Kitty Hawk

Last night was warm so the gals stayed up in the dark playing cribbage while I wrote the blog.  It cooled off in the night and rained, at times hard. The noise of the rain, the wind and the sea was impressive.  By morning the rain had stopped but it was 10 degrees colder than the night before and the wind was blowing hard from the northeast.

Allie took a picture at the same spot as last night to show the change. I'm a smart dog and refused to pose in it as I did last night since I did not want to spend all day wet and cold. We met some friendly people and dogs.

We headed for the outer banks of the Carolinas.  A string of skinny islands off the the coast linked together by causeways  and ferries. 

Distance for the day was 84 klm although several klm were spent wandering around looking for campgrounds.

Unfortunately it seemed that everyone else had the same idea,  but they were in their cars and trucks. We had 4 lanes of noisy traffic most of the day and though we were never far from the sea we rarely saw it.  It was, however sunny, although on the cool side and the 25 kph wind was at our backs. At our backs except for the causeway from the mainland to the first of the islands near Kitty Hawk.  For that we had a gusty and strong crosswind for this 5 klm open crossing along a 4 lane highway with no shoulder, just a curb and a too low railing. The wind caused us to wobble a meter in either direction, so one moment we feared hitting curb and maybe going over and the next we veered dangerously in to traffic.   It was the worst 20 minutes I ever had on a bike and I kept my eyes covered with my paws.  No pictures were taken!

Adrenalin was high when we reached Kitty Hawk where we bought food supplies.  A bit further down the road we stopped at the Wright Brothers Museum and Memorial.  Well worth stopping even though Allie was getting chilled.  The speaker for the tour was great and pulled us in to how momentus an achievement it was to fly that first short flight in 1903.

The stone positioned at the location of lift off has been visited and touched by millions. He said it represents the moment where impossible was redifined to mean "not yet figured out". To touch it is to affirm that belief with respect to whatever challenge you may be facing. Allie and I touched it.

The stones in the distance mark the distance of the 4 flights on Dec 17 1903.  They were just getting the hang of things but took a break to warm up, forgot to tie the plane down and a gust of wind lifted it, tumbled it across the field and destroyed it.

They experimented with gliders from the top of the hill before applying what they learned to powered craft.

The campground and hostel in Kitty Hawk were closed so we headed to nearby Kill Devil Hill. One campground did not allow tents, another had no one in the office to talk to but looked pretty dismal.  So we checked in to the Days Inn and the gals went down the road for seafood.  A waiter who knew his craft (schmooze but with sincerity) resulted in Allie having a double tequilla shot as a "digestion" (as the French say). Dinner cost more than the hotel. A final note; Allie is in better spirits today and I know I had help making that happen.