Friday, June 3
We got up & started riding at 7:00 a.m. The temperature was 77 degrees, but was only expected to rise 2 degrees to 79 throughout the day. We left the van at the campsite in Rodanthe and rode South down Hwy 12 through Wave, Salvo, and finally Avon. We stopped at Muffins & Scones Bakery there and both of us had a breakfast bagel with an egg on it; I added bacon and cheese, and it was delicious!
We left Avon and continued South to Buxton to see the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Its black double helix spiral stripes on a white background are quintessential. It is the tallest brick lighthouse in the USA, at 198 ft. We got there just in time to hear a park ranger giving a talk on its history. Surprisingly, Alexander Hamilton was instrumental in establishing lighthouses along the East coast back in the early 1800’s. In 1999 the lighthouse was moved about 2900 feet inland, due to erosion undermining its structural integrity. This feat was called the “Move of the Millennium. That same year, the move won the 40th Annual Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers They also moved the lighthouse keeper’s and the double lighthouse keeper’s homes so the site would be historically accurate.
We started back North and got 3 miles from Rodanthe, where our campsite is and the sky opened up! We found an overhang outside a real estate office and took refuge. It let up once and started again with vengeance. After about 15 minutes we were on our way again. We road more than 50 miles, but I can’t give you exact mileage as my odometer kept quitting on me.
Sherri (and Mary Ann) from the OBX of NC
