It has been a while since I have written here, but I think I can hold together most of the rest of our trip to OBX from early August 2011, before Hurricane Irene.

Miss Oregon Inlet Charter Fishing Boat

My son-in-law

Jess and Harry watch the sharks

Eric and I decided to do a morning fishing excursion in the bay, and he had checked out the various available boats and selected the Miss Oregon Inlet. So we had an early alarm clock for one day, and drove to the north end of the island. Due to the extreme heat that week, the boat was not really crowded, which was to our advantage. The crew showed us how to use their equipment, and then brought us each our own container of bait. Although we had little luck catching ‘keepers’, we really enjoyed the time on the boat, and each caught some interesting specimens including flounder, sea robins, and lizard fish. At least the flounder would have been edible.
While we were out fishing, the ladies took our grandson Harry to the Aquarium. He saw stingrays, sharks, turtles, river otters, and lots of other wonderful aquatic creatures.

Oceana's Bistro

That night we all went to a delightful little place along Route 12 in Avon, Oceana’s Bistro. It was a very pleasant little restaurant with very good service and food. I understand that this building was damaged in the Hurricane, but that Oceana’s has reopened in another location until they can fix the structure. After dinner we did some souvenir shopping, and finished off with ice cream from one of the many places that specialize in frozen treats. Of course we also watched the sunsets again.

Eric, Jess, and Harry watch the sunset from the balcony

Another day was spent when Peg and I went to see Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. I had fond memories of being here in the 1950′s, and learning about the Lost Colony. This was one of the first European settlements in the region, and when people came back from Europe to bring them supplies, the entire colony was gone. I was blown away by this as a child, and remembered the dramatization that is performed there on summer nights at the outdoor theater. We did not buy tickets for the play this trip, but I hope to see it again some day. Many famous actors and actresses have been part of this show, including Andy Griffith. I don’t think I had seen him back in 1957 as he had moved on by then. We then went to a fun retr0-diner, Big Al’s. From the outside it is not special, but the food is great, and the decor is lots of fun. If you get to Raleigh, try Big Al’s.

Soda Fountain at Big Al's Diner, Raleigh

After lunch we drove north of Raleigh to Kitty Hawk to see the Wright Brothers Memorial. This site includes two museums, recreations of their “house” and hangar from the original flights, replicas of their glider and the first powered plane, the sewing machine they used to make the wings, and many interesting displays and videos. There is also a stone marking the start of the powered flights as well as stones showing where each one ended. On top of Kill Devil Hill where they launched the glider, is a monument to the brothers. Interestingly, the hill had moved several 100 feet SW from it’s site when they flew there until the monument was erected in 1928.  It is amazing how quickly flight developed from their first flight in 1903 to the planes of World War II.

Looking down to the Wright Brothers site from Kill Devil Hill

On another day we traveled back to Cape Hateras at the south end of the island to take the free ferry boat to Ocracoke Island. Harry did quite well as we sat in the car awaiting our turn to board the ferry. They really do pack the vehicles in, making it sometimes hard to even open the door of the car. The sailing was pleasant and it was entertaining to to watch the sea gulls fight for the perch atop the boat’s tower, and seeing the jelly fish float by. When we got off the ferry we continued to the south end of the island to the village of Ocracoke. After a bit of shopping, we decided that lunch was in order, and we found a casual place named Dajio. We sat on the screen porch watching tourist walk by, and enjoyed another wonderful meal.

Dining at Dajio in Ocracoke

We then did more shopping, visited an out-of-the-way craftsmen’s gallery, and stopped at Teach’s Hole, the Blackbeard Museum. This museum and shop had just enough history to not bore our 3 year old member of the team, but give some new knowledge to the rest of us. Although it was a laid back day, it was fun. We drove north through the National Seashore of Ocracoke and returned to the ferry for the ride back to Hateras Island, and then Rodanthe.

Harry Blackbeard

An Ocracoke Ferry

On our last night in the Outer Banks, we found what may have been the best place for dinner that we discovered during our trip, the Mad Crabber. The atmosphere was very informal, and the place was filled with parties, families, and friendly staff. My crab legs dinner was amazing, and when we left the restaurant, we found a very nice playground across the street for Harry. It was a wonderful conclusion to our trip.

Inside the Mad Crabber

Shrimp & Crab Legs

Saturday morning we packed up and drove home. We had an uneventful trip, but Harry’s family stopped at the home of the Grave Digger Monster Truck where Harry and Eric took a ride in their Monster Truck over hills and a school bus. Harry loved it, and this was a perfect finish to a wonderful week.

