WISH YOU WERE HERE

It’s such a common phrase. It can have so many meanings. For instance, we’re having such a good time and we wish you were here to enjoy this experience with us. Or, we love you so much that we wish we could be together. Or, I’m so lonely and I wish that you were here to ease the moment with your presence. Whatever the sentiment, it’s a longing for someone’s presence. It means that you (the wishee) means something to the wisher.

On the other hand, Pink Floyd’s song Wish You Were Here seems like the introspection of a very lonely person and I don’t understand the reason he wishes someone was there with him. There doesn’t seem to be any warmth at all. Notwithstanding the dark mood so common in the songs of Pink Floyd, Buster has always been a fan. The boys in the band, although they are long-time non-talkers to one another, agree with each other that the song is one of their better ones.

We used the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to cross from the Eastern Shore of Virginia over to Virginia Beach. the Bridge-Tunnel was the world's longest bridge-tunnel until the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge opened in 2018. Virginia Beach is on the eastern most part of the Virginia mainland. This is not a surprise - the old part of Viriginia Beach is right on the beach! In fact, the city is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world. In addition to miles and miles of beach with hundreds of hotels, restaurants, and watering holes, VB is home to 210 city parks, encompassing over 4,000 acres, including neighborhood parks, community parks, district parks, and other open spaces. Virginia Beach's extensive park system is recognized as one of the best in the United States. In 2013, The Trust for Public Land reported that Virginia Beach had the 8th best park system among the 50 most populous U.S. cities.

We really enjoyed spending a little time on the famous boardwalk of Virginia Beach. The boardwalk is three miles long. Buster got a little tired so we didn’t walk the whole way. We got to see the sculpture of Neptune, which is the highlight of the boardwalk. It is huge. King Neptune is a bronze statue designed by Paul DiPasquale. It stands at the entrance of Neptune Park on the boardwalk at 31st Street. The sculpture weighs 12 tons and is 34 feet tall. I think the idea to put King Neptune on the beach was to honor VB’s maritime legacy, but someone also intended for the sculpture to draw tourist dollars to town. VB puts on the “Neptune Festival” every year, which attracts 500,000 visitors to the oceanfront and 350,000 visitors to the air show at the nearby Naval Air Station Oceana. The city is also home to the East Coast Surfing Championships, an annual contest of more than 100 of the world's top professional surfers and about 400 amateur surfers. This is North America's oldest surfing contest.

The next part of our journey was an adventure. Our next stop was just outside of Rodanthe on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was raining on us all the way. We crossed over to the Outer Banks from Point Harbor. We passed through Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, and Nags Head. We had a hairy experience on the two-lane part of the road. It had rained all day so there was water pooling along both sides of the road. Therefore, we didn’t have room for error and no shoulder to pull off on. So, some wingnut, who we assume had a drivers license and very poor judgment, passed us in a no passing zone and barely missed a head-on collision with a truck coming the other way. Scary. Scarier in the rain.

We set up our house in the rain and tried to warm up. The next day was sunny and pretty. The ocean was beautiful. A lot of people were fishing from the beach.

We took a day trip and drove back north through Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. The beach and beach houses go on and on forever. We had lunch at Sam & Omie’s, which is a local institution. It started serving customers in 1937. It began as a breakfast stop for fishermen. I don’t think we could get seafood any fresher than we had there.

Our Saturday on the Outer Banks was a windy one. The wind was blowing about 26 mph with gusts up to 38 mph. That experience is never pleasant in a house on wheels.

We took a day trip and drove south through several towns to see the light station for Cape Hatteras. It’s the tallest lighthouse in the United States. The museum was interesting. We learned that lighthouses are painted with different patterns so ships can recognize them during daylight. We also learned that the lighthouse was in danger of falling into the ocean due to the changing shore line. A lot of people, expertise, and money went into the successful effort to move the lighthouse a half mile inland to safe ground. On our way home, we made a stop at one point on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and dug our toes in the sand.

So, wish you were here,

Betty and Buster

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