Pamlico Sound/Neuse River to Oriental, NC

We left Dowry Creek Marina at dawn on Thursday. Once again, the wind forecast was for close to 20 mph, and we were hoping to beat the bigger waves by leaving early. Once again, it paid off, and we had good weather and water for our trip to Oriental...except for the continued colder than normal temperatures!

Along the way, we spotted our first shrimp boat. They're so neat looking with the "arms" and nets and such, complete with sea gulls in their wake. A few sea gulls, who must have had a bad sense of smell, followed our boat for quite awhile. We also spotted a bald eagle along the way!

We came upon the guys who are traveling south in the sailboat with the mast down. It looks SO strange! Their trip has to be somewhat slower than normal, and more bumpy on these windy days, without the option to put up sails.

Oriental has a town dock with a small pier, which boaters are allowed to use, without charge, for up to 48 hours. It's a small dock, with room for three boats at most. Someone told Scott that he'd never get a spot at the dock, because it's always full. So now the gauntlet had been thrown down, and we were racing as fast as we could for Oriental. Thankfully, we came into the harbor, and saw only "Shorty" at the pier. He's the guy who's traveling south from New Jersey, in an 18ft. sailboat. So that left plenty of room for us on the other side of the pier.

We officially met John, "Shorty" once we were tied up. He and Scott chatted for quite awhile(think John's pretty lonely, traveling alone); he seems really nice. Another man showed up on the pier to talk to Scott. He's considering buying the same type of trawler, and was asking questions. He chose the right person to ask, because Scott loves to talk about his boats!

Oriental is a great little town. People are constantly doing slow dry-bys of the pier, in their cars, checking out who's at the town dock and neighboring pier. Across the street from the town dock is Beans, the local coffee shop. It has a constant flow of locals, most of whom hang out for hours, either inside or on the porch. They also eyeball the dock and marina, watching the comings and goings.

Once we got tied up and settled, we got our bikes down and did a check of the town. It reminds me of one of Maryland's Eastern Shore towns, like a St. Michaels, but on a smaller scale. We visited a few shops, and also hit the post office. On the way back, we passed a marine consignment store. Scott stopped short, at the collection of dingys and small boats outside. We went in to check it out. Lots of really neat and useful stuff, sold second hand. I chatted with the very friendly woman behind the counter, while Scott browsed. Unfortunately, we didn't NEED any of it, so Scott kept his control, and we left. He was still so excited that there was actually a consignment store for marine products, that he hopped onto my bike, instead of his. I discovered this when I tried to get onto his, thinking it was mine!

The town has only 800 permanent residents, and I think a big percentage of them are dogs. We've seen a lot of them. They all look very happy, and are definitely not strays. They just stroll up and down the street, and hang out with each other and greet people. I spied one of my favorites at the local provision company, napping on a dog bed. There is a really large dog, who spends most of his day sleeping on the porch at Beans. Scott has named his Boss Hog, as we've seen him keep other dogs in line with just a quick bark.

We met many friendly people as we browsed the town, and made a choice for dinner, the Oriental Steamer. It is housed in a old hardware store. The food was good, and the beer was cheaply priced; much to Scott's delight(we've also had VERY cold beer since we hit the Carolinas..yea!). They had a 15 layer cake on their dessert menu. The ladies of Smith Island, Md. make a similar, 7 layer cake. Thin layers of yellow cake, with chocolate icing between each layer and also covering the the outside. The 15 layer cake here was the same...yum!

After dinner, we headed to M&M Cafe for a beer. We'd been told that M&M was the local Cheers(or the "local" for those of you Londoners!). Sure enough, we found the bar full, with lots of local chatter. Scott and I ordered two bottles of beer, and were told that ALL drafts were 1.00, so we changed our order to two Blue Moon drafts instead. It was a really nice place, and we enjoyed hearing the locals chatt about town stuff. We walked back to the boat...it had gotten cold, as it has done every night for the past week or so. Thank God for flannel sheets!

Here are some pictures.