The neighborhood

Although exploring the inner and outer banks is fun, not every day is a travel day. De Anne and I still ride our bikes and get in some pool time and this is an ideal place for that. Miles of paved road with very little traffic are within the neighborhood.

As always, De Anne covers far more miles than I on the bike. As I rest from 5 to 6 miles of biking she doubles that and then launches her kayak from the community dock across the street. A mile of meandering paddling on Mill Creek takes her to the Neuse River.

Our cottage is the middle of 3 connected by a long front porch:

Community gazebo along the Neuse river. A good rest stop on a bike ride.

Neighborhood pool. Only once in 3 weeks have we had to share it with others.

Small towns

We visited a couple small, but picturesque towns in the surrounding area. Our first visit was to Oriental, NC - "the sailing capitol of North Carolina". It did seem to have a great number of good sized sailboats and a commercial fishing fleet.

The downtown fishing harbor.

The next field trip was to New Bern. We strolled the waterfront and toured the restored old town. Settled by a great number of Swiss immigrants naming the town was a reminder of Bern, Switzerland, and the word bern means bear - hence the many bears around town.

De Anne staring down a bear (or maybe window shopping).

Note the bear sticking out of the wall above the arch at City Hall..

Outer Banks

Two days of rain and wind left us with a bit of cabin fever, so when Sunday morning showed clear skies the unanimous decision was a quick trip to the outer banks.

Just a few miles down the road was a short cut - the ferry across the Neuse River. Thoughtfully provided by the State of North Carolina for the affordable price of zero, the ferry deposited us at Cherry Point after a 15 minute crossing.

We did a quick reconnoiter of Beaufort and Morehead City then headed to Atlantic Beach. As followers of this blog know I am wont to stop at historic forts. Fort Macon was a siren call to me. De Anne, as always, indulged me. It was our lucky day! It was cannon firing day!

 A trip across the dunes then I took her back to Beaufort where we walked the waterfront, and enjoyed lunch on a balcony overlooking the Sound.

Mobile

Our lease ends tomorrow.

The kayak is strapped to the top of the CRV, the bikes are on the trailer-hitch rack, and the rest of our worldly goods are loaded in the back.

 We have once again downsized. Everything not transportable has been sold, given away, or tossed in the dumpster. It was much easier this time, both from experience and many less years of collecting before the purge.

 Our first destination is North Carolina. We have rented a cabin for the month of September in Minnesott Beach. We hope to stay a few miles ahead of the storm which seems to be following the same path as us.

 Four more destinations over the next four months to follow.

Shenandoah valley

We are renting a tiny house in the Shenandoah valley. The house is comfortable, which is a good thing since rain has driven us indoors several times.

During a dry spell yesterday we drove the Skyline Drive, a scenic meandering road with lots of pull-offs to admire the view. After a picnic lunch we found a parking area adjacent to the Appalachian Trail and took a short hike. If I had a bucket list that could have been a check mark.

 

Fly away

We are leaving tomorrow to spend a week in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. We will attend Tristan's graduation from National Defense University the following week. He has earned a Master's in International Relations.

It is a good time to vacate the beach. It is yellow fly season. For those unaquainted, the yellow fly is like the horse fly, only smarter, smaller, stealthy, with a much worse bite.

 If you ascribe to the theory that God made beer so man would be happy, then the yellow fly was made to remind man to drink it indoors.

Beach living is wonderful - except the first two weeks in June.

Mountain vista pictures coming soon!

Happy Mother's Day

I have always been a bit slow. 35 years into this marriage I am still learning the same lesson. The oft forgotten lesson is De Anne's freedom to go where and when she wants (see "Free Range Wife" elsewhere on this blog).

Last year De Anne wanted a kayak so I got a big tandem kayak that we could paddle around together. For the sake of argument let us say I like to go kayaking once a week, but De Anne might want to kayak every day.... right after her 18 mile bike ride and before her 6 mile beach walk. You can see, this is an impediment to her freedom if my presence is required to launch a kayak that is beyond her ability to portage to the water.

Which brings us to Mother's Day 2016 and her gift which she splashed (solo) today:

Travel update: Tristan and Kat are planning an October wedding. We will gladly delay our trip to the land down under.