At six on Saturday morning it was 54 degrees, and I was sitting in a camp chair wrapped in the old blue comforter with my hands around a mug of coffee, watching the light come up over the Cape Fear River. Wes was already down at the marina looking at boats he will never buy.
Back in April we camped one night at Jones Lake, and I said then that the next time would be in the fall. This was the fall. Two nights at Carolina Beach State Park, October 10 through 12, and I think we may have found our favorite season to sleep outside.
Why October
Summer camping near the coast in North Carolina means 90 degrees at bedtime, sticky sheets and mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds. Spring is better, but the gnats can be mean. By the second week of October the nights drop into the 50s, the days sit in the 70s, and the bugs mostly give up. The beach towns empty out after Labor Day, so traffic on the way in is light and the campground is half full.
It was also the first trip on the CR-V's new tires. Wes had four put on the Saturday before at 118,000 miles, and he checked the pressure twice before we left, once at the house and once at the gas station in Whiteville, because new tires deserve attention.
Our site cost $28 a night and sat in the loop closest to the park's marina, under live oaks and pines, sandy underfoot and a short walk to a bathhouse with hot showers. We had Tonya's tent again, and this time we put it up in twelve minutes, which Wes says counts as a family record. I brought a foam pad to go under the air mattress, and it held through both nights. I slept like a rock.
The park itself has a few miles of trails through the sandhills along the river, including the Flytrap Trail, where you can see Venus flytraps growing wild if you look closely and keep your hands to yourself. We walked the river trail at sunset Friday and the flytrap loop Saturday morning.
Fort Fisher and the fish dinner
Saturday we drove ten minutes down to Kure Beach and Fort Fisher. We walked the earthworks at the fort site, which is free, and then spent most of the afternoon at the aquarium, which is not. Wes stood at the big tank for a long time watching the sand tiger sharks and said, "Those fellas look like they're thinking about something." It was the first time either of us had been inside.
Saturday night was our one splurge. We had a fried and broiled seafood dinner at a fish place near the Carolina Beach waterfront, flounder for me and shrimp and oysters for Wes, and we split banana pudding. Everything else came out of the cooler and off the camp stove: sausage and eggs, ham sandwiches, a pot of chili Friday night that I'd made at home and froze flat in a bag.
What two nights cost
Carolina Beach is about 110 miles from our house. With the drive to Fort Fisher and back we put about 230 miles on the car. At 28 miles to the gallon that is a little over 8 gallons, and we paid about $2.89.
- Campsite, 2 nights at $28: $56
- Gas, about 8.2 gallons at $2.89: $24
- Aquarium admission for two: $32
- Fish dinner with tip: $58
- Groceries for the cooler: $50
- Ice, firewood and a bag of boiled peanuts: $22
- Total: $242
Two nights, a beach, a state park, a fort, an aquarium and a real seafood supper, for $58 under our target. A motel room in Carolina Beach that same weekend would have run about $120 a night with tax, so the tent saved us close to $190 on beds alone.
This trip came a couple of weeks after our Outer Banks cottage got cancelled by the storm, and honestly I needed it. It was good to have a weekend go exactly the way I planned it. Mr. Earl got a jar of fig preserves from a stand on the way home, and June got her usual welcome-home biscuit from Tonya's porch. Next October, if the tent holds out, we're doing it again.
