IL to NC / March 2026 in Southport

Driving from Ottawa, IL to Southport, NC | Spending 3 Weeks in Southport, NC | February-March 2026

As our time in Ottawa was wrapping up, Curtis was extended a few days, as he usually is at this project. We were a little bummed because we were hoping for more time to get to his next assignment on the East Coast, and every day here was a day not on the road. When he went in to work on his last evening, I was skeptical that it would truly be his last, and when he texted me I was sure I was about to get news of another extension. Instead, he was texting to tell me that the next assignment had moved up, so we had to leave the next day just so we could have 2 days to get there. After hearing that, I packed up the van that evening and settled in for one last night of sleep in this hotel.

Curtis returned from work in the morning and decided he wanted to skip taking a nap at the hotel and just get on the road. We drove to Peru separately to drop off his rental car, and then I drove us for the first few hours while Curtis tried to nap. The sun was out and the traffic was light which made for an easy drive across Illinois and into Indiana. It was right after we swapped places that it began to flurry, and it would continue to do so until we passed over the Appalachians. All this wintery weather made it a little easier to anticipate our arrival to Southport, NC!

On our first day of driving, we took I-55 South to Bloomington, then I-70 to Indianapolis. We then took I-65 South to Louisville, getting our first new counties of the trip, then took I-64 to Frankfort. From here, we left the interstate in pursuit of new Kentucky counties. Sure we were in sort of a time crunch, but not so much that we couldn’t have a little fun. We ended up stopping for the night in Somerset, where we got a hotel for the night. Because of how short the turn around time was, we were allowed to get hotel rooms on our drive (also Curtis was owed an extra night because of having to switch from night to day shift). I was a little sad to not be sleeping in the van, but as the flurries continued and the temperatures dropped, it made it a little easier to enjoy the warm room. Also we didn’t have any water in the van in order to keep our water system from freezing, which would have made everything else more complicated.

The next morning, we awoke to find a fresh layer of snow, but thankfully the main highways were clear so we were safe to continue our drive. We continued on US-27 into Tennessee, where we stopped at a visitor center to get stamps for Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, which we had visited before but didn’t stop for stamps. We talked to the woman working there about the different trails in the area, and left with some ideas of where to hike next time we’re here — we still had a long drive ahead of us, and she wasn’t sure about the conditions of the roads going to the trails this morning.

After that, we returned to the interstate, and took I-40 East out of Knoxville. This was our first time driving this road since before Hurricane Helene, and we were very impressed by the scale of the operation going in to repairing the road through the mountains. There was only one point where we were at a stand still for a while, which gave me the chance to jump in the back and get snacks out for lunch,

Once we made it to Asheville, we were in need of a driving break, and were starting to regret having to drive through the mountains and not get to enjoy hiking in them. We decided to return to Carl Sandburg Home NHS to go for a short walk and enjoy the beautiful afternoon, now that we were officially passed the flurries and starting to see the sun again. We enjoyed walking the trails up to the house, even though it was closed today, and remembering the last time we visited on a rainy January day back in 2023.

Hiking in Carl Sandburg NHS with Charlotte, January of 2023

Back on the road, we pushed on further South on I-26 into South Carolina, then East on I-20 to Florence where we had booked one more hotel for tonight, leaving us with a short 2.5 hour drive the next morning which would allow us to settle in a bit before Curtis had to be at work that afternoon. We were up bright and early the next morning, and we made it to Southport safely with a few hours to spare. Curtis got his rental car, we picked up some groceries, and then checked into our hotel for the next few weeks before he had to report to work. He only had to be there a few hours that afternoon, which left plenty of time for us to go see the sunset at the beach that evening. Our first ocean visit for 2026, and now we could say that we had driven from California to North Carolina in the first two months of 2026!

Unfortunately this assignment started out rough, as Curtis had been fighting a cold for a while and after managing to avoid it, I ended up coming down with it as soon as we arrived. Curtis took whatever downtime he could to rest, and eventually started to recover…only to end up still feeling sick because of the pollen. He ended up having to work almost every day that we were here. We still tried to get out and go for walks whenever we could after work, either in downtown Southport or at the Oak Island Beach.

Personally, I had been excited to come to Southport simply because it was March, and we usually have to come here in August when it’s ungodly hot. However, all the other things we don’t enjoy about the South still exist year round, so it didn’t take long for my enthusiasm to run out. The part of town where the hotels are isn’t walkable at all, the traffic and construction are always bad, the pollen is out of control, and it can still get below freezing here — though I guess it didn’t snow, so there’s a plus.

There is one good thing we got from this visit, and that is some new favorite restaurants. Usually when we come here we dine out with other coworkers who are into fine dining and fancier places, and that just isn’t our thing. This time on our own, we stuck to a little rotation of places that we really enjoyed, including Yummy House for Asian cuisine, Gourmet Sushi, and Slice of Haven pizza. Sadly, one of our previous favorites, Alpaca’s has seemingly shut down. There was also one day when Curtis had to drive up to Wilmington, and he managed to pick up some Pipeline Poke while he was there!

I made a point of trying to go out and go to the beach alone a few times during the days. It just felt like something I needed to do to take advantage of being here. However, doing so would end up making me feel anxious for seemingly no reason. When I thought about it, I realized the only times in my life when I’ve gone to the beach alone were in Hawaii, usually when Curtis was at sea. So that’s cool that I’m still being haunted by those times and something that should be relaxing and enjoyable is now anxiety inducing! Besides that, I had a few projects I wanted to complete, and I managed to do so during my 3 weeks here, including backing up all my writing on this blog in multiple ways with the goal of eventually creating something physical out of all my writing and pictures.

The other highlight of the month was an unusual one for us, because it had to do with what was on TV. One of our favorite medical shows, Scrubs, came back for a tenth season, and we thought it held up pretty well to the other seasons (better than season 9 at least!) And since Jeopardy! was on at night, Curtis was able to watch with me, and during our last week was when Jamie Ding began his run on the show. Not to brag, but we knew right away that he was going to go far, and we enjoyed watching his time over the next month+change!

Charlotte on Oak Island, April 2024