November 11, 2007: Georgia/North Carolina Trip Day 9
	November 9, 2007: Georgia/North Carolina Trip Day 7
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At Joe and Barbara's

We arose early at the hotel and got all checked out, and then arrived back at Joe's house by ten o'clock. Barbara had coffee made, so we poured ourselves a cup and crossed the main hall to sit in the den and plan the day.

Fred and I did not know much about the area, so Joe thought that we ought to go get some breakfast and then drive over to a few places at the beach- one on Camp Lejeune and one on public property. So we piled in Joe's car and drove a couple of blocks to a small mom-and-pop restaurant for a surprisingly good breakfast before heading to the beach.

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Walking the Beach

After we finished with breakfast, Joe drove us a short ways down the highway and then through one of the main gates for Camp Lejeune. Joe and Barbara did not move to Jacksonville by accident. Having retired from the Army, Joe has the right to use the facilities at any military installation- including the PX and stuff like that. Joe and Barbara take advantage of all that they can, and, having been an officer, Joe has a modicum of status on base.

One of the things he can do is drive through the installation, sometimes going through areas that are off-limits to the public. We did not do that today, though, as Joe took a highway that actually just goes through the base on its way down the coast- a highway anyone can use. He turned off towards Onslow Beach, which is an area on base that military families can use during the year. There are beach houses that military families can sign up for and use; there are separate areas for officer and enlisted families (with the officer housing being slightly better than the enlisted, as usual).

Strolling Along the Beach

Crossing the drawbridge onto the barrier island, we drove just a short ways north to a parking area, then left the car and went through the beach access. Onslow Beach is very wide, much like Daytona Beach in Florida. This view, in fact, looks south in that direction. This morning we are just going to stroll along the beach, down a ways and then back to the car. It's chilly, so there won't be any swimming, of course.

When our beach walk is done, we are going to stop and examine the bridge we came over; there seemed to be a lot of people around it- probably fishing.

Other than the fact that it was chilly, it was a beautiful day for walking along the beach. To get to the beach itself, we just had to come down the beach access walkway; once we did, we were on the beach proper. When we came out onto the beach, the first thing Fred saw was the large group of seagulls right in front of the access point. He could only get so close to them before they wheeled away down the beach.

So we just began walking south along the beach, enjoying the day and seeing what we could see. After a ways, we noticed that Joe had dropped behind - looking for shells, Barbara told us, one of the things he likes to do at the beach. And there were a lot of them, some quite pretty, and I think each of us brought home a pocketful.

As we walked along the beach, I took a movie of the group, and you can watch that movie with the player at left.

We spend over an hour just walking along the beach, looking for shells, talking and taking pictures. I've put thumbnails below for some of the best pictures Fred and I took. You can look at as many of the full-sized images as you like by clicking on the appropriate thumbnails:

After a while, when we'd walked long enough, we headed back to the car.

The Rotating Drawbridge

We were going to leave Onslow Beach and head down a bit further south along the coast, but when we got to the bridge leading back across the Intracoastal Waterway to Camp Lejeune, we found that we were going to have to stop for the bridge anyway, so we decided to get off the road and park and walk out onto a nearby dock to watch the bridge open and the boat traffic go through. Fred took a short movie of us going out onto the dock, and you can watch that movie with the player below:

I guess I had expected the normal drawbridge, like the ones all over south Florida, but this one was different. The bridge was supported in the middle of the waterway on a pedestal, and when the bridge opened, it did not raise up but rather rotated on this pedestal, as you can see it doing in the picture at left. This seemed like a very odd design; much of the space across the water was taken up by the bridge even when fully open, so there would be a limit on how wide a boat could be to go through. But, on the other hand, there would be no limit to the height of a boat, unlike some bridges in Florida. But I suppose the real reason for the design would be that if it were a raised drawbridge, there would have to be approaches built on either side to raise the roadway enough to install the mechanism for the bridge, and there was just not that much room here.

We all walked out on the dock, where we watched the bridge opening and where Joe and Barbara stood in the wind and watched the boats go past the dock and through the bridge opening. We were out on the dock about twenty minutes (better than sitting in the car on the roadway waiting), and both Fred and I took quite a few pictures. I have put thumbnails for some of these pictures below; to see the full-size images, just click on the thumbnails:

Once the bridge had started to rotate back into a closed position, we left the dock and got back up on the road, ready to head south to our next destination.

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Visiting the New River Inlet

Joe wanted to take us over to the south side of the New River Inlet, but there was no ocean road to take because there is no bridge across the inlet. So we headed back into Camp Lejeune and picked up the highway again, following it west and then south across the bridge into Sneads Ferry. We went through that town and then picked up the road over to the beach, crossing another bridge to get to the barrier island. Then we could drive about four miles along the beach road, heading northeast along the ocean, past Chadwick Acres to the inlet.

When we got to the end of the road, we just parked alongside the road and walked through a property on the beachfront to come out onto the beach itself.

This part of our trip this morning was immensely interesting- if a bit disconcerting. We have all heard, certainly, about the problems associated with "global warming," and how one of these problems may well result in a gradual rise in sea levels. Other problems include more intense storms, and weather pattern changes. Here, at New River Inlet, these problems seem all too real.

