Camping Adventure: Day Two - Look at all the Dingbatters walkin' around!
Mood:  hungry
Saturday Morning Marie and I climbed out of our tents and I immediately started to try and make some coffee. I pulled out my percolator, filled it was water and coffee grounds, and set it on Marie’s little gas stove. Marie turned it on, lit it up and we sat there waiting for it to start doing its thing. There we sat, for what seemed like an hour, hoping that any minute we would see that like “bloop” of water in the clear plastic cap. It never happened. The water got hot but for some reason it refused to boil. I can’t function without coffee. In fact if I don’t have it, I get a horrible headache. At one point Marie offered to drive into town to get me a cup of coffee. Being one who does not like to be defeated I was determined we were going to figure this out. Marie then suggested that we pour the hot water out into a cup and pour it back over the filter. This worked great! At last I had coffee. Apparently the coffee pot is too tall for the little burner. Most of the heat escapes from the side so we would need to figure out a way to capture the heat.

After we finished breakfast and cleaned up the dishes, I headed over to the showers. Have I mentioned these are cold showers? There isn’t hot water anywhere in the entire campground. You enter into this wooden stall and above you is a shower head with a cord attached to it. Pull the cord and out comes freezing cold water. This is a sure fire way to wake you up and it also guarantees that you will not linger in the shower. Once Marie and I primped and dressed we headed into the small village of Ocracoke.

We parked the car at the NPS parking lot and as we walked into the town we notices a sign for the Artwalk Festival where local artist would have their studios open and be on hand to talk about their piece. Bonus!!! The village is such a quaint place to visit. If you ever decide to visit NC you really should make this place one of your stops. The shops are filled with local pottery and art. There is also a really cool bead shop where you can make your own jewelry. Marie made an anklet and I made a bracelet. After creating our own jewelry masterpieces I then took Marie down to Howard’s Pub. This is a hot spot of tourist. The really do have some great food. We ordered a dozen steamed clams that were some of the best clams I have ever had. They were tender and tasted like the ocean. Yummm! We then order some sandwiches which were also excellent. After lunch we headed to a few more shop and then finally back to the car. As we got back to the parking lot we noticed a little museum. Marie and I (both working for parks) love to critique museum exhibits. It was a little house that they have packed full with information. There wasn’t really any rhyme or reason to the displays and some of them were hard to follow but they did have one exhibit that I was very amused by. Did you all know that Ocracoke has its own language? It is referred to Ocracoke Brogue. Around town I have heard some of the dialect but didn’t really think too much about it until I saw the exhibit and video. Following are some words and their meaning that you might hear during your visit to the island. Also if you visit this little museum, check out the video. There is a really cute story about some Ocracoke men, two coolers of oysters, and a trip to Las Vegas. Hysterical!!!

hoi toide on the saind soid - high tide on the sound side

Buck- a friend

Mommuck-to harass or bother Young'uns hain't I been mommucked this day" classic island statement. You can Mommuck something up.

Call the mail over-distribute the mail.

Catawampus-in a diagonal position, crooked. Used in a sentence it would be, "The boxes in the general store are piled up catawampus."

Dingbatter-nonnative of Ocracoke.(tourist) "The dingbatter kept getting his fishing line tangled up with mine."

Meehonkey- Game of hide and seek

After the museum we headed back to the campground. We stopped by the local grocery/harware/liquor store to pick up some bug spray, charcoal, and chicken. I had a thought that maybe the charcoal would be hot enough in the grill to get our wood to burn.

Once we got back to our camp I put the chicken in a pot and covered it with marinade and Marie and I decided to head across the dunes to see the water. The sand was so soft and cool on my feet and as we walked little ghost crabs scurried all over the place. We reached the water and a wave came up and washed over my feet. I was amazed at how warm the water was. It felt so good after spending the entire day walking. The sun was starting to set so we headed back over to our campsite to cook dinner. Chicken on the grill in some sort of a lemon marinade and garlic mash potatoes. It actually turned out really well. After dinner I lowered the grill plate close to the coals and we stacked the firewood on top. Within minutes it was up in flames. Yea! We made some smores and drank yet another bottle of wine. Once the bottle was empty it was time to say goodnight and we headed into our tents

Coming Soon…The conclusion to the great camping adventure. But until then…I have posted a few pictures from our trip. Check them out. Camping Photos

Also check out Marie's Day Two Blog Post