Seventeenth Lighthouse Expedition

October 23 – 30, 1993
East Coast – North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia

October 23, 1993, Saturday

7:10 am

Left home

9:40 pm

Arrived at the Fairfeild Inn in Virginia Beach, Virginia. 795 Miles and a long day!

October 24, 1993, Sunday

8:30 am

Left the Fairfield in Virginia Beach.

10:50 am

Arrived at the Currituck Beach Light in Corolla, North Carolina at the northern part of the Outer Banks. We climbed to the top of the light and took several pictures. Left 11:30. We headed south after stopping at a couple shops. We drove around the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk. It was then Diana realized she’d left her wallet back in Duck. We called the store and they were holding it for her, so we had to backtrack many miles. We went to the visitors center and had a picnic lunch. Left 1:54.

2:20 pm

We arrived at the Bodie Island Light. We had been here previously on the 10th trip. Left 2:25 pm. – time was short because of our backtracking earlier in the day.

3:20 pm

Arrived at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Again a repeat of our 10th trip. They are restoring this light in hopes of keeping it from falling into the Atlantic.

4:00 pm

Took the ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke.

4:40 pm

Arrived in Ocracoke.

5:00 pm

We arrived at the Ocracoke Lighthouse. Left at 5:20. We found a room at the Harborside Motel. We had dinner at Captain Bens and were back to the motel at 7:15.

October 25, 1993, Monday

9:05 am

Left the Harborside Motel. Drove around Ocracoke a few minutes before going to the ferry dock.

9:55 am

The ferry left and we arrived at Cedar Island at 12:10. We ate lunch on the ferry.

1:00 pm

We took the ferry to Cape Lookout Lighthouse. We walked around, enjoyed the beach, took pictures and enjoyed a beautiful day.

4:00 pm

Arrived back on Harkers Island about 1 1/2 hours earlier than expected. We stopped in Beaufort and found T-shirts. Very pretty old town and waterfront with beautiful old homes.

7:10 pm

We arrived at the Fairfield in Wilmington. Had dinner at Chi-Chi’s and went back to the motel.

October 26, 1993, Tuesday

8:45 am

Left the Fairfield in Wilmington. Because of the rain, we decided not to take the ferry to Bald Island and Cape Fear.

10:20 am

We arrived at the Oak Island Lighthouse. Took pictures in the rain. Left 10:40 am.

12:10 pm

Arrived at Governor’s Lighthouse. This is a new light build in 1985 at Little River, South Carolina. It is dedicated to all South Carolina’s governors. You get to it through Light Keepers Village. It is a pretty black and white stripe with flowers and plants at the base. It was sprinkling at this point. Our stop at the South Carolina welcome station was helpful as they had a listing of the lighthouses. We ate lunch in Myrtle Beach overlooking the ocean in the rain.

3:20 pm

Arrived in McClellanville where off to the north we could see the Cape Romain Lighthouse. We arrived at Sullivans Island and saw the Charleston Lighthouse built in 1962. It looked like a square tower but turned out to be a triangle shaped tower. It was black and white with aluminium windows (what is this world coming to?) We took pictures from the road at the coast guard station. We could see the Morris Island Light from here. Left 4:30 pm.

5:50 pm

Arrived at the end of Folly Island and walked on beach to view Morris Island Light – about a 10 minute walk. Left 6:25. Ate at Captain D’s. Left 7:30 pm.

8:50 pm

We arrived at the Comfort Inn in Beaufort, South Carolina (Yes, there is also a Beaufort, North Carolina and while spelled the same, they are not pronounced the same!)

October 27, 1993, Wednesday

8:15 am.

Left the Comfort Inn in Beaufort, South Carolina.

8:55 am

Arrived at the visitors center at the state park on Hunting Island.

9:15 am

Arrived at the Hunting Island Lighthouse. It wasn’t open to the public until 10:00 a.m. The "keeper" let us up into the tower because he saw Don wearing his U. S. Lighthouse Society T-shirt and knew we weren’t just slightly interested in lighthouses. His name was Jim Warwick and he was a neat, friendly guy. He told us lots about the area. The view from the top was great. Left 10:28 am

12:15 pm

We arrived at the Harbour Town Marina Lighthouse on Hilton Head. Don took pictures and Diana shopped. This is a facsimile lighthouse built in 1970. We did not have any luck finding the old Hilton Head Lighthouse on private property.

1:40 pm

We parked in a public parking area and took our picnic lunch down to the beach. Left Hilton Head Island at 2:20 pm.

3:00 pm.

Arrived in Savannah. We took a 1 1/4 hour trolley tour of Historic Savannah. Diana particularly enjoyed this after reading Eugenia Price’s books. Part of the streets were blocked off because of a movie being made in town called Forrest Gump with Sally Field and Tom Hanks. (Footnote: we saw the movie in August of 1994.)

5:05 pm

We arrived at the Tybee Island Lighthouse.

5:25 pm

We saw another light in the water near the mouth of the Lazaretto Creek and we could not find any information on it. We named it the Savannah River South Channel Light. (We later found out this light is the Cockspur Island Light.) Don walked along the bridge to get pictures. Left 5:35 pm. We went to the Riverfront (called Factor’s Walk) and had dinner at Bahama Joe’s – swordfish. The riverfront area was very interesting. It was there we saw the statue of the Waving Girl. Left Savannah at 7:15 pm.

10:05 pm

Arrived at the Day’s Inn in Macon, GA.

October 28, 1993, Thursday

7:40 am

Left the Days Inn in Macon GA.

1:00 pm

Arrived in Tullahoma, TN to spend a couple days with Diana’s sister and brother-in-law.

October 30, 1993, Saturday

9:10 am

Left Tullahoma. Had lunch in Kentucky in the snow.

8:50 pm

Arrived home.

Trip Totals: 10 Lighthouses, 2 facsimile lighthouses, 2840 miles, 8 days

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Lighthouses: A Photographic Journey
Conceived and Developed by David S. Carter
Photographs by Donald W. Carter
Text by Diana K. Carter, Donald W. Carter & David S. Carter

Copyright © 1995, 1996 David S. Carter, Donald W. Carter, & Diana K. Carter. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means, physical or electronic, in part or in full, without the express permission of the authors, is strictly prohibited.