That's one reason why I wanted to supply an aerial view of the part of the beach where we arrived after parking the car. You can clearly see in the aerial view (and, of course in the pictures coming up) that there is/was an entire row of beachfront houses in front of the row currently occupied. And this front row of houses has and is being slowly destroyed by a combination of rising sea levels and more intense storms.

This destruction has not happened overnight. Apparently, the front row of houses date from the 1970s and 1980s; the newer houses along the street are only five years old or so; some are still under construction. So in the last twenty-five years, and entire row of houses has slowly been eaten away. Some have collapsed already and their debris removed. The ones you see in the aerial view are all unoccupied and condemned. Very sad for the folks who used to own them, but I sometimes wonder if the folks occupying the homes one row back think that mother nature will stop at the one row of houses and leave them alone. I think not.

As we drove up the beachfront road towards the inlet, we passed hundreds of relatively new houses that have been built here at the beach. Many of them are right along the beach, although some of the homes have been built away from the beach a couple of hundred feet or so. Many of these are homes along the Intracoastal. But we must have passed two or three hundred homes; this area is very crowded.

As I said, we parked and walked alongside one of the beach houses to get to the beach itself. If you look at the aerial view above, you'll see that we walked between two houses; this is the house on the left. You can see that the ocean has already come up to the foundation of even this house.

But the really amazing thing is the row of beachfront homes off to the left. These homes, which used to be up on the dunes like the ones behind us, are now actually in the water! Take a close look at the home nearest to us; you can see that even now, at relatively low tide, the ocean is lapping at the piers on which the house was built. There is a large "condemned" sign on the structure, and it is not hard to see why it is there. The ocean used to be as far in front of this house as it is from the homes behind it, and if anyone doubts that the ocean levels are changing, they have only to come here to see what is happening on the North Carolina barrier islands.

Joe walked down towards the house a ways while Barbara and Fred looked down the beach at the amazing sight.

Before we left the beach, Fred took some pictures of the boat traffic around the mouth of the inlet, and I have put thumbnails for four of the best of these below. To see the full-size pictures, just click on the thumbnails:

As we drove back across the bridge to Snead's Ferry, Fred took a number of pictures looking north of the marshes, the Intracoastal, the many homes and condominiums and the ocean. I've put thumbnails for some of these below; to see the full-size pictures, just click on the thumbnails:

Finally, as we drove back through Snead's Ferry to Highway 17, Fred saw an amusing display outside a store selling boating supplies. To see this display (and I think you should), just click on the thumbnails below:

We went back to Joe and Barbara's house, and had a chance for a final visit before we reluctantly headed off down the coast towards Savannah.

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Driving to Savannah

Driving to Savannah was pretty straightforward, following a route that I had driven much of before.

We left Jacksonville and headed south on US17, the same highway that we'd returned on from Snead's Ferry earlier in the day. This highway took us all the way to Wilmington, where we took the bypass expressway around the city. Then we continued south on US17. We passed into South Carolina at Calabash; although this area has great seafood, it was way too early to stop for dinner. Just before we got into Myrtle Beach, I found a Baskin-Robbins I had never visited before, so we stopped for a scoop.

Then we went through Myrtle Beach. There is no bypass here, but in any event I was trying to find the store that I had shopped at some years ago and found so much really neat buffalo stuff for Fred. I thought I remembered what the shop had looked like, but the area had changed so much that it was either gone, or I missed it. We continued down the highway to Georgetown.

At Georgetown, we figured that continuing down through Charleston would take too much time, so we headed west towards I-95. We had a bit of excitement when we went through the town of Andrews, SC. I was doing about 35 down the main street of Andrews when three small deer appeared in my headlights and, as the stories go, they froze. I swerved, but could not avoid hitting one of them. We stopped a few blocks up the road to check the car, but it was fine. From there, the trip to I-95 was uneventful and it was dark when we got to it.

From Manning, SC, the drive to Savannah was just a run down the interstate. The drive was pleasant, and, as usual, Fred and I just yakked about inconsequentials, and also tried to run through some bridge bidding rules (a topic that I try to return to whenever we have the time). It took about two hours to get down to Pooler, GA, a suburb of Savannah. We stopped there to see where the hotel was, and get a dinner recommendation.

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Dinner and Hotel

We'd stopped at the Pooler exit where our hotel was to be, but instead of taking the time to check in, since it was close to 9pm we stopped at a different hotel and got a dinner recommendation- the Dock Restaurant. To get there, we just got back on the expressway and went another seven miles south to Highway 204, and found the restaurant sitting near the highway on an artificial lake.

The restaurant was busy, but we got seated right away. We both had seafood platters, and the food was really good, if just a little pricey.

The last thing we had to do today was get to the hotel and check in. For the first time, we decided to stay at a Microtel; we had been seeing them frequently, and they looked new. The hotel turned out to be a good value, and the room was quite nice. We downloaded pictures and headed off to bed.

You can return to today's index or use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 11, 2007: Georgia/North Carolina Trip Day 9
	November 9, 2007: Georgia/North Carolina Trip Day 7
	Return to Main Index for Georgia/North Carolina Trip