Saturday

Asheville. Surrounded by mountains. Clean, friendly hotel. Ah, this is already a better.

Katie spotted a restaurant advertising Greek and Italian food, while we're driving around waiting for the room to be ready. Pomodoros Greek & Italian Cafe. They may serve both kinds of food, but they're Greeks. I had a Mythos. Not great beer, but I have a sentimental attachment as I drank it all across Greece in 2005. I had souvlaki and tabouleh and Katie had hummus and tabouleh. It was excellent. On Easter, they serve traditional soup after midnight Mass and on Sunday, they serve roasted whole lamb and easter bread with the red dyed hard boiled eggs, just like my dad used to make.

Update:

We took the Brews Cruse.

• A busload of people.
• Very quiet on the way to the first brewery.
• Everybody singing, dancing, or laughing on the way to the third.
• Guy in kilt
• John
• Shauna
• first couple
• lesbians
• "the kid"
• earnest new brewers

Decided against heading downtown to Bele Chere.

Friday

Drive day. Moved out of the condo by ten. Ferry over to Hatteras. I could ride the ferry back and forth all day; love a boat ride.

Lunch (last of our seafood dinners) in Nags Head. Cooked dinner on the camp stove at a rest stop. On to Asheville tomorrow.

Update: Dirty Super 8, in Statesville. Katie's vote for our worst ever motel/hotel. I don't think so, but she insists right behind the one in D.C., in 1987, where we slept in the sleeping bags on top of the sheets. Now on to Asheville.

Thursday

Calmer water. Much less wind. Hot. So hot the sand burned my feet. Long time on the beach.

Biked around more of the village. Back to Zilley's for IPAs on a very hot day.

Pictures of the lighthouse. Jolly Rogers for sunset. Willis ? was singing there (same guy from Smack Nalley's). Had the crowd going and singing along. He introduced National Geographic crew who were there doing a story on Ocracoke. They were taking pictures and having a good time.

We got some Spanish Mackeral from the fish house and made ourselves another excellent dinner.

Wednesday

Wednesday. Best beach day yet. Water wasn't so rough in the morning and we spent a lot of time in it. Got the kite up in the air, but it crashed 500 feet away, beyond the dunes. That sent me for a hike to retrieve. Then one of the rings got away and I chased it the same distance or more. How do they roll on their edge that far?

Had leftovers for lunch. That meal we fixed last night was the best seafood dinner on the island.

Took a nap and then biked back to the beach to feed the seagulls. Saw two guys kite surfing. They go amazingly fast and were pulled up four or five feet in the air, at times. We watched, fascinated, until they were out of site, miles down the beach.

Dinner at Howard's Pub, which looks much like it did a dozen years ago, but without the rocking chairs. Turns out it is just two doors down from the bed and breakfast we stayed at 18 years ago. We like this place.

Cats, Ducks and Fish

Saturday we ate lunch as soon as we unpacked. Wandered into Dajio's and had beers and sandwiches. The waitress had an accent and we asked. She's from Bulgaria on the same exchange program as the waitresses at Howard's Pub we met a dozen years ago.

Sunday was windy. That can't be overstated on the Outer Banks. It was our first beach day and we didn't take the kite or umbrella. Good thing; we'd have never seen either again. Rough water. Wind so strong that the sand stung. Still, it's the ocean and there are no hotels and if you want, no people.

Monday, we decided to get in the water. That lasted five minutes. Got knocked down repeatedly and headed back to our chairs. Long walk. Found shells. Once we were sandy (and it's impossible not to be with that wind), hot and hungary, we headed into town. Beers (Yuengling!) and fish sandwiches at the bar at Smack Nally's, outside and on the water. Katie very happy.

I was too until I started trying to work. Limited internet access and trying to do a task that is hard enough in the office. Worked on it off and on all day and finished after midnight. Never take your laptop on vacation!

We saw two old ladies and a guy with a pick up truck setting traps and trying to catch some cats that were hanging out across the street. We later met one of the ladies, who runs the gift shop across the street, and she told us they were trying to catch them to be spayed an neutered. The island has feral cats and a vet has voluteered to fix all the ones they can catch.

Speaking of things running around the neighborhood: there are about 30 ducks that wander back and forth across the street. The look on people's faces is great.

We got in the water right away this morning (Tuesday) and had a good time. Best beach day yet. Third day at the beach and neither of us has remotely burned. We're getting this down after 25 years!

We bought shrimp and scallops at the local fish market and made a great dinner, which, as usual, we ate out on the screened in porch overlooking the harbor and main street. It was great.

Still no sunset. It was overcast the first two days, but last night and tonight was clear until the western horizon clouded over.

After dinner, we got on our bikes and rode out of town in the dark and went to the beach. Had a half moon and some lightening. It was great. No light pollution at all. No hotels. No buildings and nothing at all for 14 miles to Hatteras Inlet. I could set a cot out there and sleep next to the ocean and listen to it forever.

Battered, Bruised and Beached

Made it past Knoxville and stopped at a KOA, Thursday night. Got the creeps and couldn't do it. Drove on and stopped at Big Creek in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Only has twelve sites and we got the next to last. Beautiful area with wide, rocky, loud creek right next to the campground. We went to sleep to the sound of water.

Friday, got up and decided to go on a hike before driving across North Carolina. A trailhead to a spur off the Appalachian Trail was near our camp site. Two miles to the Trail. Turned out it was straight up a mountain. We couldn't believe two miles could be that far. Beautiful trail but exhausting and seemingly never ending, but, we made it!

Ten minutes later, on the way down, I had a.... hiking accident. The trail was rough, with lots of roots and big rocks. I fell and, since it was such a steep grade, flew straight down onto my nose, then shoulder, then hands. We've spent the last couple days trying to document my black and blue nose (and the two potential black eyes) with the camera. Eyes are OK. Nose still black and blue. We're still not sure it's not broken.

Katie was a champ and got us all the way across the state to Rocky Mount where we ate a full meal and had a shower and bed. Saturday we drove to Hatteras. I hate bridges but crossed three or four of them without a mental breakdown. Perfect timing to Hatteras. The ferry actually got us going early. We were the last car on.

Got to Ocracoke and into our condo. That's not what it is really like. It is right on the marina of Silver Lake (the harbor that Ocracoke village is on). We have two floors over a store. It is palatial on the inside. Screened porch, on the top floor, where we can eat, play cards, drink beer and watch the boats come and go and the people on the street. Endlessly entertaining.

Into the sand and surf, this morning. Very windy and rough water, but still great to be on the beach. Took a bike ride around the village this afternoon and discovered some really old cemetary's. Also discovered Zilley's and sampled several from their amazingly large beer selection. Not a bad way to spend Sunday afternoon.

Surf and Turf