On the Rodanthe, NC. Beach

We loved the views from Fairwind Landing on Wimble Shoals Drive, but were glad to find that the walk across the island from our rental on the sound to the Atlantic Ocean was just about 5 minutes of relaxed walking. When we got to the beach the first time, we saw lots of open sand, a few people in the water, and one or two people fishing. Homes lined the beach, mostly behind the dunes, but the none of the beach was private. One of the first buildings we saw along this part of the beach was a building that had been recently moved to this part of Rodanthe. If you saw the movie “A Night at Rodanthe”, you saw this building that was the Inn that was the location for the movie. As I understand, the building was not moved far, and is now being marketed as a Bed & Breakfast. Although it is near several other homes on this section of the beach, if you angle the camera carefully, you can almost make it look like it is isolated on the beach.

The Inn at Rodanthe

We did spend some time walking on the beach, and letting Harry learn to be more comfortable in the surf. The waves had some punch, but it was not a surfing type of wave. Before we arrived in the Outer Banks, the forecast for the week had been rain every day with a tropical depression coming up the coast. By the time we got there, no storm was around, but there was a bit of under tow if you were not careful. But it was a fun surf for jumping the waves. The water temperature was comfortable in early August, so we did spend a number of mornings or afternoons on the beach near our location.

Grandson Harry Enjoys the Waves

Our kids also took their kayaks out in the sound which was so shallow that you could walk out about 1/4 mile and be still in waist high water. And it was nice to have room around you without lots of other families around. And no matter the time of day, the beach was not crowded. This was a welcome change to our normal visit to the Jersey Shore.

Sea Oats on the Dune in the National Seashore

One afternoon, Peg and I decided to do a drive south from Rodanthe all the way to the end of Hatteras Island, and then do some shopping while heading back north to Rodanthe. One of our first stops on this trip was the Lee Robinson General Store. It was a complete store with art work, post cards, and T-shirts. We then stopped in a section of the National Seashore to climb the stairs over the dunes to admire the beach at one of these locations without houses. It is probably as close to an unspoiled seashore that I will ever see and brought back memories of my previous trip to the Outer Banks in 1957. But our plan for the day was to check out the businesses on Hatteras Island and keep them solvent. After a few discount shops and T-shirt stores, we had to visit a very yellow store with a sign that said “As seen on the Food Network”. When a Fudge shop has that type of billing, I had to park the car and visit.

Scotch Bonnet Fudge Shop.

Scotch Bonnet had some very nice items in their gift shop, and we did get a gift for our Grandson Harry, but we also did buy a pound of fudge. It all was very good, but I would personally recommend the Heath Bar Fudge if you visit and decide to indulge. When we got back to the rental, we spent time in the yard trying out Frisbee and other recreations, and then watched Harry show off his prowess on his scooter. And like we did just about every night, whether we dined in our ate out, we went to an ice cream shop for desert, and then returned to the second floor balcony to watch the sunset over the sound.

In part three, I will discuss some of the sites we visited on the Outer Banks, and some of our favorite dining places. I keep hoping that all the places I am mentioning are recovering from Irene. It is strange to think that something may have vanished less than two weeks after we were there.

Kayakers in the Sound at Sunset

I had planned to write about our first vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina as soon as we returned home from our second trip the next week, but Hurricane Irene made it hard for me to write about such a beautiful location while it was first being threatened, and then being devastated by the storm. Although some of the things I saw may never be the same, I am hoping that the people of OBX recover quickly and they are ready for more tourists soon.

We started south a day before checking in at our rental in Rodanthe a day early to cut the drive in half. We had no real destination planned for the day except that we had a room booked in the Hampton Suites in Exton VA for the evening. So I had put the downtown of St. Michael’s MD into the GPS as a possibility, and off we went, avoiding the Interstates as much as possible.

Crepe Myrtle with an Outbuilding

St. Michaels is a quaint village of shops, restaurants, and B & B’s along with a maritime museum. The homes in the residential areas are charming and worth walking around. And the Marina was clean and did not smell oily like many do. Although we only spent a few hours there, St Michaels would be a very relaxing play to stay, especially if you are in a nautical mood. We enjoyed a very nice lunch at the Key Lime Cafe that included wonderful brewed tea and fresh fruit, and then we roamed the town a bit, visiting a number of shops, browsing at the Marina and the grounds of the museum including some beautiful homes and a figurehead from one of the training boats originally used by the US Naval Academy. For us, St. Michaels was a perfect point to stop for a rest and before heading on to our hotel.

