We were excited to begin our visit to the Outer Banks with a week’s stay at Cedar Island Resort in NC. The website painted a lovely picture of a large park with tons of amenities. With a private beach, Ocracoke Ferry Terminal, horseback riding, kayaking, a restaurant and canoeing we figured we were getting quite a bit of bang for our buck. And we had been to so many fabulous parks, like Barefoot RV Resort in North Myrtle Beach, our expectations were high.

The horses were grazing right across from our RV.

Oh boy did we figure wrong. True, all of those thing were available. But! And that is a very big BUT. The RV sites are all on dirt making leveling a nightmare. There were beautiful horses right across from our site. But those horses brought flies galore. So every time we opened our door the flies thought we were inviting them in for a visit. We are very hospitable. But not to unwanted critters! Truly the only saving grace to this location was the beach. And because we were in the Sound the water was calm as can be and very shallow. We could walk out a couple 100 yards and still only be waist deep!

A public access beach on Cedar Island

And because it was brutally hot, we felt horseback riding and kayaking or canoeing were out of the question. Of course we decided to just make the best of it and take a couple of day trips. The problem there was that it took 45 minutes just to get to civilization. When I say there’s nothing in the area; I am not exaggerating. There are no supermarkets or even farm stands. Not even a small grocery store or general store. For miles all you see is marsh, water and desolate land with a few small unappealing houses.

Looking out our dinette window at the tent city being set up right next to us.

To make matters worse we spent the weekend with about a dozen tents right next to us that covered two RV sites. No social distancing at all. These people came to cook, eat, drink and party. They brought a bunch of large grills for smoky cooking. And also carted with them lots of coolers to keep food safe, all sorts of lights, and a variety of musical instruments. I know they had fun and I’m happy for that, but it was at the expense of everyone else’s  peace and quiet. I know that they were true campers. It’s just not my kind of camping and I felt like my privacy was being invaded with them all so close to our RV.

The Cedar Island Ferry coming in to the terminal

People we met on the beach had told us about a great place for tacos on Ocracoke Island. We also read that it’s a awesome place for shelling. So we got up early the next day to catch the ferry to Ocracoke. The convenient thing was that the ferry terminal was right there at Cedar Island Resort in NC. We walked to the ferry ticket office and by the time we got there we were dripping with sweat. It was about 102 degrees out. We noticed that there was a long line up of cars waiting to board. We also noticed that there was no ferry! The ferry had broken down, so no day trip to Ocracoke.

We still had several more days at Cedar Island so we just figured we’d go on Monday. That would be great because a family we met was going that day and it would be fun to spend time with them. Again we got up early. Walked to the ferry. And we were encourage by the fact that the ferry was there. Steve and I were looking forward to spending the day somewhere new, even if it did take 2.5 hours to get there. It would be a nice boat ride there and back. So we asked about the time for the return and found out that a different ferry would be returning. That ferry would depart Ocracoke at 1:30 pm. The ferry that usually comes back to Cedar Island leaves Ocracoke at 5:30 pm. But there would be no return that day.

The private beach at Cedar Island Resort in NC

The last thing we needed was to be stranded and not be able to get back to our little fur baby Hershi! So we just stayed put and lolled on the beach. Our friends were already on the ferry and we had no way of getting word to them. When they got off the ferry in Ocracoke they got a text about the cancelled return. So they had a whopping half hour to sight see before hustling to catch the return ferry. Boy were we glad we never got on!!!

There was wildlife right at the RV park the morning we left. A pack of wild horses came to the lake but the tame horses chased them off. And some black bulls tramped through the campground as well. This was all while we slept the morning we left, so we missed the excitement!

Steve and I could not wait for our week to be over so we could move on to a better location. But we ended up being stuck there for an extra day. This time the slides wouldn’t go in because our house batteries were dead! Again we found a wonderful mobile mechanic who fixed the problem, plus a few others that would probably have caused issues soon. We left a day later than planned. At least we learned that we don’t want to return to Cedar Island Resort NC! But if you like waaaaay out of the way places that are extremely rustic then this is the place to stay.