This is my final day in North Carolina.  I have enjoyed myself so much.  I cleaned house this morning and packed up the car.  Au Sommet was a lovely place to stay in the Outer Banks, and I am reluctant to leave it.  But there are still a few adventures I’d like to have here in North Carolina before I head home. 

After packing the car, I headed up through the small town of Duck to Corrolla, where stands the beautiful Currituck Beach lighthouse.   There was a fence around the property, in which stood the massive red brick lighthouse and several other whitewashed clapboard houses, scattered through the trees and lovely grounds.  A Springer spaniel wagged his way to the gate as I peered over it, hesitant to enter the grounds since a big message had been posted on the lighthouse sign saying everything was closed.  

Having driven all this way, I wandered the road outside the fence, trying to get a good view of the lighthouse, but the trees kept getting in the way.  Then I saw a girl enter the grounds with her camera, and decided if she could go in, so could I.  I meandered back to the gate and was greeted with enthusiasm by the spaniel, who then trotted merrily away with a flap of the ears.  Meekly, I wandered down the path and asked the girl if it was okay to take pictures, even though the lighthouse was closed.  She gravely told me she had been given permission by the groundskeeper, and thought it was fine for me too.  Then she told me the dog’s name was Henry, and went on to speak of her father, who had been in the armed forces in this region and had been assigned to help clean up and restore part of this lighthouse many years ago.  It was the family connection that had brought her to the lighthouse this chilly day in January.  As she completed her story, Henry came lopping up.  I called his name and he raced over to nose me enthusiastically.  The Navy man’s daughter threw a stick which Henry raced after and then made away with.  We both laughed, and I headed deeper into the grounds to take photos while she departed. 

After taking many pictures of the lighthouse – with a few self-portraits thrown in and a few pictures of Henry and the lighthouse too – I headed back through Corolla and Duck toward Roanoke Island.  I wanted to see the place where the Lost Colony had once stood.  I picked up lunch on the way, and arrived just in time to see a film about the Roanoke Colony. 

The story of the Lost Colony is an intriguing one.  Sir Walter Raleigh of England was looking for a place in the New World to build a colony.  In 1584 he sent explorers out to search for an ideal location, and they settled on the Roanoke Island as a good place for the English to settle in North America.  The low, narrow island lay between the treacherous Outer Banks and the mainland.   It was protected against the harsh winds and pounding surf of the barrier islands, and was characterized by thick marshlands and stands of live oaks.  Indeed, the island teemed with wildlife-and seemed a hospitable site for settlement. When the explorers returned to England with their report, Queen Elizabeth was impressed and she granted Raleigh a patent to all the lands he could occupy, naming the new land "Virginia", in honor of the Virgin Queen. 

Raleigh promptly sent a party of 100 soldiers, craftsmen and scholars to Roanoke Island to set up a garrison, but their efforts were doomed to failure.  They arrived too late to plant, and Lane – the captain – alienated the Roanoke Indians and murdered their chief, Wingina over a stolen cup.   By the time Sir Francis Drake stopped at Roanoke during one of his expeditions, Lane and his men had had enough. They abandoned the settlement and left behind a fort (a recreation of which can still be seen at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site today.)

Raleigh refused to give up.  He recruited 117 men, women and children for a more permanent settlement, and appointed John White governor of the new "City of Raleigh". Among the colonists were White's pregnant daughter, Eleanor Dare, his son-in-law Annanias Dare, and the Indian chief Manteo, who had become an ally during his stay in England. In 1587, the colonists journeyed from England to Roanoke Island on North Carolina's coast and established the first English settlement in America.   They unloaded their belonging and supplies and repaired Lane's fort. On August 18, 1587, Eleanor Dare gave birth to a daughter she named Virginia, thus earning the distinction of being the first English child born on American soil. Ten days later, the ship’s captain departed for England, taking along John White, who decided to return to England for much-needed supplies for the fledgling colony.

Upon his arrival in England, White found himself trapped there by the political situation (i.e. the impending invasion of the Spanish Armada). It wasn’t until three years later that he was able to return to Roanoke Island. He arrived on August 18, 1590--his grand daughter's third birthday--and found the “City of Raleigh” deserted, plundered, and surrounded by a palisade of great trees, as if it were a fort.  On one of the palisades, he found the single word "CROATOAN" carved into the surface, and the letters "CRO" carved into a nearby tree.   Hoping this meant that the colony (and his family) had traveled to Chief Manteo’s home on present-day Hatteras Island, White was preparing to follow them when a great hurricane arose, damaging his ships and forcing him to return to England.  He was never able to raise the funding to make the trip to America again, and he died never knowing what had happened to his family.  Indeed, no one ever found out what happened to the Lost Colony.   It remains a mystery to this day.   

I toured the little museum, before walking the grounds and seeing the recreation of the old Fort built by Lane.  It was easy to picture the colonists building here, settling here.  Then I wandered through the stage set of the Lost Colony – a theatrical production put on in an outdoor amphitheater every summer.  The stage backs right onto the Sound, which was windy and choppy and utterly gorgeous.  Finally, satisfied with my roaming, I headed back to the parking lot in the company of a lovely retired couple from Arizona who were taking a cross-country road trip through the southern states and up into New York.  Then I hopped in the car and programmed my GPS for this evenings destination – Salisbury, Maryland.  It looked like a four hour trip, and I really should get started.  But there was an intriguing sign for an Elizabethan Garden right next to Fort Raleigh, so I nipped over that way for a quick look.  And boy was I glad I did.  For a small fee, you could wander through a wonderland of gorgeous gardens with sculptures galore.  A sunken garden had a 16^th century fountain at the center.  There was a rose garden next to a larger-than-life statue of Queen Elizabeth the First – complete with ruff around her neck! 

One of my favorite places in that lovely garden was a thatched English gazebo overlooking the place where the Lost Colonists first set foot on Roanoke Island.  Not far from it was a statue of the young Virginia Dare – about whom many folktales have arisen.  The most romantic of these is that she grew up among the Native Americans, and when she came of age – being beautiful of face and form – was much sought after by the young man.  And old wizard also fell in love with her and turned her into a white deer so that she could not marry the warrior of her choice.  After much searching, the warrior found out he could change her back if he shot her with a magic arrow.  Unfortunately, the warrior and the magician both shot the white deer at the same moment, one to transform and one to kill.  The lovely girl turned back into a human, but so greviously injured was she by the wizard’s shot that she died in her lovers arms.  And thus ends the sad tale of Virginia Dare. 

It was getting late, and I had a long drive ahead, so I reluctantly took my leave of the garden.  What a lovely trip I have had, I mused as I headed North along the Outer Banks toward Virginia.  I have gathered many new stories for my book, as well as making many new friends.  A wonderful experience.  With great reluctance, I crossed the border into Virginia and bade farewell to North Carolina.  I'll come again soon!