View of the Marina from one of the B & B's

Bigs Place - Fantastic Food

We continued to Exmore, VA and checked into the very nice Hampton Suites. The desk clerk suggested a place for our dinner, just 3 miles north on US-13 named Big’s Place. We had not seen it when we drove south on 13, but the clerk told us it was near the Giant Chicken, which we had seen. Bigs Place was a bright yellow building in the front, with the rear of the building being a faded shade of white. It did not look like much when we pulled up, but it served an amazing dinner. Most the the clients were locals, and seemed to be regulars. But we were immediately made comfortable, and I enjoyed some of the best sauteed crab I have ever eaten when I ordered the “Rick and Steve”. If you are passing through this area, make the attempt to find Bigs…

The next day we continued south towards Rodanthe. We headed south on US-13 and went over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. It is always an amazing piece of engineering to see. We then worked our way through Virginia Beach via Chesapeake, until we got out of the urban traffic, and into the weekend traffic towards the Outer Banks. Since most of the rentals are weekend to weekend, Saturdays and Sundays are quite slow traveling. So we made a stop at the Morris Family Farm Market in Barco, NC to get some produce for our week in Rodanthe. They advertised clean rest rooms, and even had that part of their facility well planned. We were able to get magnificent peaches, corn on the cob, and several other items we would want for our meals on vacation.

Inside the Farm Market

Mel's Diner in Grandy NC

As we continued south on 168/158 we finally decided to stop for lunch and take a break from the traffic. We watched signs for several places, but really were looking for some diner food. We saw billboards for Mel’s Diner in Grandy NC, and were thrilled to find a vintage diner on our side of the road. We stopped around 1:30. Mel’s was still full at this hour, but we were able to get seats at the counter so we could watch the ice cream creations being made while we read the newspaper. I had a very nice hamburger and fries meal which fit the decor of the diner with vintage 50′s and 60′s artwork, and Peg was able to get a small sundae for dessert. It was not a gourmet experience, but it was just what we were looking for, and it got us ready for the final leg of our trip to Rodanthe.

We continued through a gray remainder of the afternoon through stop and go traffic. When I first hit route 12 after crossing the Wright Memorial Bridge, I was shocked by how built-up things were in Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. I had last been there in 1957, and things had definitely changed. There were fast-food chains, strip malls, and everything else that says tourist area like other parts of America, and I was a bit worried about what I would see after crossing the Oregon Inlet Bridge. As we entered Hatteras Island, traffic thinned out, and we enjoyed the drive through the National Seashore into Rodanthe. We stopped at the very nice office of Midgett Realty and picked up the keys and information before going one more block to our bay-side rental, Fairwinds Landing. The home was well set up with storage and outdoor shower on the ground level, and then three bedrooms, two baths, and a balcony that you could access by any one of the bedrooms, on the next level. The top floor had the livingroom, dining room, kitchen, a fourth bedroom, and a third bath. Soon after we unloaded, our daughter, her husband, and our grandson arrived to join us for the week, and what a wonderful week it would be.

Fairwinds Landing in Rodanthe

I will add part 2 to this write up in a few days as time allows, but until then, you can check out a more complete photo essay at http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklands/sets/72157627308409787/

The second week of the Motorcycle Safety Program went well for me. On Thursday evening we finished working our way through the handbook, watching videos, and basically learning what we needed to know. I have actually typed all the answers to the handbook questions on the computer to help my old brain keep more of the details inside, and it worked. The final written exam was 50 multiple choice questions, and I was able to get through pretty quickly and go all 50 correct. So Saturday was the big day. The final training on the Suzukis, and then the evaluation by the instructors.

On the second Saturday it was much warmer, reaching the 40′s in temperature, and since there was a chance of a shower, the sun never got to be a problem. And even better, it never did rain. We reviewed our exercises from the previous week as well as adding more. We had to do a sudden swerve, work on the slow speed “S” turns (sort of a figure ’8′) inside of a confined box, accelerate through a decreasing radius curve, ride over 2×4′s on the pad, and work some more on our panic stops. I truly feared the panic stops having put the bike down last week, but I was sure I could do it well this week. So on the second try, I got too much speed, and then missed the rear brake. This was a worse fall than last week, but thanks to proper clothing, I was able to get up and ride back in line.

