A free day, so Marcia and I drove the 30+ miles to Carolina Beach, which looks similar to Oceanside but with bigger more modern homes in bright pastels – a little gaudy, and colors we haven’t seen elsewhere.
A few miles south of Carolina Beach is Fort Fisher, a Confederate fort that guarded the Cape Fear River entrance. It was very important to the Confederacy because ships entering the port could unload at Wilmington, and in turn these provisions could be carried by train to support the war. The Union blockaded the port but nighttime blockade runners still got through.
In 1865 the Union had had enough of this last bastion of the Confederacy and bombarded the fort from sea for several days, after which Union troops advanced across the beach and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, “Glory” style. The attackers were driven off which started another three days of bombardment and another siege, and the fort finally fell.
Well, wouldn’t you know, today was Monday, and the fort museum was closed. We were able to walk the earthworks, however, and imagine how things must have been.
We continued south a short distance and took the 30-mnute ferry ride ($5) across the Cape Fear River to Southport, a small community little changed from a hundred-plus years ago. Cute wooden cottages, with one “craftsman” style beach-front fixer-upper yours for $1.5M (agent on duty). Real estate is crazy here too.
We had lunch at a little outside restaurant that could have easily been in San Felipe, flies and all. But the food was good, attitude great, and the beer welcome.
After lunch we drove to Oak Island, a peninsula with a 1957 light house, the last lighthouse built in the US.
Today was a loop trip for us but we got lost, finally trusting the god GPS, which also seemed challenged. We got back to camp later than intended and tired, with the GPS still muttering about additional turns we needed to make.
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