The car had been booked in for a routine service on Monday and was ready by Tuesday lunch time so we decided as Cam was heading off on a business trip for a few days it was ideal timing for us to have our first trip away in the car towing the caravan. We left Durham early afternoon and headed down the I40 freeway towards the east to Jacksonville. It was extremely hot with the temperature outside sitting at 95 degrees F. We stopped a few times including at two lovely rest areas for travellers alongside the freeway. These areas are quite large, with air conditioned bathroom facilities, an onsite attendant, a vending machine area (must remember to take a photo sometime), picnic tables, dog exercise areas, lovely gardens and lots of trees. We thought them ideal for an overnight stop but they were sign posted "no overnight stays" so no luck there. We stayed three nights in a camping ground near Jacksonville which is quite a large town with a population of around 70,000. Jacksonville is the home of the U.S. Marine Corps Base which significantly helps to achieve the median age for the town of 22 years - the lowest in all the U.S. For the same reason it is the ideal place for single girls to find a partner as there are nearly twice as many men to females. The camping ground had "full hook ups" which means that besides water and electricity there is a sewer outlet (no need to empty the toilet cassette at a dump facility) grey water is disposed of through the sewer outlet, and cable television. Makes camping very easy even for us as we have an on board toilet and shower. Jacksonville is located close to the Southern Outer Banks. The outer banks is a 200 mile (320 kms) long string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina and a small portion of Virginia. The entire Outer Banks are a major tourist destination with many resorts and holiday homes and wide open beachfronts. The islands are connected by bridges or causeways and this area also has the White Oak River and Intracoastal waterway. Initially we visited Swansboro and Emerald Isle. Swansboro is a small town (population around 2000) which is situated on the mainland and has a bridge connecting it to Bogue Inlet and the beach area called Emerald Isle which is on a barrier island. The beach was absolutely beautiful - long sandy beach, small surf waves, and lots of people enjoying the water. The jetty was set up for fishing - seating, some of which was covered, fish cleaning areas, rod holders, specific area for king fishing. In winter this area has a population of less than 4000 which swells to 50,000 with summer visitors. It has a lovely relaxed feel - lots of three storied holiday homes and a few condominiums but no high rise buildings or hotels. There are still some of the original mobile holiday homes in the area. We enjoyed the surprisingly warm water - no photos of that as us in togs/bathers is a sight best not published. Swansboro is a quaint historic town with a waterfront community as it seems completely surrounded by water. There is a historic walk taking in a lot of the buildings on the waterfront which have survived since the town was a colonial port in 1783. Unfortunately for us it was just tipping 100 deg F when we visited so not ideal conditions for walking. We did a drive by of a number of the buildings though. We visited Hammocks Beach State Park. Early in the 20th century this land was owned by a wealthy New York doctor who loved to visit the area to hunt along with his African American hunting guide. He planned on giving the land to his friend in his will but his friend recommended he give it to the North Carolina Teachers Association which was an organisation of African American teachers. In 1961 it was designated a state park and due to segregation laws was open to African Americans only. It was desegregated in 1964 with the implementation of the Civil Rights Act. There are many activities within the park including boating, camping at Bear Island, fishing, and there are marine education programs. There is a boat service to Bear Island which would be a great day out but we visited late in the day. Back at the caravan Peter had a few repairs to do - the purpose of our shake down trip. One of the wooden supports under the seating was broken so now repaired and all the others reinforced, and the awning needed tightening before it came off. Just as well Peter has bought a few tools and doesn't mind a bit of DIY handyman tasks. We visited the War Memorial in Jacksonville - this is the only memorial in the U.S. where all he names of the Vietnam War fallen soldiers are recorded. The glass wall around the fountain lists those names. Another day we visited North Topsail Beach which is another extremely long and beautiful beach. It is vacation time here with school finishing two weeks ago so there were numerous families enjoying the beach. The holiday homes are so different to anything