We packed up yet once again and this time we were headed to Kitty Hawk, home to the Wright Brothers memorial. I was amazed to learn that the site of the birthplace of aviation is just a couple of miles as the crow flies from the site of the Lost Colony. That’s never explained in any history books. We however had to drive about ten miles since we had to cross another bridge from Manteo on Roanoke Island to Nags Head on the Outer Banks and then drive a few miles north.
We drove right by the Wright Memorial because we were in the wrong lane and I didn’t see any signs announcing it. We were in the right lane and the memorial was off on the left. You’d think the Wright Memorial would be on the right side, right? A couple of hundred feet past the entrance I was able to make a right turn, driving once around a block until we were back on the main road, took a left, and finally make that right turn into the Wright Memorial. This was a federal monument and as such we were able to use our Golden Eagle Park Pass to get in for free, sort of, since I had to buy the pass a few months ago, but it did save me at least $20 today.
This park is basically a ½ mile long by ¼ mile wide meadow with a 75’ hill on the south end, topped by an obelisk dedicated to the historic event. When the Wright brothers flew on that fateful December 13, 1903 they were taking off to the north, into the direction of the winter winds. They made four flights that day, each one a little longer than the previous one. The last one ended up in a crash landing that damaged their flyer beyond repair. The next day they packed up and went home to Dayton, Ohio.There is a visitor’s center with a couple of exact size replicas of the flyer as well as dioramas of the event. Also on the grounds is a museum, which seems to be sponsored by the aviation industry, complete with another replica, and a movie theater which continually shows the story of what happened here just over 100 years ago.
I walked the entire grounds, Marianne bowed out of this, since it was still hot. Fortunately there was a stiff breeze blowing which helped. When I returned from visiting the obelisk memorial, there were 25 kids flying kites near where the brothers launched their contraption.
From here we drove to Williamsburg, Virginia site of the recreated first capital of the state. We booked ourselves into the local KOA for two nights so that we would have time to thoroughly enjoy the area, as well as time to wash clothes.
That evening the campground had a candy bar bingo event. After much searching we found the pavilion where it was located. This well-shaded campground it huge, so huge it is divided into two different parks. The instructions told us to go to one of the two parks, but when we got there we found it was in the pavilion in our part of the park.
It was so hot in that un-air-conditioned building, and we were only playing for Halloween candy, so after about a half dozen games Marianne and I decided to go exploring and buy our own candy bars.
We aimlessly drove around the wooded countryside until we came upon a sign directing us to a fishing pier. After driving a few miles under the canopy of trees in the dusk, following the trail of lightening buds, be came upon a clearing that was part of a state park just in time to see the sunset. As a couple of the last fishermen were loading up their boats, we walked out onto the 100’ long fishing pier. At the end of the pier was a couple about our age, visiting from West Virginia, casting their fishing lines a few more times before they had to quit because the park closed at 9pm. They offered to share their bait with us, but we declined, since we were more interested on what they could tell us about the area. They were loquacious.
As we pulled out of the park the “need fuel” light came on, and since we didn’t know exactly where we were, we had to go hunting for diesel. The first two stations we found didn’t have diesel. At the second we were directed to a third “up the road a piece” only to discover it was closed for the night. But next door was a mini-market so we were finally able to get our candy bars.
We turned around with the aid of a GPS we headed back to the campground, coming upon a Shell station with diesel a short time later. With fuel in the truck we made it back, walked the dogs and went to bed.
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