Dot's Way Cruising Cat: Back Creek to Smith Creek at Oriental, North Carolina

After the tropical low storm moved through Saturday night, we woke up Sunday morning to a flat calm anchorage but still overcast with a bit of blue sky so we pulled anchor and headed up the Nuese River to Oriental. We got a small rain shower and the wind and waves picked up making it a rocky crossing until we went under the railroad bridge to anchor in Smith Creek. There is a new boat ramp and dinghy dock nearby but we ended up stopping at the marina under the bridge to tie up our dinghy. The rain stopped and we started our walking tour of Oriental and our shopping. There is a New Village Brewery we passed after eating lunch at an old favorite M&M's Restaurant. We stopped at the Inland Provisioning Company and headed to West Marine and Piggly Wiggly. We were offered a ride by Buddy and he even waited while we shopped so we could pick up beer there. It rained again after we got back to the boat to unload. After the rain stopped we headed back in to walk to West Marine and then back by Piggly Wiggly for wine and what we forgot the first time. We got a ride back with a woman driving a golf cart. We were going to do a sundowner dinghy cruise but the black clouds dumped more rain so we got ready to leave in the morning.