tuesday 3 26 13

Well, we're still chasing Spring Northward. Arrived in Northern Virginia with melting snow, flowering crabs and forsythia in bloom. The “cold Spring” is slated to moderate this weekend. It can't happen soon enough for me. We're currently West of DC, so I got to go through the air and Space Museum at Dulles airport. This is where they keep all the goodies that won't fit in the Museum downtown. (several million sq/ft of space....) Pictured is my all time favorite, the SR-71 Blackbird. LA to DC in one hour and one minute....(2,200mph) Also the Discovery shuttle. A real workhorse in her day..In the same hangar they had the last Concorde, an early 707, and the B-29 Enola Gaye. (there's a piece of history for you) plus hundreds of smaller, significant aircraft. I saw lots of things I never knew existed.

We're moving over to College Park MD tomorrow, for the rest of the week, so we can catch the subway and do more of the Smithsonian downtown.

Backtrack....

   Before we left Hatteras we stopped at the Bodie Light.  They had just finished  installing their rebuilt 1st order Fresnel lens.  An amazing piece of engineering and art.  Sadly the tower wasn't open for climbing until
April.  The picture of the partially rebuilt Fresnel lens was in the Shipwreck Museun at Hatteras. It turns out that Jim Woodward, who rebuilt the Point Betsie light, also did both of these 1st order lights....small world
   The pic  of the Brew Thru is a drive thur type that I had never seen.  You actually "drive thru the building" ,I can see one in Frankfort already....

Sunday 3 24 13    Kitty Hawk N.C.
      
        Toured the Wright Brothers Memorial.  Learned more of the details leading up to the first flight.  Orv and Wil had been doing their home work, diligently, four over 4 years leading up to the flight. 
interesting side light. The picture  of the first flight that we all know....was the third flight..the cameraman
clutched on the first two.  That picture is the only photo the man ever took in his entire life.....Right place, right time, immortal picture.  If anyone is looking for a water front cottage, I know where there is a nice one...this wont last long...so act now...it features an above ground holding tank that could double as an anchor....We accidentally had diner in the building  that the Wright Brothers sent the telegraph message announcing their flight from.

  

2 23 13 Saturday   mid Hatteras Island

the second pic shows cottages built behind the shore dune.  The second pic is the same location but standing on the beach, looking the opposite direction. In the distance on the last pic you can see some homes getting ready to go swimming

  

3 23 13 Saturday
   Hatteras Light

                            We need one of these in Frankfort.  At 198 feet it's the tallest in the Country and it's beautiful.  The stone work an the base is a work of art and the taper of the tower is just stunning.  The picture with the tower in the distance, was taken from the 1999 location of the light. It was lifted up and moved 2,900 feet to the new location.  The had to move it because the dune it was sitting on was getting too close to the water.  The process of moving it is quite a story in itself. The tower is really a world class treasure.

camp round funnies
            Most of the places we've stayed have been great and a few just OK .

  

Friday 3 22 13

                       Out of Ocracoke Is. and crossed over to Cape Hatteras this morning.  This was our last Ocean voyage with the behemouth this trip.  We always seem to get loaded behind another large vehicle and it ruins the view...oh well....The ferry picture is of the sister ship of the one we were on.  The road picture is what the narrow parts of the island look like.  Tonight we are camped mid Island on Hatteras and just North of us is where Hurricane Sandy cut the island. The road has been rebuilt, but it took 6 weeks. I'll have pics next time.  The bird is an Oyster Catcher

stuff....Speaking of cats....On all of the inhabited islands that we have been on this trip, there is always a local population of feral cats. Here on Ocracoke, they are all over the place and tend to be black or tiger striped???

3 21 13 Thursday

Ocracoke Island N.C.

Kind of an inside, catch up day. Spent the morning beach combing, but it has turned cloudy and cooler. They don't have rocks on the beaches, but some of the broken pieces of shell, that have been wind blown and smoothed, are quite interesting. I know that one cannot have too many rocks. Does it follow that you cannot have too many shell pieces???

The island has a resident population of wild horses that date back to the Spanish in 1524. They remained wild until the road was built down the length of the island in the 1950s. They were a nuisance for the residents trying to grow gardens, flowers or crops. Just like deer, they would come to town where all the tasty stuff was growing and help themselves. In the 1940s the Boy Scout troop here was the only mounted equestrian troop in the country. Now,the herd is fenced and is fed and cared for to maintain breeding stock and the blood line.

