2011 Road Trip Day 4 Cape Hatterhas National Seashore.

I was no longer excited about camping on the beach. The sun, sand and heat really made me miss the trees and shade and dirt.

We had planned to spend one night at Cape Lookout and one at Cape Hatterhas and then move on but had skipped Lookout and already tired of Hatterhas. Some spots were a lot worse then ours and had dunes all over them even in the tent only area.

Ours was reasonably flat but sandy and lots of hidden hazards.

So we ate some breakfast and I set up the computer and found a new spot for the night. We took down our campsite in the already strong sun and packed it in the car. Then we rushed to the beach for relief.

The beach was again great and refreshing and lots of fun.

Once we were all feeling great we headed to a visitor center across the road and attended a ranger program on nature, mostly birds around the area.  Peanut answered a lot of questions and got his signature. Then we headed north to the Write Brothers National Monument.

We checked out a replica of their plane and watched a video and learned about them and Peanut earned the ranger badge.

Then we went back to the visitor center and Heath and Peanut went to a program about the geographic features of the islands and why they need lighthouses and how they work.

This was the last requirement for Peanut to earn his badge and he was then signed in.

Pumpkin had napped through the whole thing and was still sleeping strong. Once we had the badge we hopped in the van and drove to an unplanned stop near Richmond, VA. We had reserved a campsite from Ed Allen’s Campgrounds over the phone as the office was not open. On the way in it started to rain but just a little off and on. When we found the place we saw an awesome pool and playground and other stuff next to the office with an envelope on the door with our map, campsite number and some other info with our name on it. We followed the map and discovered the campsite was huge with a ton of space and campsites and not many people and lots of shade. The rain was not bad but we decided to leave our site and park next to a big shelter used for concerts or performances of some sort and cook our dinner and wait out the rain.

We set up our little mobile kitchen. Washed our dishes we had skipped the night before and then tossed some chicken rice packets in a pot of water. We added kidney beans, mixed vegetables and sweat and sour tuna.

Heath and I added buffalo sauce for some kick to ours. It was a massive pot and we chowed down on it.

While eating dinner the rain got harder and harder and the thunder hit more and more and then we had a really exciting storm on our hands. The trees were shaking and the rain was hitting us as it blew in from the sides. The ground turned into puddles all around the shelter and eventually they got so big they emptied into the shelter in many spots. We decided out campsite was soaked and for a while it seemed like the storm was going to stay for a while. Once our dinner was all gone and we were stuffed we backed the end of the van into the shelter and then set up our tent in it. Peanut built a much needed moat around our area to keep the flood out.

It was really exciting and everyone worked together and made our campsite storm proof.

Once we were good and dug in the storm let up. We decided to stay put as it was still thundering occasionally and raining a little but the hard rain and wind had stopped. We added a kids tent to our setup and put away our kitchen.

The kids headed to bed and we packed everything away for the night. It was a little early even for us on a vacation so Heath and I climbed in our tent and she read National Geographic and I got caught up on the posts. It’s probably about 15F cooler tonight and between the trees and the big wood shelter we should have a dark cool morning. So I’m going to bed now at 8:30 listening to the remaining rain drops hit the tin roof above our tent and hoping when the office opens in the morning they are not upset we are not where we belong.