Off season vacation pics

by Lois
(WNC)

I just got back from a quick 3 day mini vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. What a great place to go this time of year,no crowds no lines and the national parks are great. My husband and I headed out about 9am on Monday and it was alittle chilly, about 38 degrees. We live almost as far west as you can get in NC 20 miles from the TN line in Waynesville. The day warmed up the farther east we went. We were on the road for about 9 hours when we reached Nags Head we spent 2 nights there. We got up Tuesday and headed south on rt 12, we stopped at the Bodie lighthouse and walked around the area, we also stopped at the Pea Island wildlife refuge and the Cape Hatteras lighthouse we left there and headed back north from there. We still had plenty of the day left so we went to the Wright Brothers memorial, there was so much to see there. The next day we knew we had to go home but just thought we take our time. We started the day with a walk on the beach and the had breakfast and it was time to get on the road. Our first stop was Fort Raleigh, the site of the Lost Colony and later became the site of the first freemans colony. From there we started on our way home, we decided to take the long way. We had left the motel around 10am and it was in the 60s most of the day, but when the sun went down so did the temps. We got home at midnight and the temp reading on my bike was 32 I was so glad we had our heated gear with us. All together we put 1134 miles on the bikes but had a great time doing it. I know we will go back to the OBX next October for a longer vacation.