The Outer Banks

It’s the last weekend of our big RV adventure, kids, and we’ve been parking in style at an oceanfront KOA campground in the Outer Banks on the coast of North Carolina. I say ocean front, not beach front, because between the whipping wind and freezing cold 8-foot waves, this is not so much like the “beach” (palm trees, drinks with umbrellas) as it a reminder of the many ways Mother Nature can kill you using 10 gabillion gallons of salt water. Just driving here on the ¼-mile wide island in the 20 mile-an-hour winds made me appreciate that in a hurricane, an RV in the Outer Banks is not the place to be. However, it really cool to see the water, and seeing as how we’ve been so busy throughout this trip, we decided to take inspiration from our beach environment and generally bum around all day.

We spent the morning camping in true Dobbs style – watching a few episodes of Project Runway with the trailer door open and eating microwave s’mores. When we got up the energy, we walked around the campsite and discovered, next to the mini-golf, what could possibly be the funnest way to hurt yourself ever: the jumping pillow. This is basically a giant inflatable bag thing that puffs up so that you can jump on it like a trampoline. Apparently, many of the KOAs we stayed at had these, but today was DJ’s and my first time on one (of course we didn’t discover these until the end of the trip), and we loved it so much, we did what any responsible parents would do: abandoned Roxie in her stroller so we could concentrate on double bouncing one another. It was awesome.

We also toddled down to the beach, but seeing as how it was only about 70 degrees and the winds were blowing, it was a bit short-lived. DJ was actually brave enough to get in the water however, and you can see below how he is having a great time nearly drowning in the rip tide and happily fleeing from the icy water.

David Hasselhoff, eat your heart out!

Tonight, we ate dinner at a little roadside joint within walking distance of the campground, and wandered back to the beach after sunset to check out the lovely full moon. Not too shabby as far as relaxation goes, and check out the nice view.

After 19 days, it’s hard to believe we have only one night left on the road, but we’ll be stopping through our last campsite tomorrow night in Florence, South Carolina, so we can arrive home in Atlanta on Tuesday. Here’s hoping they have a spot for us -- and a jumping pillow!