we have seen in NZ or Australia. The majority are three storied with lot is decks and stairs and individual long walkways direct on to the beach. It certainly has the holiday feeling. At the very north end of Topsail Beach we were surprised to see that some of the homes were severely damaged. Initially we thought that perhaps this had been caused by a hurricane but found out that the damage was from a series of winter storms which eroded the beaches causing damage to properties. Now a nine foot wall of sandbags has been built in an effort to save about twenty homes from the waves. The wooden stairways hang in mid air, sides of the buildings have collapsed and support beams have gone. It was terrible to see the destruction caused but not surprising when you see how close to the water they have been built. After three nights in Jacksonville we moved camps to Wilmington which is just 45 miles further south. We have found that the majority of campers have large fifth wheeler vans, large motor homes or 30 foot plus caravans. Our van at 18 foot looks decidedly a baby in comparison. The camp ground in Wilmington was very nice, with a lovely pool and great facilities and we had lovely neighbours who even gave us produce from their garden! The temperatures had not dropped so our planned walking tour of historic Wilmington (a tour I had done with Cam back in 2010) did not happen. Instead we walked along the waterfront, had ice creams at one of the speciality shops, wandered the shopping strip for a while then headed over the river to view the USS North Carolina which is permanently berthed in Wilmington as the State's memorial to its World War II veterans. Back at the camping ground we decided to cool off in the pool. We find that as soon as anyone hears our accents they want to know where we come from - no one ever guesses New Zealand and very occasionally get Australia after a number of guesses. The classic this night was a retired policeman who said that visiting Australia and New Zealand was on his bucket list of things to do, and then promptly asked us if you can drive to New Zealand from North Carolina. Saturday was a little cooler so we headed to Carolina Beach where we had initially planned to stay but couldn't get a camp booking. We were so pleased not to be staying there - it was so commercial after other beaches we had visited. There is a new wooden deck that has been built and that is pretty impressive and we enjoyed our lunch there. The day was quite windy and there were a few spits of rain so we continued exploring further south. We paid a visit to the Fort Fisher Museum. Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War protecting vital trading routes as the fort is located on one of Cape Fear River's two outlets to the Atlantic Ocean. The museum had some very interesting displays. When we finally reached the end of the road we opted to take the car ferry across the river to Southport and return to Wilmington. The ferry took 35 minutes and was able to take about fifty cars and passengers. Great value and bargain of the week at just $US5 for car and passengers. Southport was lovely - much quieter town getting ready for Independence Day next week with flags and banners flying. We stopped for a quick look through the Mariners museum. We noticed that it had been raining in Wilmington and when we reached the camp the staff were advising campers of safety precautions as a tornado was forecast however nothing eventuated other than ten minutes of heavy rain. We were lucky! Sunday morning we packed up and drove the short distance to Wrightsville Beach which is connected by bridge to Wilmington. It is a four mile long beach Island which a beautiful sandy beach. Being the week-end, and school holidays, there were many people on the beach enjoying a beautiful day and the temperature had dropped to the mid 80's so was much more bearable with lower humidity. The water was really warm and we enjoyed walking along the beach in the water to the jetty. We could have stayed much longer, but we were returning to Durham. On arrival back in Durham we found Cam planting out his chilli plants. Believe it or not he originally purchased one chilli plant when living in Moscow, and this plant is still growing in Ksenia's apartment in Moscow. After two years he bought one chilli over to the U.S. with him and this is the second season he has germinated seeds. Today he was planting out the seedlings which were about four inches high. He says the mixture of yellow and red chilli' makes a nice garden edible garden display. With gardening completed, and caravan all sorted, Peter and Cam enjoyed some relaxing time together trying out the fire pit that Cam has recently built. Meantime Nic (Cam's house mate) cooked an amazing selection of curries for dinner. It was much cooler tonight so we enjoyed dinner on the deck and then all relaxed around the fire pit for an hour or so.