Smith's Road Trip 2013: Day 6-10



This is the final leg of our trip. We wanted to relax and not be on the road the last half of vacation. So where do you go to relax? The beach of course! We went to the Outerbanks in North Carolina. We love this place so much. It's laid back and not as commercialized as Myrtle Beach is. We also LOVE the fact that you can drive on the beach in the designated areas. A huge plus to that is you can get up close and personal with the wild horses that roam the island. The hubs loves to play on the dunes and ride forever on the beach. I was hoping all week to get a family photo so, I got out the tripod and set it up in the sand and took some shots with the timer and continuous shot to get at least one good one out of ten! ha! I got some good ones, but I will spare you all of those! The day we were out on the beach it was hazy the whole day and kept looking like it was going to rain at any moment, but it didn't. No one was playing in the water because it was cold out. Strange weather for the summer. But people were hanging out on the beach playing games and fishing.

We stayed at the Outerbanks for 3 days. It rained almost the whole time other than going to drive on the beach. We shopped and relaxed the whole time. It was nice to not have places to run to to site see like we did earlier in the week. I think we were all 3 tired.

Friday we rolled into Boone, NC. We had reservations to visit Turtle Island on Saturday! Turtle Island you say? Have you ever watched Mountain Men on the History Channel? Well the hubs LOVES that show, especially Eustace Conway! The hubs would love to live like he does! He found out that you can take a tour at his place, Turtle Island Preserve, so he got online and got the number to call and made a reservation for the end of our rode trip! Boy, was it a great end to our trip! When we arrived we were so excited to see what we would see or encounter while at T.I. While walking to the Base Camp we came across tee pees that Eustace had lived in and a building that was a place of rest that a boys youth camp had built one summer.

After meeting with some of the interns, Zane found the tree house. He just had to go up, which was fine. It was up very high and Steve went up too so that he could make sure Zane was safe. He made it and was happy that he went up! Then we hitched a ride with Eustace for our tour. He was the most personable, humble, wise man that I had ever met. Fame isn't his thing. He is so down to earth and just loved Zane. Zane was enamored by him. We rode in that buggy for two hours! It was a lot to see! We talked to Eustace the whole tour! He asked what we did for a living and where we lived. Like I said, so personable. When he found out that Steve has mechanical skills, he invited Steve to stick around to work on things around Turtle Island. He could volunteer anytime and Eustace would love to have him! That just tickled the Hubs to death! He plans to go back once he gets some free time! After our buggy ride, we walked around looking at different things and we found some snakes. I'm talking like 4 or 5 different snakes getting warm on some rocks in the foundation of one of the buildings. Well Eustace pointed out the garter snakes, some black snakes, and then I impressed him and pointed out a copperhead. It felt good for me, being the only girl! ha!We left it alone, but after he walked us to the base camp, he went back and caught that copperhead and put it in a bucket to do away with later. We bought some t-shirts and a book Eustace wrote from the items he had for sale. He came back over and signed the book for us and wrote it to Zane. Talk about tearing up. This Moma did!

We plan to go back sometime for one of the family camps that they do. It will be an adventure that we will talk about for years to come! This tour will be something that none of us will never forget.

Thank you Eustace Conway and your interns for having us and being so welcoming and gracious to us while we were there. See ya soon!

Note: This is NOT a very flattering picture of me. I look I'm stiff necked with a tire around my midsection. Wait, that tire, it's just a fat roll. Keepin real. haha! We didn't take a lot of pictures because we were taking it all in. This is as good as it gets!

We had a great vacation and I'm thankful that we were able to take such a trip. We love to travel and that is what we did. I cannot wait to see what next summer holds. Watch out, we may come to a location near you!



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