Day 12 – Wilson, NC -> Nags Head, NC -> Kiptopeke State Park, VA

When I said it was last day of camping I guess I meant last in Georgia. Seven hours on 95 and a crappy hotel was too depressing, so since the weather was warm, we found a nice camping site in Kiptopeke State Park in Virginia. It was a bit crowded with prepubescent, boys but the noise was reasonable and not too late. In fact, we were the ones who stayed up the latest. Unfortunately, we arrived late and had to leave early so we could not enjoy everything that this park has to offer: beach, fishing and trails. This was a very nice spot – I hope to come back.

Yesterday we did not find anything but beautiful paved hiking trails in Alligator River NWR. It was time to have lunch for us, so we moved on to the beach town of Nags Head, NC. We picked a place with a Mexican name that promised tacos from Yelp. It was the most popular place around. It was an imposter though. It was a little spiced up American kitch bar with tacos on the menu. We had a beer and our food was not as greasy as it could have been on 95. Then we went to the beach and the boys must have run two miles in circles. To the water and back to the dry sand. There were little birds that were doing the same thing right behind them. When the waves go back, the birds run forward and poke in to the wet sand as fast as they can until the next wave comes and they run away from water really fast.

After that we decided to camp, so we needed to get some supplies from supermarket. I made rice with fish and asparagus. Yelisei ate all the tops of my asparagus. I think we’ve never had so many meals together with the children at the same time. This morning Yelisei was even waiting for oatmeal without screaming. Before I had to give him cheerios just to put something in his mouth to prevent him from screaming. I am not sure this trend will continue at home though.

Day 11 – Okefenokee Swamp, GA -> Wilson, NC

We just watched something fly out of our roof box. Renzo went back to pick it up. Luckily, it was not on 95 with heavy traffic. Thank god! We did drive all day with the box not locked yesterday.

Because we did so well on the drive yesterday (7 hrs), we decided to take a detour and possibly camp in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina.

We had our BBQ finally yesterday in GA. It was a very small fish market with a separate outside shack for meat barbecuing – we had the best shrimp I ever had, best ribs, and not so good pulled pork. The Jamaican man from the Bronx who made it was not very happy about his job here, nor was the toothless woman who made the shrimp. She asked me if I could make her robes for her church after I had mentioned that I used to make costumes for Broadway. I struggled to find excuses why I can not do it, but she was hard to shake off. She finally grabbed Timofei, because he was trying to kill himself by running under a UPS truck. Timofei got scared of her grabbing him and started wailing. That finally got this woman off my back with the robes. She did make the very best shrimp though.

Last night we discovered that by 11 pm on 95 all the hotels are booked. So we went a little off the main drag and found plenty of room in a borderline gross Super 8 motel in Wilson, NC. Every one who worked there was a shining example of what happens to people if they drink and smoke too much. It was bad. The beds were clean, but the towels had stains and the plastic bathtub had cigarette burns in our non smoking room. The boys were still having fun jumping on the bed and playing in the warm bath though. It is always amazing to me how little kids need.

We briefly considered going to Norfolk NC but chose more nature, so now we are on our way to the coast.