Finally the time came for the evaluation. We started with the “S” turns, and I probably did the worst I had done at this during the course, going outside of the lines, and putting a foot down twice. This was NOT a good start, and I was a bit worried. But I did nail the swerve on the first try with adequate speed. The panic stop went very well this time, and I was glad because if you put the bike down anytime during the test, you did not earn a motorcycle license. I made the stop within the proper distance, and also made my downshift into first gear successfully. The last item we had to do was the decreasing radius curve after braking. I stayed within the lines, but was a bit slow speed-wise. We then went back to the classroom, and were called up one at a time to be told our scores and find out if we passed. The instructor, Steve, started calling people up one at a time, but skipped one veteran rider before me in the list making me think that if your name was skipped, maybe you did not pass. The young lady before me alphabetically was called up, and then instead of hearing “Dave Reese”, Steve called “Vespa Boy”. I had maximum marks against me for the “S” turn, but my only other point was for being slightly too slow and in the last test. I PASSED and received my stamped permit which means I have a full license.

A licensed Vespa Rider

So after a busy week when it was raining whenever I seemed to have time to ride, I put on my jacket, riding shoes, gloves, and helmet, and went out in yesterday’s 80* plus sunshine. It took a few minutes to get back into scooter mode from motorcycle, but now my slow turns from stops are getting much better, and I have more confidence from learning proper techniques in the class. I was able to safely get through intersections, and ride between parked cars on a narrow street, as well as alleys. The class was an excellent investment in time and should be considered by anyone planning to ride a motorcycle. I really thank Steve and Dave for all they taught me, and I am glad that this old dog could learn a few new tricks.

Please check out some exciting details about this event to take place July 16 and 17 on my America On Wheels page at this blog! Click “America On Wheels” in the header above.

Check out my notes on the EVERCHANGING EXHIBITS by clicking the words “America On Wheels” above the header photo.

Since I wrote about the plan to redo our bathroom, there were about two weeks of constuction. Schuler Plumbing made our old and ugly bathroom into something so much better. They started by ripping out almost everything, Starting with all the fixtures, including the medicine cabinet and the wall lights, the old bathroom disappeard. When they removed the old bathtub they found it was a bit more than 1 inch shorter than standard. They had never seen a tub that size, but after a few curses, they did get the new tub into the space.

The tub was installed

The wall tiles were also removed, and the tub surround was prepared for new tile board and new tile. Our team of Joe the Plumber, Gary the Carpenter, and Todd the Tileman kept working and slowly made progress with new plumbing connections, mainly for the shower area. We were able to upgrade our wall lighting as well as the ceiling fan/light, and get the switches arranged in a much better way than the random arrangement that had been used before. Once everything was removed, Todd was our main visitor most days. He started to insert the subway tile around the shower and as the lower part of the other wall.

Subway Tile

We kept having to make decisions on the exact locations of towel bars, corner shelves, soap dishes and more. After Todd completed the walls, the floor tile was next. This meant laying tiles inside the linen closet. It had been decided the current floor tile was solid and the new floor would go right on top of the old floor. He also had to put in a new door sill, and remove the closet and bathroom doors to cut them down so they would clear the slightly higher new floor. We had picked two different colors of grout, one for the walls and another for the floors. Todd patiently working on finishing these steps too. He spent several days at our house working in the small bathroom to keep the mess from most of the rest of the house, but the dust did get around a lot anyway.

Once Todd was finally finished on the second Thursday, we asked the crew to not come in on Friday so we would have three days to paint the walls, ceiling, and woodwork. We had already taken the shutters that converted the old exterior window into a medicine cabinet, the closet shelves, and the doors down stairs to paint in the basement. We now started on the green-blue wall and ceiling paint and the light brown trim paint. We carefully masked the tiles and did the painting. After the weekend, we were ready for Gary to return and install all the new fixtures including the toilet, vanity and sink top, shower curtain rod, and the new wall sconces.

