Early morning traveler recalls roadway sighting near Holly Ridge witnessed in Onslow County, North Carolina

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In early October 1983 I was recently married and stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC. Neither my wife nor I had ever been to Wilmington, NC before so one Saturday we made a day trip to Wilmington. We saw some sites, did some shopping, had dinner and went to a late movie. While driving back to Camp Lejuene on US-17, just north of the town of Holly Ridge I noticed a very large figure on the right shoulder ahead. It was walking upright and I assumed it was a bear. I slowed down in order to avoid hitting it should it go down on all four legs and flee. I was going perhaps 10 MPH or a bit less when I finally realized that what I was approaching was not a bear. The creature I saw was massive; maybe 7 to 8 feet tall and I'd estimate 600 Lbs or more. The hair was a lighter brownish color and appeared long in its length. I could see its face very clearly. What struck me at the time and even to this day is that the creature appeared to be oblivious to his surroundings and seemed deep in thought. It never gave any indication that he was aware of the car approaching nor did the bright headlights seem to cause it discomfort. It just kept moving along at a slow pace looking straight ahead. I finally passed the creature at nearly walking speed. I assumed I had to have been mistaken or could not have seen what I thought I had so I stopped the car. I looked back out the rear window and could see the creature still walking southbound in the glow of the stop lamps of the car. I woke up my wife and had her look. She did look but said it must have been a bear. At that point I let it go and resumed my northbound trip back to Jacksonville. One other thing to note is that my impression was that the creature was clean in the sense that its hair was not matted nor in tuffs. The hair was straight and laid flat against its body and seemed to vary in length from a couple inches to maybe 5 inches. There was no hair on the face which was a bit lighter in complexion than the fur surrounding it.