We had been spending some time in Newport, NC working and taking in the local sights. We thought we’d take the opportunity of having a holiday weekend to further explore the Outer Banks area and travel north before having to get back to work on Tuesday. We left our home for a week, Whispering Pines RV Campground, and made our way north to catch the ferry to Ocracoke. We had made reservations at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Campground for a couple of days. There were no hook-ups, but we wanted to try boondocking for a bit to see how everything works. Besides, the price was right. 
We arrived via ferry to Ocracoke and had a nice time walking around the village and visiting the lighthouse. The literature we read about the campground didn’t lie…there are a ton of mosquitos. We seemed to bathe in deet. We managed just fine. We loved the beach both during the day and at night, much of the time having the beach all to ourselves.
About the time we were ready to leave, our refrigerator decided not to work, giving an error code of “no co.” We had this happen before and had it repaired in Alabama. This should have been our sign that perhaps we could expect more to go wrong this weekend, but no, we were oblivious. We moved our food to our fridge/freezer in our basement storage and packed our drinks on ice, then we were off. We caught the ferry to Hatteras and traveled north, to stop in Kitty Hawk to explore the Wright Brothers National Monument. 
We left Kitty Hawk then stopped in Barco, NC for fuel. This is when things seem to keep happening one right after another. When leaving the gas station, we hit a big dip and heard a big CRASH!! Looking back in the galley, I saw that the upper cabinets where I keep my soap making supplies flew open. A couple of Pyrex dishes and glass jars shattered. If that wasn’t bad enough, a container of lye that I use to make soap busted open!!! Oh what a mess…a dangerous mess! The dogs were kept up front, away from the mess and I began work on cleaning up while Robert found a good place to pull over where we could slide out the living room and clean completely.
We ended up stopping at the NC Welcome Center at the Dismal Swamp. What an appropriate place to stop. We pinned up the dogs and both Robert and I went to work scrubbing and vacuuming so that our living room was safe for our floor lickers. We met up with thunder and rain in the Dismal Swamp. It appeared that we would be hit hard by a storm, so we thought we’d hang out for a while and try to decide our final destination. The rain storm really never got going so after going back and forth on what to do, we decided to go for it and get back on the road and be in Vermont to end our weekend.
We headed out toward the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. We really wished we could see it during the day, but the timing wasn’t right. We saw the sign to stop at the restaurant and gift shop. The sign said buses welcome, so we decided to stop. NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!! All I could think of was the line from O’ Brother Where Art Thou? when George Clooney’s character kept saying, “Boy, are we are in a tight spot!” We tried to turn our big rig around, damaging our tow bar in the process. We ended up taking the Jeep off tow, and after what seemed like a 10 point turn, Robert got our Alfa out of there and back on the bridge. Our only saving grace was that it was almost 10p.m. and there was minimal traffic in the parking lot and on the bridge. I ended up driving the Jeep behind him and we stopped at the end of the bridge at the rest area to assess the damage. Robert hooked up the tow bar and we found we could use it, but it should be replaced soon. Online, we found a Camping World in NJ that was on our way to VT. We felt we could use the tow bar for that distance. We faced the fact that our plans to make it to VT on Monday were out the window, so in light of the stresses just incurred to get out of our tight spot, we ended up turning in for the evening to get up early to be at Camping World when they opened.
We got up as planned and left by 4a.m. By the time we got to Maryland, Robert was just too tired to go on. We didn’t want to push it, so we pulled off in a Wal-Mart parking lot to sleep some more. After waking up, I purchased supplies in Wal-Mart. I was getting tired of packing ice and having our fridge on the fritz, so we decided to get a reservation at a campground close to Camping World so they could look at what is going on. We were about to leave, when yet another thing happened…Lucy broke out in hives!!! We saw her swell up like a welted balloon right before our eyes. We immediately gave her children’s Benadryl and found a vet about 30 minutes away that was open. Luckily, by the time we made it to the vet, her hives all but disappeared. The vet thought we did the right thing and no further treatment was needed, thank goodness.
We got back on the road to get to Camping World before they closed to replace our tow bar and see about getting our fridge fixed. We made it!!! When we asked about the tow bar, they only had one in stock, but parts were missing. That was fine by us, because we just needed one part. They knocked the price down and we have to say, we feel safer having the new equipment. As for our refrigerator…no one could look at it until Thursday afternoon. We really didn’t want to stay around for that long, so we’ll press on and make do with what we have. Perhaps our RV friends in VT will know of a great service guy to get the job done.
We ended our weekend Timberlane Campground in Clarksboro, NJ for the night. We’ll work during the day and travel in the evenings until we get to our final destination were we can stay awhile in VT. We have to say, thank goodness the weekend is over.
