishing, sailing, tourist boats...plenty to watch. We also took a walk along the boardwalk checking out boats on the various marinas. The stars were a 90 foot motor yacht from the Cayman Islands and two old timber schooners.

We drove on to Cedar Island to board the ferry to Ocracoke the next morning. We spent the evening watching an amazing sunset and walking along the beach.

Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 June 2007 - Fayetteville

Vegged out in Fayetteville catching up on things like laundry, car servicing, sightseeing and socialising with Betty and JB.

Discovered that the charger and battery for the camera had been left in Cherokee plugged in to the wall for charging. Phone calls and emails have been unsuccessful in finding it, so the hunt has begun to find a replacement!!! Gloom and doom!!!

Ian and JB had Friday night drinkies at Charlie Mike's Bar, the hangout for crusty old soldiers who get together once a week and talk about their adventures of a hundred years ago....the older we get the better we was!! I don't think this refers to some of them, especially guys like Kenny Mack, who was on the Son Tay Raid.