April 17 - 18, 2008 - Harkers Island, NC

After we woke up this morning, we lost all of our electricity. We had electricity coming in but the batteries were not charging. We tried a few things and couldn’t fix it. Larry walked over to the office and asked if they knew anyone that could help us. They sent their maintenance man over and he tried a few things and then suggested that we move our plug over to another outlet and bingo that solved the problem. He said that some of these were old and hardly ever used so they didn’t provide enough current for us. We were so happy to hear that because we were already thinking something was wrong with the RV. Hooray!!! I got lots of laundry and ironing done and we worked on our computers getting pictures organized. In the afternoon we took a walk down the street to the Cape Lookout National Park Visitor Center. We saw a movie about the Outer Banks and the various islands.


April 18 - Harkers Island, NC

We made arrangements to take the ferry over to Core Island. The place that we are staying also runs the ferry boat to a couple of islands near by. We packed a lunch and told them that we wanted to return around 3:00 p.m. On our way over to the island, our pilot took us by Shackleford Island where wild horses have lived for the past 400 years. The state tries to keep the herd to 60 horses. They go in and take some of the young ones off the island periodically. The horses are of Spanish decent and very strong. Historians believe that the horses were probably on ships being brought over to the colonies. The ships may have capsized and the horses could have easily swam to the island. They live off of the marsh grass and use their hooves to dig down into the ground for water. On warm days you can see them wading in the ocean.


We arrived on Core island around noon and walked first to the Cape Lookout lighthouse (1812). We also toured the lightkeeper’s buildings that have been restored. The lighthouse keeper had to carry an oil can from the fuel storage building into the lighthouse and up the stairs several times a day. The oil can weighed 45 pounds. The markings on this lighthouse are diamond shape. The different markings on the lighthouses are called the daymarks. This enables ships to tell where they are during the day time as well as by the light at night.



We sat down on the steps behind the lightkeeper’s house to eat our lunch and enjoy the view of the beach. It was a beautiful day around 80 degrees and hardly any wind. We walked from there down to the beach and walked for about 1 ½ miles looking for sea shells along the shore. We found some big shells and also a black one called a mermaid’s purse. A skate (a smaller version of a manterey) lays their eggs in this black purse. It was exciting to find it all in one piece. We walked back to the dock and took the 3:00 p.m. ferry back to our marina. On our ferry ride home we had a full boat with 5 surfers and their boards and a couple with an Austrailian Shepherd, named Cooper. We had such a wonderful day and felt good about all of our exercise too.