It has been fun for me looking around the grocery stores on the trip. So many regional items and just things I'd never seen before. I'd heard of the vinegar based, South Carolina BBQ sauce, but had never tried it. I've tried several brands and it's quite tasty.....Who knew that Spam came it so many flavors??

and how should I prepare a 10lb package of fresh, split, pigs feet. (If I were so inclined,(which I'm not.))... I must say that we have had some wonderful seafood. Fresh shrimp, and scallops are available at the local grocery stores as well as all manner of local fresh fish... In my world of seafood, fresh is everything.

We're off tomorrow to Cape Hatteras Jay

3 19 13 Tuesday

Myrtle Beach SC to Ocracoke Island

Well it's amost been as much time on the water as it's been on the road. We took two ferrys to get here. We boarded the boat this morning and watched the sunrsie over the Atlantic. The ferrys are part of the North Carolina Dept of Transportation and are wonderful boats. They can carry 50 vehicles with ease. The second one we rode was only a year old and the use of stainless steel all over the boat as impressive. We are a small, local campground here in Oracoke, as the National Seashore campgrounds.don't open until April ( unlike Sleeping Bear which is open all year)..

  3 18 13  Monday (I think)
     

    out of Myrtle Beach today and headed for the outer banks four a few days  Nice beach here and the temps were comfortable.  We actually had a "beach day".

3 15 13 Friday

On the South Carolina coast.

For the most part, the Winter had been cooler than normal this year, down here. It's getting more normal and very pleasant now as we head North into cooler weather. We added it up last night and since January 1 we have stayed in 27 campgrounds, most of them State Parks. They are wonderful because they are almost always located at historic sites, beaches or scenic wilderness areas. The whole trip we have seen signs on every body of water, cautioning about Alligators. Have we seen one.....No...Until the last two days. Now they are everywhere. Apparently they are inactive in the Winter, and are the weather warms, they become more so. I didn't being a yak on the trip and I have to wonder about my reaction to sharing the water with large carnivores and poisonous snakes.....It makes me appreciate Michigan all the more. The other major thing we've noticed, traveling, is road trash. With no bottle laws and marginal highway clean up, we miss clean roadways...

We've been meeting lots of wonderful and interesting people, from all over the place. Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and all over the US.

This area of South Carolina, was at one time, the worlds largest exporter of rice. They are also home to the only, tea plantation, in the US. In Charleston we saw a replica of the HUNLEY. The first attack submarine ever. It was used during the Civil War and the hull was recovered in 2000 and is being researched and preserved. The story behind it all is most interesting.

3 12 13 Tuesday

    Out of Edistow Island and into Charleston SC....Edistow was interesting in that it's an older summer cottage type of place.  Not all condos and shopping.  I was fascinated with the Sea Foam that was generated with each wave. It would hardly last until the next wave came in.  If two incoming waves intersected, a pile would result, and then blow off  down the beach..
    Charleston is stepped in history, more than I ever know.  Also a lovely city, populated with wonderful folks.  We'll be here a few days.

3 9 13
           Spent the day mostly just bumping around.... We left Skidaway Island GA this morning and went to Tybee Island and there was no room  for us.  We then crossed over into South Carolina and ended up on Hilton Head Island.  It's a fairly large island and  devoted to visitors and golfers.  (21 golf courses).  An interesting feature is that all of the businesses are set back from the street and have a green buffer  and small, low key signage.  It really works well, but if you don't know where something is, you'll drive past it by the time you see the sign.

   today's pictures are of signs from the last few days...

3 6 13

Jekyll Island Georgia.

A most interesting Island. In the 1880's it was the Winter home for the movers and shakers of the time. Rockefellers etc. They built a 100+ room club and later cottages (20 -30 room). The whole area is now on the Historic Register and being restored. Club membership was by invitation only. It was one of the locations on the first trans continental telephone call. As transportation improved in the 30s and 40s, South Florida became the Winter location of choice and Jekll Island fell out of favor. By the 60s the homes were all but abandoned. The State bought the island and is in progress of preserving the buildings. At one point, the club members built the first “condo” in the US. By law 60% of the island has to remain undeveloped...

There is a deep water port here at Brunswick GA. And 10% of the US cars that are exported overseas, go out of here. 600,000 cars last year. The ships that carry them are really strange looking, but I guess they do the job. They drive them on and off the ships. It was fun watching them being loaded. They seem to load out one ship every 24 hours.

We're off to Savanna today, and plan to spend several days exploring there.

3 7 13

Fort McAlister GA

We noticed on the way up yesterday (80 whole miles) that we are pushing the bloom line. The Red Bud trees are just blooming here and the trees in general are just leafing out. We're near the ton of Richmond Hill, just South of Savanna, it turns out that Henry Ford and his family used to Winter here.