The Outer Banks

Hi y'all!
It's been a while since we last saw a computer, so this is another quick catch up. We were in Greenville, North Carolina, last time we wrote. From there, on Tuesay, we drove out towards the coast, along small, scenic roads through swamps and creeks. We passed an aerial bombing range, with 2 jets swooping overhead (F15s!). Then into long, low bridges across the water onto the islands of the Outer Banks. We stayed in Kill Devil Hills, and had a wander along the beach on the first afternoon, seeing a big SUV stuck in the sand with the tide coming in.


Young kid who was driving it was desperately trying to dig it out as the water started creeping up the wheels! It looked like it was doomed (they took out all their stuff and taped up the door seams) but then a big tow truck came flying up the beach and pulled it out. Drew quite a crowd!
On Wednesday we drove south down to Cape Hattaras, to a big lighthouse and beach (actually, the whole place is one big beach.)

Dave's hangliding wasn't to be, as it needed to have been pre-booked (good job we didn't, tho, cos the original plan had us here on Sunday/Monday, during a thunderstorm and tornado outbreak!). We also went to Roanoke where the first English settlement, the 'Lost Colony' started and then disappeared. During the afternoon we went to Jockeys Ridge park, a huge (biggest on East coast) sand dune. Yeh, it's just a big sand dune.
On Thursday we went to the Wright Brothers monument, looked 'round the exhibit and watched a talk by an Park Ranger on the first powered flight here in 1903. There are marker stones showing where (and how short) the first flights were.

At the monument Dave's camera made it's first flight, lens first into the granite. Whoops. It kinda whirred a bit, then went dark. Afterwards we drove up to Yorktown, to where the last battle of the Revolution was fought. Was good, short tour with a Park Ranger (where we saw a golden eagle!) then a self drive tour around the battlefield. After that we drove into Williamsburg and feasted on junk food from Walgreens.
Yesterday (Friday) we drove to Jamestown island and the remains of (yet another) English settlement.

This is where Pocahontas was from. During the afternoon we drove back West to Charlottesville and recovered after a week, and nearly 1300 miles, of driving!

Today we dropped the car at the airport and got the shuttle back to the hotel. We caught the bus into the centre of C-Ville and had a lovely lazy day of shopping and the odd drink in the baking sun. Very civilised. Plan on doing much the same tomorrow, then catch our train at about 7:30pm.

Lastly, thanks for all the comments - nice to see everyone's paying attention (or reading it at all really!)
Hope everyone's enjoying your sun, now that we've got some too!

Oh by the way. Assumed the camera was a gonna, so kinda tugged and pushed it a bit and it started working again. Result! Battle-scarred but still alive!

Dave and Sarah XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX