I'm home!! Boo hoo. Anyway my trip with Mom was a great time. I traveled 3200 miles in 10 days. Most of the time we had great weather....now the details....

Drove from southern Arkansas to Lake of the Ozarks to retrieve my Mother for the trip. Took step dad to eat steak, which was served an hour later, and was so cold it wouldn't melt butter. So we left this restaurant (the Outpost) and had hot fudge sundaes for dinner!! This should have been my clue as to things to come.
Thursday morning, rain, travel thru MO, IL,IN, to Columbus, Ohio which I managed to hit at rush hour. This is where a really cute state trooper had me sign my name on a speeding ticket (75 in a 65 zone). Spent the night in a really nice Days Inn, next AM great weather, travelled on into New Jersey to visit family, ate mounds of Filipino food (pancid and adobo). Shopped and enjoyed being with family.
Monday, decide to try seeing Statue of Liberty from the Jersey side, great day for a boat ride. Find this w/o a problem and enjoy the trip, but stayed on the boat as the time was limited, and she was closed. Travelled on to Atlantic City, drove in, drove out , to many rough looking people, so did not get to walk the boardwalk in Atlantic City as planned, travelled down to Wildwood NJ, stayed in a nice Days Inn across the street from the boardwalk. Enjoyed the beach and had a wonderful pizza delivered from a local Italian restaurant at exactly when we asked for it. Others staying on our floor were giving a free concert on the outdoor balcony, the accordion music, fit right in with the pizza. Very Italian. We enjoyed watching the sun go down and then dawn the next day from the boardwalk here, talked to a very nice local couple, who told us how the towns people were reclaiming there area from the seedy folks we saw in Atlantic City. I was also amazed that the crews that come out at dawn to clean and vaccuum the beach!
Tuesday we ferried from Cape May to Lewes DE, cool cloudy wanting to rain weather. Travelled on to the Cheaspeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. I was ribbed pretty harshly for wanting to know how scarry this was, well I drove across with a gusty wind blowing and spitting rain. Then had a delicious early dinner on the observation island, watched the ships go thru the channel and proceeded on to the OBX.
Arrived at Kitty Hawk in the dark, only to find a fishing tourament was in town and many many workers to assist in the post Isabel clean up effort, so we were between Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head before we found a room for the night.
As I previously have stated, I like to wing it so I can stop when I want to, well about 830 pm in the dark and rain I was getting alittle nervous that we would be sleeping in the van. We happened into the Ocean House Motel (about milepost 6 on VA Dare road) we booked into the Tarheel Room for $50 per night. On the beach, with chairs to sit and watch the waves. Mom and I enjoyed this so much, water was cold.
On Wednesday, we drove down the OBX and was amazed how much sand had been moved from the road. Piles 8,10 and 12 foot high at the road side, some houses without roofs, some completely gone, but fierce clean up and rebuilding in progress. We watch conveyor belts moving sand from inside houses. And could only go as far as Hatteras as the road toward Ocracoke Island was still closed. Ate crab cakes at Dirty Dick's in Avon, where the waitresses were friendly and happy to tell about the storm and cleanup. Spent a fortune buying everyone a tshirt here that says "I got my crabs from Dirty Dick's!" Mom and I only saw the Bodie Island and Hatteras Lighthouses. We also enjoyed watching windsurfers and kiteboarders on the sound side. We watched the sun come up over the Atlantic and at night cheered loudly in our room for the Cubbies and the Yankees, then was kind of sad to realize the curse of the Babe and the Billygoat continues.
Thursday morning drove thru eastern NC toward home, disappointed that the 'watch out for bear' signs didn't produce a glimpse of one. Drove into W VA for the night at another friendly Days Inn in Princeton W VA. Ate at a Bob Evan's with in walking distance, then cheered way to loudly as the Yankees won the pennant.
Say what you will about Days Inn but this one had a continental breakfast that included belgian waffles you cooked yourself, yummy. I drove 780 miles Friday in 12 hours, with Mom reminding me of the cute trooper in Ohio the whole way. Mother was deposited back at her house and I drove another 350 miles home in 5 hours Saturday. My office awaits my arrival on Monday.
I must say as fall color goes, we saw the most color in Indiana and Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia were either still green or past peak.
The Lord willing Mom and I will travel together again in 2005 (where we will go was not discussed extensively, but Soldier Field for a football game will probably be part of the trip).
We have now visited the East Coast beaches in every state from Maine to North Carolina. The beaches in NJ were the cleanest I have ever seen.
If anyone can tell me where to get the yellow magnetic support our troops ribbons we saw on the cars in central NC I would love to have one or many.
BREATHE !!!!

As someone who has been through a hurricane living in a tourist town, kudos to you for going to the Outerbanks and spending much needed tourist dollars. Great trip report!

Glad your trip went well Arkansas. I'm disappointed that you didn't get to spend much time in Maryland but at least you did get to dsee the Chesapeake Tunnel & Bridge. It's the other one, Chesapeake Bay Bridge, that's quite high and goes from Annapolis to Kent Island.

Also happy to hear that you were able to stop at Dirty Dicks for some crabs. DH loves those t-shirts! Good news that that OBX is rebuilding so quickly - our friends were lucky - the house next to them was seriously damaged and they had very little damage.

Also happy that you weren't on that Staten Island Ferry this past week.

Great trip report! I think many of us have been waiting for this one. Glad I wasn't doing that kind of mileage in that time frame! Particularly enjoyed the OBX observations--it's nice to know that they're getting things back in shape....

Back at work one week and need a vacation, I have yet to unpack so I am ready. Thanks for the positive response to this report. I worked a 76 hour week my first week back, yuk. Please tell me how to get the yellow ribbons.

I did a search when my son started boot camp under military or some type words you are looking for car magnets or stickers and that should give you places to order this stuff...i had a place under my favorites but i got too many favorites for this stuff so i got rid of them....and i had it too, lol.

The yellow ribbon car magnets are available at www.relayribbons.com . This is a great site. We used the purple ribbon to raise over $5,000 for Relay for Life! see what you think.