The Trip - Day 9 - April 30th
The Trip - Day 9
Today is The Relaxation. Yesterday was the slog. Listen to my tale of woe as a seafood restaurant goes wrong! Hear my tale of joy as I see the Atlantic Ocean! Read them in not necessarily that order! Follow the link if you dare, for these are not the limits of my imagination!
As nice as Richmond was, I had to bid it farewell. I wanted to see Kitty Hawk after all, and I was determined to make it to Aiken by the end of the day.
Woosh! There I was, three hours later, pulling into Kitty Hawk, NC. North Carolina in two words: !@#$ing hot. I'm thinking that I'll take a nice relaxing stop at the Badlands in South Dakota on my way back. It should be nicely cool there in comparison. Once I'd finished appreciating the heat, a nice lady at the visitor center showed me how to go down and see the ocean. She also suggested that I dine at a place called Awful Arthur's. More on that later.
I made a short ritual of walking down to the ocean, removing my shoes and socks and hiking up the cuff of my pants. I walked down, stood in the surf, and let the ocean wash over me. It was cold, refreshing, and all together moving. To contrast, the Pacific at home is much darker, where the Atlantic was much brighter blue and also a little green.
After listening to the surf for a few moments, I remembered why I liked visiting the ocean. Watching the ocean, and listening to it go in and out, that's my idea of relaxation. There's something deeply primal and calming about sitting on a beach, and it is probably one of my favorite feelings ever. However, I didn't have the time, nor the body, to sit and relax by the oceanside all day.
While I was driving into town I saw an ad for a place called Jimmy's Seafood Buffet, my first choice for some seafood. A friend told me to find a place that served great big heaping buckets of crab and corn, and I meant to satisfy that desire. However, after watching one too many episodes of $40 a day, I thought asking a local might suggest something better. And so I refer back to the visitor center lady that suggested Awful Arthur's.
I went to Awful Arthur's. It was awful. And not in the good way that you'd market a restaurant around. First, they served the same bland cabbage/carrot slaw that every fast food joint serves. That is the single reason I don't like coleslaw. It wasn't until I learned you could make other types of slaw that I finally found some I could stand. My two hush puppies might as well have been hockey pucks, and the deep fried soft shell crab I had was crunchy and flavorless. Even the fries were bad! The only thing palatable was the 6oz fillet (I got surf & turf), and my dinner crackers. All that for over $25.
Suffice it to say, from now on I will take the advice of locals with a grain of salt.
After the restaurant I had meant to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial, but as they were charging at the entrance I didn't want to go in. From there I skipped across the islands back into North Carolina, and made the 450 mile slog to Aiken.
Realizing that I really wanted to have a peanut buster parfait, I stopped off at a Dairy Queen. I didn't realize you could ruin a peanut buster parfait, but you can, and it appears to have something to do with using too many and too salty peanuts, as well as filling the cup beyond the overflow point such that you can't help but spill it. If I ever do a minimum wage job again, I think I'll focus on doing a good job even if I'm getting my soul crushed.
The last and probably most interesting view of the day was a large fire that I saw from several miles off. Once I had ranged closer it appeared to be a refinery, but from what I've read it was a scrap metal processing plant. Here's some more info:
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/APN/704301698
Of course, I took pictures. They're below.
I was quite glad to finally pull into Aiken, as that meant rest and relaxation. Today I'm going to go meet devilindupriest and likely get some good southern food.
I leave you with two thoughts for the day.
- Name brand recognition brings comfort, at least when you're on the road.
- Shopping markets (and most everything out here) is big and wide open, as if they expected to manage hundreds of people in gigantic mad rushes. I don't get it, as the east cost has way less space than the newer west coast, and yet we're all packed together like sardines.
Go figure.
The Pictures:
Highlights:
- A really pretty ocean.
- I finally made it to my destination at the time I predicted.
- I saw a gigantic fire. Was cool.
