May 15, 2011
Day #3 Charlotte NC to Harkers Island NC
300 Miles

The rain cooled things off during the night and we left the Charlotte Motor Speedway area around 9:00am.

We traveled I85 for a bit,became tired of highway travel and jumped off to US64 east near Lexington. North Carolina is a beautiful state and we were enjoying driving through the farms, forests and small towns...so much nicer than traveling through the 'tree tunnels' of the interstates. Besides, we had all day to go only 300 miles. Big storms were all around us, but aside from a few heavy showers, we were not affected.

Approaching New Bern I started looking for a place to set up for tonight. Oh my...there were not many in the area we were headed. - Morgan City/Beaufort. I decided on one 'too new to rate' according to our 'Bible', the Woodall book. So we drove and drove the back roads all the way down to the ocean to Harkers Island. The campground is new, very new...almost not finished new and we are the only people in it. The Cape Point RV park looks a lot better on the web!  We called another place near Morgan City, but by then the office was closed and it was too far and too late in the day to try to get in there. The ad for the place we're at said, cable TV and I asked if the WIFI was up and running, which they assured me over the phone that it was.



Nice view, however!



Okay, we decide to stay here, even if we ARE creeped out by being alone...we've certainly been in worse. There is NO cable, but the girl says we can get plenty of stations with the converter box. Um...that would be ONE, and even worse that one is FOX! Okay, okay, we can live with that. So we decide to relax and have a cup of coffee. Jim is still agitated and trying to find a signal for more stations, after all the girl SAID there were plenty, right? And while getting the remote, he spills coffee on my computer bag, with the computer in it...the NEW computer and because I slipped it in the bag sideways the coffee goes into the side ports. And he yells AT ME! Excuse me? Oh...I put it in the bag the wrong way, of course.

We decide to ride down to Beaufort, about 20 minutes west of here to look for a place to eat. We were going to grill out here but the wind blows at hurricane force constantly...seriously the trees are so sculpted by it that it is amazing, they look like HUGE Bonsai trees! Between the 100 mph winds and the fact that there is NO picnic table to even put a grill on we drove to town. Add to all that, they also lied about the WIFI, there is a very, very weak signal at the campsite, but they said I can probably get it at the office. Like I'm going to carry the laptop down the road in this wind....

Jim is having problems with the new bike rack, don't know if a part was defective, or whatever, but the bikes are bouncing around on it and it's loosening the connection with the trailer hitch, a fact that is making him pissed every time he looks at it. Those racks are not cheap, over $150...
We walked around the town but by then it was getting late and we realize that we were probably going to get some over-priced, old food anyway, so it's probably a good idea to go back to the campground and just make a sandwich. Which we did.

I turned the laptop on and discovered that there was an open signal nearby (not the campground one, which was one bar) and was delighted that something was finally working in my favor. A few minutes later, that damn virus that I removed a month ago decided that today would be a dandy day to return. It's a virus that tells you that you have numerous viruses and malware and for a large fee you can download THEIR software and fix it! Yeah, right!. I got rid of it once, but can't remember how to get back to 'safe mode' to do it again...I'll look it up on Google, good thing I brought TWO laptops .  Now, back to stealing that open signal....

Yeah, it's been one of those days.
Some days are better than others in this game.
　

We've had better days...