day one to ocracoke

walking to and from the concourse is a great way to begin and end any travel --- the sculpture from zimbabwe is the best

beautiful spring weather for a drive down the caratoke highway from chesapeake to the wright memorial bridge over to the outer banks, or obx as they call it

crossed and recrossed the chesapeake and albemarle canal (1859) through some flat and swampy country

the first few miles through kitty hawk all the way to nags head and whalebone junction, where the national seashore begins, is miserably overbuilt --- jockey's ridge state park and nearby nags head woods are the small exceptions ---

bodie island lighthouse (1872) is open and gleaming after a gazillion-dollar restoration

the bonner bridge, which opened in 1963, is being rebuilt --- its over oregon inlet, which opened in 1846 and has been widening ever since --- not far south, new inlet re-opened after hurricane irene in 2009 and they've only managed a makeshift bridge to keep the towns on hatteras island from being completely cut off

the final leg of the journey was the ferry ridge across hatteras inlet to ocracoke island --- north carolina runs a bunch of ferries across the sounds and between the islands so you can get to almost anywhere except portsmouth island at the north end of cape lookout national seashore

portsmouth is barely visible on the horizon across hatteras inlet

the pony island motel opened in 1959 -- we stayed there in 1963 or so --- they still have one of the better restaurants on the island ---