Somewhere out in the Atlantic lives a slow-moving tropical storm named Ana, and she is causing problems for us in the Flanner’s Beach campground. She has already sent bands of rain our way, and has slowed our pace from a “stay two nights and move on” mentality to one of “when will get out of here?” The issue is that our intended route from here is to load the RV on a ferry and head out to Ocracoke, our first stop on the Outer Banks.
The actual beach that this campground gets its name from is merely a sandy strip along the Neuse river. During breaks in the bands of rain, we spent a lot of time walking the beach and picking every single dandelion in the park above the beach. We had the place mostly to ourselves…because nobody voluntarily goes camping during a tropical storm.
On day two, we drove into the town of New Bern for a change of scenery. There was big antique car show going on, which was neat to see. We also found a playground in the cemetery of a church that was built in the 1700s. Really weird place to have a playground. New Bern is where Pepsi was invented, and we checked out the touristy little pharmacy where it originated. Moving on, we ate lunch at Persimmons, which was a nice looking place on the water. The food was nothing special, and Brooks couldn’t be contained at the table. Jennifer and I took turns eating while the other monitored Brooks as he turned the waiting area by the hostess stand into his personal kingdom. He entertained everybody that walked in or out; we weren’t quite as impressed.
At only $17 a night for water, electricity, and nice warm showers, it wasn’t all bad at Flanner’s Beach. With the entire area full of rain and wind, we paid to stay a third night to let things calm down. The bad weather had moved out the Outer Banks by the next morning, but that was exactly where we were headed, on the open water no less. We almost stayed one more day, but couldn’t take it anymore and headed towards the the coast. Since we were chasing the storm at that point, we figured we’d be ok.