Image : Joy & Jill @ Cape Hatteras Light House — kenne (Photo Set)
Five Days On the Outer Banks — Part IV
By Monday morning, most of the beach houseguests had left, or were in the process of doing so. Chase, Jodie and Justin would be leaving late morning to catch the afternoon flight back to Houston, however, just enough time remained to take in one of the Outer Banks’ major historical sights, the birthplace of American aviation at Kitty Hawk. As steady misty winds remained blowing out of the northeast and a temperature in the upper forties, we drove the short distance from Nags Head to Kitty Hawk. With weather not unlike what the Wright brothers probably experienced on that historical December 17, 1903, we limited our walk alone the field of flight and spent most of our visit inside museum area.
“In those days flying machines were the big laugh of all the crackerbarrel philosophers. Langley’s and Chanute’s unsuccessful experiments had been jeered down with an I-told-you-so that rang coast to coast. The Wright’s biggest problem was to find a place secluded enough to carry on their experiments without being the house laugh of the countryside.
They hit on Kitty Hawk, on the great dunes and sandy banks that stretch south towards Hatteras . . . “
After seeing Chase, Jodie and Justin off, we finalized our plans for the reminder of the day. As it turned out, Greg’s hangover was getting the best of him, so only Jill headed off with Joy and myself to Roanoke Island, then down the Outer Backs to Cape Haderous. Along the way we dealt with blowing sand crossing the highway resulting in accumulation in some places, with notable signs that plows had been required to remove the sand. Admittedly, we spent a lot of the time in our car just to see and photo some of the historical Outer Back lighthouses. But we endured with the same commitment as the kite-boarders taking advantage of the strong wind to generate max-surfing speeds. Stopping to take a few photos, one could tell that such adventurers were paying a toll due to the cold temperatures, even wearing a wetsuit.
kenne
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