After leaving Washington, we headed towards Norfolk, Virginia. This was partly because we had a Shaun related task, meeting up with an engineer who serviced our generator. This gave us an opportunity to use a Harvest Host we had heard about that we wanted to visit, Keystone Tractor Museum. Mark loves all things farming related, and in particular tractors, which was in large part due to his father’s work within the tractor industry. Mark really enjoyed seeing the hundreds of vintage tractors, and trucks, and they had some great American classic cars.

Being in Norfolk also gave Mark an opportunity to visit USS Wisconsin. This is an Iowa class battleship that served in the Pacific during WWII and is now a floating museum.

Julie visited the Chrysler Art Museum, which had a great collection of American art and even some good modern art pieces. But it was time for the beach, so we headed to the Outer Banks, over 100 miles of shoreline, and no cities, only small towns and villages, and no we haven’t watched the TV series of the same name. 

First off, some history, which closed a circle started in Washington in the National Air and Space Museum. Whilst we were there, we were lucky to see the actual Wright Flyer aircraft, that completed the  first controlled and sustained flight of an engine powered plane, on 17 December 1903. This was done at Kill Devil Hills, chosen for its windiness and plenty of sand. So we were able to visit the site, now a National Park, and see where this happened and see the memorial to the clever and determined brothers.

More history followed the next day when we visited Roanoke Island and the place the lost colony went missing from. This was established in 1585, but 5 years later when some of the original founders returned they could find no trace of them, very mysterious. Historians have still not definitively found out what happened to them. This place also had interesting and ultimately sad history connected to the Civil War; it was the site of the Freedman Colony, established for a community of freedom seekers, African Americans in 1862. Unfortunately at the end of the civil war the land was eventually returned to the previous occupiers, so the community lost the base it was promised.

After visiting here we drove further along the Outer Banks and stayed at a national park campground at Ocracoke. This is a huge campground, next to the ocean, and it was so out of season we were one of about 3 others, including the host. We really enjoyed the peace, quiet and nature for 3 nights, along with gorgeous sunrises and sunsets!

We cycled into the village of Ocracoke which we could see would be a lovely destination for holiday makers, in fact half the properties were holiday rentals. This part of the world was known for its pirates, including the infamous Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, they liked this area as it was easy to hide in and there were plenty of ships to steal from!

From Ocracoke we caught a ferry to the mainland and continued south. We were able to take an opportunity to meet friends met at the Overland Expo, fellow owners of an orange truck which AJ and Vicki built themselves, an impressive rig. They live on a waterfront property and we spent lovely evening with them, they were so hospitable, definitely had the southern warmth we had read about. Mark even got an opportunity to wash Shaun for the first time since Canada!

We left AJ and Vicki and drove on to Charleston, North Carolina. We spent a day exploring the cultural history of Charleston; it used to be a big slave trading port. They have converted an old Slave Mart into a really informative museum.

It is full of beautiful historic buildings and there were a lot of live oaks and the accompanying spanish moss. Overall a very attractive town.

On our way to next major destination we stayed at a Harvest Host that was a Drive in, another cultural experience we have seen in the movies and got to experience in Shaun. The woman who ran it told us it operated at a loss, but she was committed to keeping it going for the community. We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Wicked, a double bill, from the comfort of our own home!

The next day we drove to Savannah, Georgia and the Deep South. We were staying at a Harvest Host, a local brewery. This was really close to the centre, so we got to go in for the evening and back in the next day for the full tour. Savannah is a really pretty city, it has 22 green squares. One of them is particularly famous as it was the square used at the start of Forrest Gump, where he talks to people as they wait for buses. Of course, it doesn’t actually look like how it does in the film!

Savannah also has a long association with the use of slaves. We went to see one of the historical houses and the our guide was able to explain how the lives of master and enslaved people were different. She showed us a room which had a harp in, and I was able to explain that was probably because the original owner of the house was from Wales! They told us one of the chores the enslaved people had to do was take the carpet, which was made up of squares stitched together, unstitch it, take it outside every summer to clean and then put back together!

When we got back to Shaun after our second evening in Savannah we found another Overlander parked next to us, also from the UK. We managed to have a chat with them, they are a family of 4, 2 children who are travelling in the USA for 11 months. What a great experience for their girls, who are being home tutored along the way.

We had one last stop to make before heading into Florida, Wormsloe Historic site, which was the site one of the earliest settlers in Savannah lived. His grandson planted a 1.5 mile avenue of live oaks, which reminded us of one of the scenes in Forrest Gump, although it wasn’t actually used in the film. We really enjoyed walking down the avenue and seeing the ruins of the original tabby built house. Tabby is a type of concrete made of lime and shells, and many early houses in this area were constructed with this material.

So, we have sampled some beautiful cities, learnt a lot of history about the area, now it’s time to go to Florida for some down time. Thank you for reading.