Randy pointed out to me late last night that I had failed to mention what he considered to be a "highlight" of yesterday's drive to the Natural Bridge non-visit. Remember when I mentioned all the sideshows that the neighbors had created along the way to the "main event?"
I forgot to tell you about FOAMHENGE!
If you are familiar at all with Stonehenge, then you can imagine the same thing, except this one is made entirely out of large pieces of Styrofoam, like packing material. No kidding. We were driving along, looked up, and there it was...............Stonehenge........only there were funny signs telling us it wasn't really Stonehenge, it was Foamhenge.........made of huge blocks of foam stuff. One sign said it was made in a week by "4-5 Mexicans and 1 crazy white guy working non-stop." There were some signs threatening to arrest us if we write on the foam or deface it, but I saw that some others had already done that. In short, it is like being at the real Stonehenge, only it's NOT. We did walk through some red clay mud to get up the hill to see this fun thing, though. Google it. It's been on the Discovery channel and some other TV networks, apparently.
Today we drove from our motel to Historic Williamsburg, parked our car in a one-hour lot, and walked up and down the Duke of Gloucester Street, a good two miles at a brisk pace, taking in the ambiance of the history of Williamsburg. We've been there before, have seen the main events, bought the gingerbread, eaten the stew, and all the wonderful things that make Williamsburg Williamsburg. We were happy today to be able to do the Reader's Digest version of Historic Williamsburg. It was still lovely and delightful. We enjoyed watching the families with the tri-cornered hats on their little boys, locking their chilidren into the stockades, and bringing back some lovely memories. One hour later, we were back into the car and headed southeast for the beach.
I will not give you the details of the stops for groceries and gas, but we arrived at the Cavalier Motel around 3 PM. It is in Kill Devils Hills, very close to the Wright Brothers Monument.........and in the middle of the Outer Banks. Let me say Mile Marker 8.5 and that should tell you where we are, if you are familiar with the OBX. We've stayed north and south of here over the years, but this is one of the best kept secrets on the OBX, we think, so this is our third stay here. We're in unit 40, oceanfront, with a mini-kitchen. That means no stove. Just a microwave, and we also had to run out and buy a coffee maker this evening. Bare bones, but still a winner.
There seems to be Biker Week going on in the OBX, but that is not bothering the survivors of two Sturgis events in South Dakota, and we are just going with the flow.............
We've already done some "beach time," and got some sunshine. We unloaded our "stuff" within half an hour, and were sitting on our beach chairs with a glass of wine by 4:00. We've watched some surfers, fed old bread to hungry gulls, got the TV control working and found out how to connect to the Internet.
If you don't hear from my tomorrow it means we are becoming Beach People for a day...............but since this is also my journal of the vacation, I probably will feel the need to at least write down what we've done.
Once off the beach, we drove to Tortuga's Lie, a shellfish bar and grill in Nags Head, (milepost 11) and shared a pound of steamed shrimp and a salad. We're sitting on the front porch listening to the ocean waves and staring at the moon that just rose up over the beach grasses and dunes.
It just doesn't get any better than this.....................................