The walls are masked for painting

When all this was done, we remounted the shutters, all the closet shelving, and remounted the doors. I closed the door to check it still fit, and had not noticed that the lock button on the inside of the hall door had been depressed. Dang, now I was locked out. It was an old door knob, so I needed a skinny flat piece of metal to unlock the door as the screws to mount the lock were inside the bathroom, as were the hinge pins. After a few filed attempts, we called our son-in-law who had much better luck at unlocking the door

The Remodeled Bathroom

I decided we would replace the doorknobs with newer ones without locks, and in brushed nickel that would look better in the new scheme. Home Depot carried nice Schlage units that were perfect, and labeled “Guaranteed to Fit”. So of course, although the off-set worked fine, the holes in our old doors were too small to insert the knobs. So our son-in-law bailed us out once more with the proper jig and drill, and drilled the new holes and installed the new door knobs. So we are happy with our new bathroom and found the two weeks without one bathroom well worth the time involved.

I started taking my first two sessions of the four session class. Thursday night was the first of two classroom sessions, and our instructor Steve made us all feel comfortable on a cold evening. I felt lucky getting into the second class of the season, although I had wanted the first class which does the outdoor riding on Saturday mornings…but more about that later. Both classes were together on Thursday night, and a number of perspective class alternates were turned away.

We filled in our paperwork, and became teams based on the tables where we were seated. We each introduced ourselves and explained why we were taking the course. Most were experienced riders who had never gotten their licenses and were tired of renewing their permits. I explained that I had bought my Vespa based on looking at the scooters at America On Wheels, and now needed to learn to ride properly. As a senior citizen, I wanted to learn this safely. So when our table needed to name our team, my team mates decided we should be “The Vespas” as no one else had really said much of anything concerning their signing up for the course. Thursday evening was mostly answering the questions in the work book and watching videos pertaining to each part of the book. During our break we went over to Blackman’s Cycle shop, and I got to know one fellow student, John, a bit better. He is an avid bicycler who decided to return to motorcycle riding and wanted a refresher. I knew I was not the only new rider here, but felt I may stick out a bit when we got onto the bikes on Saturday.

Saturday morning hit with very cold weather. Since I was too late to get into the Saturday morning, I did not need to be on the bikes at 8 AM when the temperature was 28 degrees, and the windchill was at 19. It was about 33 degrees when we met with our instructors at 1:30 PM. It was still cold and caused me to dress in multiple layers. We met our second instructor, Dave, and picked one of the 12 Suzuki GZ250′s and started training. We became oriented with the controls of these bikes which are a bit different than my Vespa, which has an automatic transmission. So the rear brake on my Vespa is the clutch on the Suzuki. My left foot now has to shift gears and my right foot has to remember to operate the rear brake. So I had to make my old brain shift some of my reflexes for the little bit of riding I have done on my Vespa. We started with rocking the bike via the clutch, then doing power walking using the clutch, and finally riding under power. By the time we took our first break, my fingers were burning with cold. But that was the last time I really felt the cold.

I did pretty well until we started shifting on the fly. I stuggled with that because my shoe kept getting stuck under the shifter peg. I did improve my slow turns by learning to trust turning my head through the turn before I rode through the turn, and not looking down to see where I was. I felt I was doing fairly well, but I was not as smooth as some of the other riders, but I was not the only one bobbling some of the excercises from time to time. I did fairly well in the serpentines, but on the “panic stops”, I twice hit the front brake lever too hard. The first time I caught the bike in a skid, but the second time I laid it down pretty gently. So now I have that out of my system.

I am not sure if I should practice any of the techniques on the Vespa this week, or wait until after the second weekend of “on the bike” training to keep myself from forgetting what the left hand and the two feet do until I take my riding evaluation. I think I can be a safe rider, and hope that the evaluators agree. By this time next week I will know the answer.

Today is the day that we are having one of the original bathrooms ripped out and a new one installed. We are replacing the toilet, bathtub, vanity and sink, lights, floor, and wall tiles. The doors and one light switch will remain. The shuttered window opening will stay as the storage area since this was an external wall of the house before we added to the house back in 2002. If the window was still a window, it would look into the laundry room.

The 1957 Bathroom

It had been a number of years since we did professional remodeling, and the number of choices has gotten to be astounding. We spent days looking at fixtures, then had to pick the tiles for the floor and walls. That meant looking at hundreds of samples and bringing home favorites. Once we had selected the tiles, then we were given the grout samples of over 50 colors. It just went on and on.

Now the installer will be arriving today to start the removal of our bathroom which has been here since 1957. I must say I won’t really miss the cracked sink on the plywood vanity. It will be a mess for the next few weeks, but the updates should be worth it, and I know that my wife will be much happier. Hopefully there will be no horror stories, and the finished product will be ready to photograph in the very near future.

Wish us luck!