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Good Morning Everyone from Coinjock, NC.  Today is shaping up to be another wonderful day on the Outer Banks.  The sun is shining, the wind is blowing (seems to be a constant here) and the coffee is already flowing.  But yet, I need to digress because this post is of course not about today, but about our adventures of yesterday (hey, at least I got the over 200 photos from yesterday uploaded and sorted before I went to bed.  You can’t expect me to do that and the writing in the same night.)

Yesterday was a bucket list clearing day to be sure.  We started with a private airplane ride around the Outer Banks, or OBX as its referred to here.  Then it was off to lunch and a visit to the Elizabethan Gardens before we headed to the big bucket list item, a visit to Kill Devil Hill and Kitty Hawk.  Its true that many in my family are way more into aviation than I am but as a lover of history, well, it’s Kitty Hawk.  Lots of photos and stories so lets get right into it.

Our KOA is located on a peninsula of land inside the OBX.  As such, we get both a sunrise and sunset over water which is awesome.  Its also quite isolated and the long road out here is bounded on both sides by swampy water.  Here are some photos to get ya started.

We scheduled to leave the KOA at 9:00am so true to form, we got going about 9:15 or 9:20 for the long drive back to the bridge that goes from our side of the OBX to the true, OBX.  From there is was head south and watch as the land got narrower and narrower.  Part of the drive reminded me of driving through the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Lots of farms and houses on stilts (I got to remember to get a picture of some of those).  The airport was on Roanoke Island.  Just being here was another bucket list location for me.  It is where the very first attempt at a permanent settlement was made by Sir Walter Raleigh and where it is said, the first European, Virginia Dare, was born in what would become the colonies.  Hard to know the truth of it because the entire settlement disappeared and all that was left was the word “Croatoan” carved into the gatepost of the fort.  Maybe they were scooped up by aliens?

But this is about an airplane ride.  My brother, I shall call him Steve the Elder because I also have a brother Steve who is younger than me and had arranged for this flight so long ago he forgot about it.  The plane, I believe, was something called a 172.  Let me put that in English.  Single prop engine, high wing, not a tail dragger and seats for 4 including the pilot.  The flight lasted 30 minutes and took us out over the ocean and along the coast flying at 500 ft, then back over some of the islands before landing.  Along the way we got a good view of the Bodie Lighthouse and the Wright Brothers Monument.  It was hard getting the phone at the correct angle to take pictures because I tried to make sure the underside of the wing was not showing.  For the most part I was successful.  The pilot reminded us that while we were driving along the OBX it seemed quite wide.  But when you view it from above it looks just like it does in all the pictures, a very narrow strip of land seeming to go on forever. Oh, and let me just say that yes, it was a tight fit getting my fat backside into that back seat. Also, I can’t seem to find the video I took of takeoff.

There are some very interesting places to eat in the OBX.  Some, like Dirty Dick’s and Try My Nuts, you want to go to just to get a t-shirt.  We went to a much gentler named place, Stripers, and had a great meal.  For me it was Oyster Stew and Fried Oysters.  We seem to be just a few weeks early for Blue Crab season, dang.

Following lunch, we went to the aptly named, Elizabethan Gardens.  There were all types of plants and trees including a large amount of Camilla Trees.  The flowers on these trees almost look like roses.  I also took a video of the water lapping up on the shore.  Just play the video and enjoy the sound.  Its unmistakable.

From the gardens, we traveled to Kill Devil Hill.  This is the place where the Wright Brothers made their first flights and modern aviation was born.  Looking at photos from the Wright’s time and comparing them to how the place looks now is quite an eye opener.  Back then, just wind-swept sand dunes.  Now, the wind is still ever present, but grass and other vegetation has taken over the sand.  Still, it’s the place where it happened, and one has only to close their eyes and imagine what it looked like back in 1903.  The place is run by the National Park Service so there was a very nice visitor’s center with a great exhibit showing what happened there and how it happened.   Outside, there is a stone marker showing where their plane took off from and then 4 more markers showing how far each of their 4 flights that first day lasted.  Just standing there realizing that in this very spot, man first took to the air in a powered vehicle that he could control.  And now, we have SpaceX.  Up from that location, off to the left, is Big Kill Devil Hill.  That is where the Wright’s conducted their trial flights with gliders.  On the top of that hill, and it is a long climb up a steep hill, is a Monument to Flight.  They really need to have an O2 station up there for us old people.

The last stop of the day for us was the Bodie Lighthouse.  This is still an active, working, lighthouse and since it was, as we were told, “before the season”, we were not allowed to climb it.  There are only 2 lighthouses further south on the OBX but we were not up for that drive.  The old keeper’s house was now the Bodie Gift Shop, and I even got a picture of the quite famous, Bodie Bathroom Bldg. 

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All n All it was a great day.  Today we are going back to the OBX and just see what we can see.  Thanks for following.

TTFN