Wahoo! The Atlantic 9-18

We have done it!!! It has taken us 2 years and 7 months to get to the opposite edge of America! It was a stunningly beautiful day. Lower 80’s, clear skies and bright, toasty sunshine.

We are in Avon, NC on Hatteras Island just north of Cape Hatteras on the Outer Banks. We drove 100 miles today and got here at 12:00. We got set up and hit the road to get to the beach. Shockingly at 1:30 in the afternoon and 80+ degrees the mosquitoes were on the hunt during our trek through the brush and grasses. They didn’t quit until we got down to the edge of the water. We were used to evening mosquitoes. When we left the beach we took a different route and tricked the little suckers!

The ocean didn’t seem as active as the Pacific, but maybe that was just because it was such a nice day. There were a few seagulls that looked like they were on steroids. They were half again as big as gulls we’ve seen elsewhere. Some of the beach just glittered as it was crushed, polished shells and I didn’t find a rock. A beach with no rocks? Larry was relieved! The houses here are works of art. I will get pictures of some of them tomorrow. Three stories tall, not counting the basement/stilted level with all levels wrapped in decks and painted all different colors. Very cheery. I can’t see them surviving a hurricane very well though. Maybe the windows are tempered glass, and there are tons of windows in each house! They would have to import plywood from somewhere else and find an army of giants to reach all the windows. I guess if you can afford to build a house out here you have to be prepared to do major repairs.

We scoped out the Hatteras Lighthouse but decided not to hike the 298 stairs up to the top. They actually moved this thing 7 years ago, 2000 feet from its original home where it was built in 1870. The beach was disappearing from around and under it and they wanted it to last another 100 years and felt it would be safer at its current location. It is amazing that they could move something that is 208 feet tall. It is the tallest lighthouse in the U.S.

It is just a lovely place to come enjoy the beaches, fish and windsurf. The towns aren’t as congested as the Pacific coastal towns and they are very colorful.