Statistics:
Distance Covered: 635 miles
MPG: 44 mpg
Elapsed Time: 15 hours
Driving Time: 11 hours
Today is The Relaxation. Yesterday was the slog. Listen to my tale of woe as a seafood restaurant goes wrong! Hear my tale of joy as I see the Atlantic Ocean! Read them in not necessarily that order! Follow the link if you dare, for these are not the limits of my imagination!
As nice as Richmond was, I had to bid it farewell. I wanted to see Kitty Hawk after all, and I was determined to make it to Aiken by the end of the day.
Woosh! There I was, three hours later, pulling into Kitty Hawk, NC. North Carolina in two words: !@#$ing hot. I'm thinking that I'll take a nice relaxing stop at the Badlands in South Dakota on my way back. It should be nicely cool there in comparison. Once I'd finished appreciating the heat, a nice lady at the visitor center showed me how to go down and see the ocean. She also suggested that I dine at a place called Awful Arthur's. More on that later.
I made a short ritual of walking down to the ocean, removing my shoes and socks and hiking up the cuff of my pants. I walked down, stood in the surf, and let the ocean wash over me. It was cold, refreshing, and all together moving. To contrast, the Pacific at home is much darker, where the Atlantic was much brighter blue and also a little green.
After listening to the surf for a few moments, I remembered why I liked visiting the ocean. Watching the ocean, and listening to it go in and out, that's my idea of relaxation. There's something deeply primal and calming about sitting on a beach, and it is probably one of my favorite feelings ever. However, I didn't have the time, nor the body, to sit and relax by the oceanside all day.
While I was driving into town I saw an ad for a place called Jimmy's Seafood Buffet, my first choice for some seafood. A friend told me to find a place that served great big heaping buckets of crab and corn, and I meant to satisfy that desire. However, after watching one too many episodes of $40 a day, I thought asking a local might suggest something better. And so I refer back to the visitor center lady that suggested Awful Arthur's.
I went to Awful Arthur's. It was awful. And not in the good way that you'd market a restaurant around. First, they served the same bland cabbage/carrot slaw that every fast food joint serves. That is the single reason I don't like coleslaw. It wasn't until I learned you could make other types of slaw that I finally found some I could stand. My two hush puppies might as well have been hockey pucks, and the deep fried soft shell crab I had was crunchy and flavorless. Even the fries were bad! The only thing palatable was the 6oz fillet (I got surf & turf), and my dinner crackers. All that for over $25.
Suffice it to say, from now on I will take the advice of locals with a grain of salt.
After the restaurant I had meant to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial, but as they were charging at the entrance I didn't want to go in. From there I skipped across the islands back into North Carolina, and made the 450 mile slog to Aiken.
Realizing that I really wanted to have a peanut buster parfait, I stopped off at a Dairy Queen. I didn't realize you could ruin a peanut buster parfait, but you can, and it appears to have something to do with using too many and too salty peanuts, as well as filling the cup beyond the overflow point such that you can't help but spill it. If I ever do a minimum wage job again, I think I'll focus on doing a good job even if I'm getting my soul crushed.
The last and probably most interesting view of the day was a large fire that I saw from several miles off. Once I had ranged closer it appeared to be a refinery, but from what I've read it was a scrap metal processing plant. Here's some more info:
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/APN/704301698
Of course, I took pictures. They're below.
I was quite glad to finally pull into Aiken, as that meant rest and relaxation. Today I'm going to go meet devilindupriest and likely get some good southern food.
I leave you with two thoughts for the day.
- Name brand recognition brings comfort, at least when you're on the road.
- Shopping markets (and most everything out here) is big and wide open, as if they expected to manage hundreds of people in gigantic mad rushes. I don't get it, as the east cost has way less space than the newer west coast, and yet we're all packed together like sardines.
Go figure.
The Pictures:
Highlights:
- A really pretty ocean.
- I finally made it to my destination at the time I predicted.
- I saw a gigantic fire. Was cool.
Statistics:
Distance Covered: 635 miles
MPG: 44 mpg
Elapsed Time: 15 hours
Driving Time: 11 hours