This is near the end of my seven day road trip from Jacksonville, Florida to Norfolk, Virginia. After about 1,000 miles of driving, there are only another 100 miles left to reach Norfolk, Virginia. I sit in a hotel room a few miles from the Wright Brothers National Memorial on the barrier islands in the Outer Banks town of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
I spent long days touring on my own as I traveled the southeastern Atlantic coast. In reality my experiences of the past week may be the only time I ever visit this part of the world. One of the facts of life as a traveler is every time you revisit a place, then you are passing up an opportunity to visit some place new. And when you are focused on visiting new places, you pass up the opportunity to revisit some place.
Savannah, Georgia – the coolest place I’ve ever been in the south, despite the searing heat during my visit.
Rural South Carolina – In search of something totally different from the gated communities and golf resorts of Hilton Head, I drove off into the swamps looking for a more authentic South Carolina. I was looking for alligators on a road that went into the swamp. I emerged from the swamp into an historic slave plantation.
Old Oak tree on White Hall Plantation.
In my quest to see an American alligator in the wild, I was successful.
That image is not quite as impressive as this image when the alligator partially emerged from the water to rest on land.
The alligator a little while later is half on land and half in water to reveal a sizeable animal in the Francis Marion National Forest. Another guy told me he thought this alligator was 5 to 6 feet long. Looks bigger to me. I estimated 8 feet in length. Neither of us were going to get close enough for a more precise measurement.
Pamlico Sound, North Carolina
There is a reason the Outer Banks of North Carolina are called the ‘graveyard of the Atlantic’. One minute you are in the ocean and the next minute you are almost on dry land.
Standing on nearly dry land in the Atlantic Ocean far removed from the main islands.
I like to think that I will be back to these places for more experiences, encounters and photos. Honestly, it is hard to say I’ll ever be back this way. There are so many places to travel and experience in this world. So I made an effort to see and experience as much as I could this past week. If I’m ever back this way, I’ll have the opportunity to develop a better understanding of the region. And if not, I’ll fly out of Norfolk, Virginia tomorrow with a lifetime of memories from the places and things I have seen and people I met during this past week of travel in southeast coastal USA.
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