I have an addendum to last week.
While my uncle and I were waiting for the house to open for the dance concert he took me into the Chapel at Duke. My uncle who is an architect. We had a great talk about the Chapel which is spectacular. It is built in the style of the famous cathedrals. As we were walking back down the nave the large organ began to play. The sound was just amazing. We stood under the organ loft and could feel the bass noted in our bones. I have recently designed the set for the show Bach of Leipzig which takes place in the anteroom of the great cathedral in Leipzig were Bach played. Also I read the book Pillars of the Earth about the construction of an English cathedral. It was a great treat.
Also I received an email from one of the theaters in Raleigh, NC that I sent my resume. They were very impressed and but me in their guest designer file! YESSSS! That feels good.
Pictures of Durham and the Outer Banks are posted. You can see them at:
Monday morning.
Morning exercises are done. My back is feeling a little better everyday. Swimming in the ocean felt good yesterday. I can smell bacon and apples cooking and see biscuits being rolled and cut. We fall into a comfortable rhythm here. Breakfast a 8:45. A trip to the beach where we swim and bob in the ocean. Everyone but me thinks it’s cold! Tell me something I don’t know. Well some of you don’t know that I love cold water! I do. So I have been swimming and bobbing over waves in wonderful water. I stay in so long I come out shivering and it’s delightful to feel cold! We built a great sandcastle and battled the waves to keep her standing. Lots of deep moats, high walls and people reinforcing them. Great fun. We had all the kids and half the adults involved. Then we move across to the pool behind the house and float and converse while waiting for lunch time at 1:30. Always make your sandwiches and what ever was left from the prior meals. Usually not much of that.
Then we have an activity time for kids followed by quiet time where all children are required to disappear for awhile. Today as we were preparing for lunch a huge rainstorm hit so after lunch I retreated to BEYOND wiggled into my bunk and passed out to the sound of the rain. I even needed a blanket! It was heaven. After I woke up it was my turn to cook so I made some red fish with butter garlic, pepper and the last of my father’s mango chutney. It came perfect and every morsel was eaten. Along with fresh green beans, rice, tomatoes, a Mexican salad with black beans tomatoes, cilantro and jicama ( pronounced hichama) made by Elizabeth and rainbow sherbet and fresh cantaloupe for dessert. Then more conversation. My cousin Bdale and I spent time comparing music and talking about computers. He is a computer whiz for Hewlett Packard.
Then about midnight off to bed.
Back up at 7 am today. The sun is out so I rode my bicycle before breakfast and saw lots of early joggers and riders. Down to the end of the road and return. My back is feeling better everyday. I do my exercises in the morning and afternoon. It’s really helping. After the usual huge breakfast we went to the beach and the rain had warmed the water slightly but it was still chilly when I swam down the beach a ways and back. More bobbing, another sandcastle, swim lunch. Then I did a Chinese Brush painting classes with Ann Patterson and Elizabeth. Ann did great work and Elizabeth has improved a lot since I taught her Colorado on my last trip. It was great to see. Elizabeth also showed me her sketchbook. She is doing wonderful pencil sketches and also comic book drawings. She is very into Batman! Really good work. And while I am having a great time, I miss the wild places.
I decided to leave while was having a wonderful time. So I packed up BEYOND, took a shower and hit the road. I drove up through Norfolk, VA and across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and over the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake. I remember going over the CBBT one time when a NAVY aircraft carrier was going through. It was a creepy feeling driving underneath something that big! But also very cool. No Ships moving through this time.
I got to the other shore and Pulled into the Kiptopeke State Park at about 6:30 pm. I got on my bike and rode all of the hiking trails and at one point a big owl soared silently over my head. I also saw a lot of deer including a few fawns with the baby spots. And finally discovered a huge patch of wild blackberries. They were huge and full of juice. I picked the ones I could reach from the path because there was some poison ivy growing in there too. I had to search around for a container and finally remember my bicycle seat cover ( plastic bowl cover keeps the seat dry when it rains) They just fit and rode down to the beach and the fishing pier.
When I got back to my campsite the only other camper came over and introduced herself. Meg is from Morgantown, WV and she is a mineral rights title researcher. If people want to sell the mineral rights under their land she makes sure their are no other owners or liens etc. Meg has been camping around and is headed for Assateague Island to meet her boyfriend and go kayaking to some remote campsites out on the island. Sounds great! We shared her beer and my blackberries and some almonds. Then I crawled into my bunk and rejoiced in the fact that I could raise the pop top all the way!
