Washington DC to the Outer Banks
Kitty Hawk – Wright Brother’s Memorial
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Windy, 60°
“Great things never came from comfort zones.”
I was excited to make the drive from Washington, DC to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina as it has been many years since my last adventure there. I flew hang gliders from Jockey’s Ridge several times over the years and on the 75th Anniversary of the Wright Brother’s first flight I took part in a re-enactment as part of an IMAX movie being made for the Smithsonian. Several people were involved with building a replica of the Wright Flyer for the ceremony and several thousand came from all over the country to see the event. There was also a large hang gliding festival in Kitty Hawk during that week of festivities celebrating the first flight. I, also, first learned how to fly a tow kite behind a boat in Kitty Hawk and participated in many tow kite competitions after that.
First flight – Kill Devil Hills and the first flight memorial are where aviation started. Several years of glider flights from 1900 and the four powered flights happened here on December 17, 1903. A coin toss on December 13 had Wilbur making a three second flight that stalled out and damaged the aircraft. Repaired and ready on December 17, Orville made the first flight of 120 feet in 12 seconds.
They each made two flights that day 175 and 200 feet. Wilbur made the final flight just after noon and covered a distance of 852 feet with air time of 59 seconds. American aviation would never be the same as someone would always want to have “the Right Stuff” to go higher, faster, and farther than the next guy.
Driving on the Outer Banks this trip I saw many changes. Progress had made a pretty area with a few beach houses and hardly any businesses into a little growing village of strip malls, and condos. Many of the sand dunes were replaced with houses; it was hardly recognizable. Kitty Hawk Kites was still across the street from Jockey’s Ridge which is a State Park now and businesses surround the shop. Change happens and this is such a pretty area, I guess it was to be expected.
We drove down toward Cape Hatteras to Oregon Inlet to the NPS campground by Bodie Island Light House. The campground was just behind the sand dunes leading to the beach. Another knock on the door at eleven o’clock by a small woman who saw that our RV had the only light still on in the campground and asked me if I would come to hers and try to figure out the alarm that was sounding. As I went into her RV there was a large black cat sitting in front of the passenger side windshield watching every move I made. One of her detector alarms was sounding. After a couple of minutes, I realized that since this is a “remote” campground with no services for water, sewer, or electric and she had almost every light in the camper on her battery was almost dead and the CO2 alarm was sounding since it had no power. I tried to start up her generator but it was dead. I cranked her vehicle for a couple of minutes then tried the generator again which started. I told her to run the generator for about 15 to thirty minutes to charge her battery, shut off some of her lights and the alarm should not sound again during the night.
The next morning she thanked me again for saving her from hearing that alarm sound all night and after a morning walk on the beach it was time to head out once again. First, to Bodie Island Lighthouse to check in and out of the campground with the park rangers and then down the coastal highway about 8 miles to Rodanthe, North Carolina to the house made famous in the movie, “Nights in Rodanthe” with Diane Lane and Richard Gere. I had read that the house called “Serendipity” was moved down the road a short distance after being damaged in a hurricane and the new owners rebuilt it as it was in the movie. It is now a Bed and breakfast called Inn at Rodanthe. After taking a few pictures, were on our way again, Traveling Life’s Highways.