Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Calm Down!

Sometimes .... folks....things get a bit beyond our control and we just need to calm down. Last week was quite a week for the entire Outer Banks. A Nor'Easter hit us on Monday evening and lasted til Thanksgiving. Rt. 12 was closed at Rodanthe where the ocean washed over trying to make a new inlet again. The dunes on Ocracoke were breached in a numbered of places and 12 was flooded both on Ocracoke and on Hatteras. We had over 7" of rain. The power was off and on, off and on and finally off. They did turn the generator on at Ocracoke but it went off Thanksgiving afternoon so most dinners were delayed. The Hatteras ferry didn't run til late Thursday. My sister, visiting from Maryland, came in on the 4PM Swan Quarter so we had Thanksgiving dinner about 8PM. But all the turkeys and trimmings eventually got cooked and eaten, friends and family got together and the sun came out. Mother Nature spared us from the hurricanes this year but I think she just wanted to remind us that she's still around.Now that everyone has gone the weather is in the 70's and sunny. Go figure. Anyhoo , I was a tad busy and what with mailorders and all I haven't been able to take a breath and that's my story and I'm stickin to it. Hope ya'll had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's good messin with you again. Jude

You can read our latest newsletter here. It's the story of two old maps (1590 & 1795) and place names on the Outer Banks.

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:44 PM

    Hey Jude! Now, that would make a good song title, don't cha think!? I figured the weather played havoc out there just like it did all the way up the coast. Glad all is well, but didn't it make all you guys all warm and fuzzy knowing that some of us were concerned about you? You're like family!

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  2. Anonymous8:19 AM

    My family chose "last week" instead of this week to vacation on Ocracoke, so I can vouch for EVERYTHING Jude reported about the storm. As the folks at the rental company said when I called mid-last week for advice about weathering the pending rough weather, "It won’t be life-threatening,” but it sure was an adventure. Thankfully our week was bookended by clear and sunny skies. The temps never broke the 70s, though, so polar fleece was the beachwear of choice. On the bright side, we closed (for the season) both the Back Porch restaurant, with dinner on Saturday, and the Ocracoke Coffee Company, with our farewell morning java on Sunday. And with the reduced visitor traffic due to the ferry shutdowns, we had the island pretty much to ourselves for most of the week, with wonderfully dark, calm, quiet nights (that's AFTER the house-shaking storm winds subsided, of course). We caught the end of the Leonid meteor shower our first night there, and a bagpiper serenaded the end of day one evening from another house a few streets over. The new(?) nature trail at Springer's Point was a wonderful place to explore, with its sandy trails through a low, dense, windswept forest near Teach’s Hole. (The rustic fence of gnarled branches is a great touch.) Coincidentally exploring this spot the day after the 288th anniversary of Blackbeard’s beheading nearby added a neat element of historical significance and eeriness to our discovery. So, despite the rough weather and inconveniences of the storm, the charm of Ocracoke won out once again, leaving us rested, relaxed, and with terrific memories of a Thanksgiving not to be forgotten. One question for Jude, though -- for future reference -- as Ocracoke storms go, short of hurricanes, would you say that last week's was rougher than most? Cheers!

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