Day two - Stranded on Ocracoke Island

An interesting thing happened to us today, on only our 2nd day of travel we’ve become stranded on an island. We departed the mainland as planned and enjoyed the 2½ hour cruise across Pamlico Sound to Ocracoke Island. Our plan was to drive the 12 mile length of the island, take the upper ferry to Hatteras Island and stay overnight in the town of Waves. When we got in line at the terminal, an employee was stopping and speaking to everyone in line and most were driving off, this can’t be good I thought. Bad news it was, the ferry operation was shut down until 7:40pm at the earliest. The reason was extreme low tides; there wasn’t enough water in the channel to Hatteras.
We of course were a lot better off than everyone around us sitting in their hot cars. We made lunch and contemplated our options. We could sit in line all afternoon, get off the island late in the afternoon and probably arriving at the campground in Waves after dark. Anyone who has experienced the invasion of mosquitoes after dark on the outer Banks knows that would be a fool hardy thing to do. The better option and the one we selected was to drive back to the south end of the island and stay overnight at the Federal Campground. After setting up at the campground we disconnected the jeep, drove into town and did the tourist thing. Back at the campground we took the dogs for a nice walk on the beach. We unleashed both of them and let them run free. It was a perfect day.