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2004
Midwinters the trip home: Outer Banks via Charlotte, NC photos by Marc Bennett and Uncle Al |
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| After a quiet
evening and restful night's sleep at Mike and Dotty's,
Marc and I were treated to a lovely breakfast before we hit SR44 towards I-4 and I-95 on a lovely, warm, sunny morning: destination ... ... |
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| ... Charlotte, NC
and ... ... |
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| ... the Catawba
Yacht Club where ... ... |
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... SHADES
will be staying with friends until the Cottonwood
Regatta April 24-25. A lovely evening and night with
the Johnsons featured pizza and a re-run of the
Midwinters action as we plugged the digital camera
into the TV and studied/critiqued sailing form.
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Next stop:
the Outer Banks revisited. After a quick stop where
Marc visited Versatel's parent company in Apex, near
Raleigh, we had a pleasant, long and scenic drive
along route 64 towards the ocean and the Outer Banks
where we planned once more to stay in Nags Head at the
Quality Inn - always assuming it had survived last
September's hurricane.
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| The causeway
across to Manteo on Roanoke Island looks recently
repaired ... ... |
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| ...but
we
didn't see much obvious hurricane damage as we drove
across the island and arrived in Nags Head on the actual Outer Banks in the late afternoon. ... |
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| Here, the signs
of an uneven fight with Hurricane Isabel are obvious. ... |
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| The Quality Inn
where we had stayed the previous year (above) was
not quite as bright and shiny ... ... |
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| ... this year!! ... |
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| Our request for
an ocean-front room like last year, was met with a
pained smile and the information that ... ... |
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| ... the entire
ocean-front wing was under reconstruction and ... ... |
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| ... unavailable
til further notice and that we would have to make do with a room in their "annex" across the road. ... |
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| We were eager to
see how things looked on the other side of the dunes
where Isabel had first hit land. ... |
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| Most of the long
pier just south of the Inn had been washed away. ... |
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| With many, many
residences needing to be repaired or totally replaced,
contractors are still stretched to the limit, and this formerly lovely boardwalk is doubtless low on the list of priorities. ... |
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| The room we had
occupied so happily in 2003 now looked forlorn and had a
big hole in its roof. ... |
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| In a way, this
said it all. ... |
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| But nature on the
Outer Banks remains as beautiful as ever. ... |
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| The next day,
Wednesday, was beautiful and sunny and we headed south
towards Cape Hatteras to again enjoy the beauties of the Banks and check out more of Isabel's effects first-hand. ... |
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| Unlike last year,
the roadsides were largely sand-covered and we had to
pick carefully any spot where we might wish to pull off the road to sight-see. From the beautiful dunes above, we got ... ... |
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| ... a nice view
inland where the scrub vegetation seemed to have
survived very well - perhaps, thought Marc, because it had been immersed by the waters of the storm surge and thus sort of protected from the winds. ... |
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| A lot of the
hydro poles had been replaced. ... |
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| Just south of
Nags Head, the dunes seemed to have survived... ... |
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| ... looking
lovelier than ever! ... |
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| It was easy to
imagine the furious winds and waves washing right across
all this. ... |
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| A lot of the
boardwalk across these wetlands did not survive. ... |
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| Evidence of a
much higher water level not that long ago! |