Story: A Wild Adventure in the Outer Banks of North Carolina

It was the weekend after Labor Day and most of the tourists had left the Outer Banks. My son had won a weeks stay at his bosses condo and had invited our best friends for the week and we went up to visit for the weekend. An adventure is always to be had when we all get together, but little did we know that this would be one wild adventure!

My son and his wife and our best friends had already taken the wild horse tour before my husband and I arrived. I was so looking forward to seeing these creatures that are allowed to roam freely over the norther portion of the Outer Banks. So I was dissappointed to learn that they had already done the tour. But being sports they all said we'll do it again. So the reservations were made and we waited for the next afternoon to arrive.

A little background is needed at this point. Two hurricanes had passed by the Outer Banks in as many weeks prior to our trip. So things were a little damp.

The time arrived for our tour and we met our guide, Rich, and all seven of us piled into the 4 wheel drive vehicle. We headed up the highway and then made a sharp turn to the Atlantic. The pavement dissapeared and all that was uder our wheels was sand. We drove for a little bit without seeing any horses. Rich decided at this point to head inland a bit over the dunes. As soon as we rounded the top of the dunes we were confronted with our first obstacle. There was a rather large dip in the dirt road ahead and it was filled with water. Decision time! Do we plow forward or go around? Well, there was a gentleman standing off to the right and he just shook his head. This convinved Rich to go around.

We traveled up the road a piece dodging pudldles of various sizes. It made for a bouncy ride but it was fun. After about 10 minutes we spied our first horses! They were beautiful. Standing in the water eating the grass. We travelled on a bit more and saw more horses. They have free roam of the island and were in the yards of multi-million dollar houses and along the dirt roads.

Rich told us that he was going to take us to the North Carolina Virginia border in a different way than he had taken the group previously. We all shouted YES! He headed the vehicle up this rutted road that had many puddles in it. As we travelled the puddles kept getting deeper and deeper. Soon it looked like a river ahead of us. My daughter-in-law, sitting to my left, began to get nervous. We assured her that everything would be okay. Well about five minutes went by and my son who was sitting shotgun starting getting wet. The water began pooring in! At this point everyone decided it was time to quit the river and go the normal route up to the border. We headed back out to the beach and up highway 12. We made it to the fence that marks the end of North Carolina and turned around.

On the way back to Corolla, we passed by the old Coast Guard Station where U boat soldiers landed. Shortly after we passed by here there was a distinct smell of anti-freeze. Then Rich said the car was overheating and he turned on the heat. My poor son was now not only wet but swealtering in the fron seat. Five more minutes and the car quit.

We all jumped out and just told Rich that we had planned to take a walk on the beach that day anyhow. We started walking and aughing and just enjoying the unusual circumstances that had brought us to this point in the day. Rich certainly had provided us with a true adventure, one that we will all remember.

By the way, Rich eventually got the car started and caught up with us and we drove back to Corlolla.