The Outer Banks
Bodie Island light house
The Outer Banks (or OBX as you see on more souvenirs and signs than you can count) is made for soaking up the sun and relaxing. It was a great way to begin winding down our two-month journey. The campground where we stayed was another of what we have started calling Camp Lottastuff. Those are the campgrounds that have about a jillion things to do. Some of the offerings of this one while we were there included Karakoke, Bingo, a live Band, something called foam wars, a daily slushy truck, a tiki bar, and the glow train (imagine 30 kids with glow sticks being pulled through the campground in a huge train accompanied by loud music like Mambo #5), just to name a few. Its best offering was that it was situated right on the beach. The beach and ocean were beautiful. The waves were a little more intense than what we are used to on the Florida panhandle which limited our in-the-water time, but certainly didn’t diminish the overall joy of sitting by the ocean again. Mack had an equal mix of excitement and terror that led him to race into the water and right back out again as he worked to avoid getting bowled over.
Flamingo-ed!
One other fun note on this stop. This was the first time we got “flamingo-ed!” OK, some of you are probably thinking “you got what? And is that even legal??” Allow us to explain. There are all kinds of sub-cultures in this country, basically communities of people drawn together – willingly or not – by a shared passion. Think soccer, dance, and such. Well, the community of Airstream owners is one such subculture. These folks tend to wave at one another when they pass on the highway. They definitely stop by each other’s campsite to say hello and compare notes on their respective rigs (subculture lingo for your trailer). Sometimes, they attend rallies and travel together in caravans. And occasionally, they leave flamingos in another Airstream owners campsite. This could be in the form of a door hanger, or a little figurine, or, in our case, a small piece of yard art. Whatever form it takes, its meant as a friendly hello from one Airstream owner to another. We got quite the kick out of coming back to the campsite and finding a little flamingo friend sitting next to the campfire. So, there you have it. Nothing illegal. Just good natured fun.
In and Around the Water…
One of the fun things about visiting different beach communities is seeing the different water activities happening in each place. In the OBX, Kite Surfing seemed to be all the rage. We loved watching the kite surfers as they raced through the water at frightening speeds (the world record is 45 mph), launched themselves into the air (we estimated they were going 10-20 feet high while the world record is over 100), and did tricks and flips. It was one of those things where you see someone doing it and you convince yourself that “it looks pretty easy” when in reality it probably ends with you in traction or worse. We ended up watching them from the shore, a pier, and even a boat we had rented for a few hours. Spending a day on a boat is always a favorite activity for us. This day was no exception. We were in the Pamlico Sound, the body of water between the outer bank islands and the mainland. So, the going was pretty smooth. We had a lovely day with lunch on the water and the free kite surfing demonstration mentioned above.
The Wright Brothers
We did tear ourselves away from the water one day. We started with a quick visit to a local vet as Mack was a bit under the weather. This was his second vet visit while traveling. So, we are thinking about getting him a punch card or a scratch off map to track his experiences. After that we visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial which is located on the site of their first four successful flights. We felt as though the Wright Brothers were with us through much our trip. We saw their original plane at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. While in Viginia Beach, we saw one of the 1909 Wright Military flyers – the world’s first military plane. (Fun anecdote: the Wright brothers tried for several years to reach a deal with the Army to provide them with said plane, but the Army refused to engage with them after having provided $50,000 to another party working toward the same goal. Unfortunately for the Army, after a few years of effort, they ended up with neither their money nor a working plane.) Several years later, with no one else getting anywhere close to what the brother’s had achieved, the Army and the Wright Brothers finally reached an agreement for the brothers to provide a working plane for $30K….equivalent to $1.2 million dollars today. ) Visiting the memorial allowed us to close the loop by walking their first flight path(s). After that, we rounded out our day by attending an amazing Kite festival (photos below) and visiting the Bodie Island light house.
That pretty much wrapped up our time on the outer banks which was the turning point in our journey where we started heading back towards Kansas City. A bit of foreshadowing, we had two more stops to make – a return to Winston-Salem to see Blake again, and a stop in Nashville to visit our dear friends the Rabys – before officially arriving home.
