This is just one of probably 5,000 images I have of an empty beach. People often tell me they can’t find any beaches without big crowds anymore, especially here in the continental U.S., but I beg to differ. More often than not, Deborah and I find ourselves on a beach with less than 10 people in a 5 square mile area. This beach is one of our favorites. In North Carolina you can go to the Outer Banks and find empty beach after beach.
Of course one of the keys to finding an empty beach is going when everyone else doesn’t want to go. This may sound stupid, but if you want to get a tan and lay in the sun, then go where everyone else is going. If you are interested in walking on a place like the photo below, go in the off season, it is great. So far, we have been able to find empty beaches in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and some incredible ones in Alabama.
They are certainly nice places still left, you just have to look. This is one of our favorites spots, and it is usually empty all year long with white sand and no trash. It is COLD in the winter winds, but still a great place to spend an afternoon, and today, it is the image of the day.
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It is difficult to say goodbye to friends and to leave a place you have come to call home. We left North Carolina last week to travel to Texas where we will be staying for a month or so before going to Colorado for the rest of the year. Eddie, Nora, Leslie, Jerry, Josh and Obidiah (pictured below) had come to be our surrogate family while we were in North Carolina for the last year and a half. We will miss them greatly.
Nora showing off her new North Carolina dish cloth that I knitted for her.
Here are some more friends we made while at Twin Lakes. We watched this mother duck raise these babies from hatchlings to this size. Somewhere along the way they picked up a friend who would follow them around and he became like a foster parent.
Before leaving North Carolina we had to have the sailboat pulled out of the water and put into dry storage. We had to do this because when Scott went out to close her up and batten her down for the season he found that she was taking on water. The sheath that surrounds the swing keel had a small fracture in the fiberglass and was leaking. Luckily, he found this out before we left and we were able to get it taken out of the water. Now it will spend this hurricane season on land where it is safer anyway.
We left North Carolina and headed for Dallas, Texas. It was so hot outside that our generator would not hold power for the air conditioner to stay on. So, we sweated a lot. We decided to make it a 3 day drive instead of 4 and arrived here in Texas on the 2nd of July. Blazer and Aubie were so happy to be plugged in to shore power and to have air conditioning again. Here is Blazer showing his relief.
Although we will miss our friends we are very excited about our future adventures in Colorado. Scott is planning on getting back into his photography and I am looking forward to knitting a lot during the colder months.
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After leaving the North Carolina Aquarium in Rodanthe we had lunch and then went to the beach for a little bit of metal detecting. This is one of our many hobbies. We didn’t find anything on this day and a storm was beginning to come in so we didn’t stay long. We have been to this beach on the Outter Banks several times and we really enjoy the peace that comes with this beach.
There is probably not place more beautiful and more empty than the beaches of the Outter Banks. If you are looking for a nice place to get some peace and relaxation, this is it, just don’t tell anyone.
On the way back home from the beach I took these pictures of Bodie lighthouse out the window of the truck. Not bad snapshots for 45 mph.
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Two weeks ago we took a trip out to the North Carolina Aquarium. The aquarium is located in Rodanthe, a town on an island between the mainland and the outer banks of North Carolina.
Below are some pictures of what we saw. The shark was behind a 12″ thick (or more) glass tank wall, it was still probably too close to this particular shark, glad I was on the other side and not in the water with him.
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What a wonderful birthday I had this year! Thirty nine is not so bad when you have people around you that love you and a Father in heaven who guides you.
Scott and I celebrated my birthday this year by installing a new washer and dryer in the bus. They work like a dream! No more laundr-o-mats for us! Yipee =0)
Here is a picture of Scott watching the washer spin:
Then we went to dinner at a little steak house here in town. They are small in size only. There are no menus and the chef/cook comes out from the back (if it is your first time dining there) with a huge slab of meat on a very large cutting board. He explains their dining selections (steak or chicken) and then retreats to the back to prepare what you ask for. The sides were baked potato or sweet potato and salad bar. The dinner was wonderful, but $50 for the two of us was quite steep. Oh well, it was our first (and probably last) time dining there.
At dinner Scott surprised me with a new camera. I have been wanting one for some time now so that I can take pictures for this blog and other group stuff.
So since I have the camera now I can take a picture of the gift my wonderful friend Cathy sent me. She is such a wonderful blessing and truly a gift from God. Here is what she sent.
She sent me a wonderful book and a really neat scarf that she knitted for me.
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This is the 5th of May and it is supposed to be 58 degrees tomorrow for a high with 30 mph winds. Right now it is raining, cold and windy outside. ARRRRGGGGHHHH. I am not sure spring/summer is ever going to get here. Well, maybe I can get some knitting done anyway. You would think we wouldn’t get cabin fever in a bus, but perhaps being cramped into a 40 foot by 8 foot space makes 58* feel like -30* sometimes. I still love it, but can’t wait for some warmer weather so show up out here.
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We have been here at Twin Lakes RV Resort (http://www.twinlakesnc.com) for about 8 months now. It is a very pretty park with 500/800 sites and is located at the beginning of the Pamlico Sound where the Tar and the Pamlico Rivers meet. We arrived here in March and decided to stay stationary for a while.
We have at least a one year lease on the rv spot we are in and when the lease is up we will see if it is time to move on to another spot or to stay here a little longer. It is a nice place and just outside little Washington (Washington, NC), which is also a nice little town. It could be a little closer to the Outer Banks which we love, but it is all the way up at the mouth of the Pamlico river.
While we have been here I have been able to learn many new techniques using beads, as well as complete a few other unfinished projects. I hope to finish my first knitted-beaded amulet bag tonight. It is from a pattern by Theresa Williams, a.k.a. The Bag Lady, (http://www.baglady.com) and is called Baby Dahlia. This bag has been fun to do and I am looking forward to doing many more in various styles.
I learned to knit over the last month or two using yarn and size 8 needles. Once I was comfortable with the knit stitch, I moved on to this pattern. For this first attempt I chose to use DMC size 8 Perle Cotton in Ecru color and #227, size 11 seed beads, a denim color purchased from http://www.indiandreamstrading.com.
