On the eighth day of Christmas
26 December, 2020
At the pony pens on Ocracoke
Lots of photos today. That worked well yesterday. So more photos and captions today.
I made many comments in previous posts and talked about our ties to the Outer Banks. It is a place so familiar and I have such a long history here. My first visit occurred well over half a century ago. Saying half a century did not come lightly, but I first remember visiting around the age of 4 or so. Not all the details, but bits and pieces of the visit.
When we travel to Europe, to different countries, the southwestern US, or to unfamiliar places, I notice the details and the differences from my regular life. I notice the different languages, the different customs, different foods. The things I am unfamiliar with stick out to me and are a new experience. The oddities or novelty of someplace different make it so easy to write stories about our visit.
I made many comments in previous posts and talked about our ties to the Outer Banks. It is a place so familiar and I have such a long history here. My first visit occurred well over half a century ago. Saying half a century did not come lightly, but I first remember visiting around the age of 4 or so. Not all the details, but bits and pieces of the visit.
When we travel to Europe, to different countries, the southwestern US, or to unfamiliar places, I notice the details and the differences from my regular life. I notice the different languages, the different customs, different foods. The things I am unfamiliar with stick out to me and are a new experience. The oddities or novelty of someplace different make it so easy to write stories about our visit.
We rode the ferry across to Ocracoke today!
Visiting here isn’t like that...Hatteras IS part of my normal life, and has been for most of my life. No, I never lived here, but I visited so many times and have so many life events tied to the Outer Banks. I can’t seem to conjure an exciting story about something so familiar, so normal to me.
This does not mean that other places we have traveled are better…..they aren’t better or worse. They are new and different. Hatteras still has a draw to us. Laurie loves to visit here and I really like surf fishing here. It is never a crowded place like other beaches and that’s one reason we keep coming back.
This does not mean that other places we have traveled are better…..they aren’t better or worse. They are new and different. Hatteras still has a draw to us. Laurie loves to visit here and I really like surf fishing here. It is never a crowded place like other beaches and that’s one reason we keep coming back.
So cold out on deck today that a mask actually felt good. That's different.
Being so familiar makes it harder to pick out the new and different…...mainly because the Outer Banks don’t change with the pace of the rest of the world. Things here change very little. A new store, a new restaurant, a new bridge, but the island itself remains the same. This makes it hard to write about because it isn’t new and it doesn’t really change.
With the world in disarray, on this trip, the Outer Banks are a refuge. In the past, the Outer Banks gave us a place to vacation after our wedding. We camped because we couldn’t afford a hotel. The Outer Banks brought us comfort when Paige struggled with cancer and we would bring the kids here for a vacation we could afford. It was a place we could be a normal family, something we so badly needed. The Outer Banks brought us comfort when we returned as a smaller family to scatter the ashes of one we lost.
The Outer Banks are not new and different. With the exception of the occasional new building that nature can wipe away on a whim, they are the same as when I was a child. They do not cause the excitement in me that a new and different place will. The Outer Banks are what they are. They do not change.
There is comfort in that.
B
With the world in disarray, on this trip, the Outer Banks are a refuge. In the past, the Outer Banks gave us a place to vacation after our wedding. We camped because we couldn’t afford a hotel. The Outer Banks brought us comfort when Paige struggled with cancer and we would bring the kids here for a vacation we could afford. It was a place we could be a normal family, something we so badly needed. The Outer Banks brought us comfort when we returned as a smaller family to scatter the ashes of one we lost.
The Outer Banks are not new and different. With the exception of the occasional new building that nature can wipe away on a whim, they are the same as when I was a child. They do not cause the excitement in me that a new and different place will. The Outer Banks are what they are. They do not change.
There is comfort in that.
B
Rear deck on the ferry, looking back towards Hatteras. The ferry normally holds between 30 and 50 cars. Today had maybe 15. It's the off season and they don't run as often or as full.
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Passing another ferry coming from Ocracoke. This time of year they run from Hatteras on the hour and from Ocracoke on the half.
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Ocracoke got a bunch of rain, probably more than we did. I saw totals over 4 inches for Ocracoke on Christmas eve. I also saw wind gusts recorded on Christmas eve. In our part of the banks it ran from the high 60's to the low 70's mph. Not a lot of people here this time of year. You can stand in the middle of the road a long time before a car comes.
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Silver Lake, the harbor at Ocracoke.
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My first memory of Ocracoke was having a Coke on the porch of this store. After over 100 years in business, Hurricane Dorian in 2019 did what time could not. They are now out of business.
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The Ocracoke lighthouse. It sort of has a New England feel to it, and it looks like the New England lighthouses. The quarters to the right are now a private residence.
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Sunset reflecting on the southbound ferry. I like this photo.
I thought the truck I saw on the beach yesterday was the coolest. That was before I saw this. It is a Europe fire truck with a special camper on the back. We saw these in Iceland and it turns out the family in it was from somewhere in Europe. Cost is (my estimate) over 300k. The thing is epic.
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The back of the epic camper. I looked them up on the internet and if I hit the lotto, this is stop number one. They are the mega bugout apocalypse camper. Wow, what a vehicle!
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Ghost of Christmas past
Berlin, Germany
Christmas 2016
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