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| Kiptopeke State Park, Cape Charles VA |
Wed Morning.
I am up at 7 drinking miso and seaweed and eating blackberries, peaches, almonds and cocoanut. Had a chat with Meg in the morning and she hit the road. Then I got my long pants and sun hat and a bag and rode back to the blackberry patch and picked a half gallon of berries. The berries were so ripe they were crushing the ones on the bottom and I was covered in drops of blackberry juice. It is a great color! Then I biked around and looked at all the birding blinds and counting and watching stands. This area is a major stop on the flyway for many migratory birds. It also has a large population of hawks and other raptors. There are some interesting fish traps which are a series of pilings with net strung between them which channel fish into a circular enclosure at the end. They were scattered all around. There were fishermen checking the traps and pulling crab pots. Then I went to the beach for a swim and then back for a shower and I hit the road. I traveled up Rt. 600 which parallels the Atlantic shore and runs through farms and small towns.
I saw a sign for a Virginia Birding trail and walked down it and got my only view of the Atlantic. It‘s very marshy, perfect for migrating birds. I saw lots of honeysuckle and sampled the honey. Also polk salad but it was too big to eat. Had to hum the song Polk Salad Annie. Anyone remember that one! After my walk I ate crackers, mackerel, goat cheese and blackberries for lunch. I drove on up 600 thinking about how their used to be so many birds in the marshes that people used to hunt them with huge shot guns that were almost cannons mounted on boats. One shot could kill hundreds of birds. I would to have seen that many birds in the marsh. of course summer is not the season for migrating birds.
600 ended and put me back on 13 and I drove into Maryland. I stopped at a farm stand for tomatoes, cantaloupe and peaches. Then I stopped again for fresh bay scallops. The temp is up to 84 and it feels hot but the weather says it will drop back into the 60’s by morning, I hope so! I stopped for the night at Jane’s island State Park and was distressed to hear there is no swimming! But I have a campsite under the trees and there is little breeze blowing but some deer flies. So i take a nap and the make scallops with green curry for dinner. Yum! Got out the computer and paid bills and wrote in my log. Talk to my father. We are making plans for him to join my in Labrador. I am looking forward to it. I am going to have some cantaloupe and a cold shower before bed.
Good night!
Well last night long with out much sleep. There were very noisy children and other folks in the adjacent campsites and it was super hot. Finally I got some shuteye and then the neighbors were up really early. So I got up made a bowl of fruit and hit the road. I stopped at the same seafood warehouse and they were pen at 7:30 so I bought some medium clams. I was asking for a tire place since my tires looked low and the seafood guy sent his mechanic out to take care of it! What a deal fresh seafood and tire service! Cool!
I drove up to Delaware where there is a ferry that goes across to Cape May, NJ. It was overcast and there was a nice breeze blowing so I decided to check out Cape Henlopen State Park. It is right next to the ferry and is a great park with a beach, bike trails, nature center and disc golf course. And I booked the last campsite for the weekend. I will be here until early Sunday morning and then I have a place on the early ferry. I was worried about finding campsites in NJ this close to the weekend, but this solves it. It will also give me couple of days to buy supplies and do laundry. As well as buy some frisbees for disc golf! I pulled into my campsite, ate the leftover scallops and jicama salad and took a nap.
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| Cape Henlopen State Park, DE |
Then I rode my my to the beach and swam and bobbed, walked the beach and bicycled more. There was a big military installation here during WW II. There is a big bunker on a sand dune over looking the entrance to Delaware Bay. It’s the biggest sand dune between cape Hattaras and The Cape at 80 ft high. There are observation towers around and old cannons and antiaircraft guns. This is quite a Park. I am going to have fun exploring it over the next few days. Back at the campsite I sat in the breeze for a while and then made fresh clam sauce with those clams! A good trick in my little kitchen but it came out fine. Followed of course by fresh fruit. The temperature hit 92 today and I am looking forward to a cold shower! I was listening to the Juno soundtrack and earlier. Now I am typing and listening to Love and Rockets! A blast from the past!
I got one comment back to my question about a sense of the slave trade in Savannah compared to New Orleans. The comment follows:
I've not been to Savannah but perhaps it is a feeling of
entitlement? I'm amazed at how many Southern cities have that "air'
about them, even the blue collar workers.
Does anyone else I have a comment?
I agree that I have meet many folks in the Deep South who seems to feel that they are entitled to all the best o matter what others may need.
Something to ponder.
Later,
Allen
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