Back in May we spent 3 days in a little town off the North Carolina coast, in the Outer Banks called Ocracoke. Its on Ocracoke Island and separated both by water and in some ways by time from the mainland.
We spent 3 days there and in that short time the stresses of life fell away as our contact with the world was limited by lack of cell phone service and limited Internet.
It’s not that these modern conveniences aren’t available on the island, they’re just available in very limited amounts. Our cell service, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile, were both “barless” and while our hosts at The Island Inn, the oldest functioning business on Ocracoke, said they had wireless Internet, I could barely get a signal.
To connect my Palm T|X wirelessly I could go to a local coffee/smoothie shop. The Ocracoke Coffee Company on Back Road offered great coffee, suburb smoothies, and a selection of fresh bagels and pastries daily. Grab your drink choice and a pastry if you want and relax on the deck to chat with locals and visitors. If you prefer, find a seat on the lawn in one of the Adirondack chairs or the rope hammock swing and enjoy you paper, or just watch the world go by.
If you want to surf the Internet, come early. The shop closes for the day at 1:00PM. A wireless connection after that can be found across the street at the town library after 2:00PM. You have to wait until that time because the town shares the shelves with the local school, K-12, and is reserved for their use until school is out for the day.
This town of about 800 has plenty to offer in restaurants. For dining on the Silver Lake harbor off Pamlico Sound try the Jolly Roger. The dining room is on a covered deck overlooking the docks where you can watch the boats cruising in and out of the harbor while the Ocracoke Lighthouse stands guard as it has since 1823.
The food is good and is a favorite of locals looking for a good hamburger. That’s not to say their seafood offerings are anything other than great, it’s just that many islanders tire of seafood, if you can believe that, and like a good ole slice of beef from time to time.
At about a mile square, you can walk just about anywhere you want to go in Ocracoke. If you’re not up to that, grab a bicycle from one of the several shops that rent them. Our hotel has them available at a rate that makes the regular shops “see red” according to owner Cee Newell who shares this tidbit with a twinkle in her eye.
I’ll chat a bit more about our experience on Ocracoke Island in another post, perhaps the next one. I’m still feeling the lingering effects of island life and I’m not too motivated right now to….
Later!
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
No comments:
Post a Comment