Category Archives: North Carolina

First in Flight!

Posted on by

As we came back to Roxie’s cousin’s house for the second time there was an option to take a ferry!  I can’t pass up a ferry.  We talked to Steve Jr’s neighbors and they said that it would take our trailer with no problems.   They had seen semi’s on it before.  So, I obviously opted to take the ferry!

Roxie wasn’t too sure about it.  The ferry crew had me take up two lanes of parking (about 8 spaces) but they were the ones running it.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

While we were ‘moochdocking’ we decided to see a local site.  The blog title is a clue, it is the slogan that is on every North Carolina license plate.  First in Flight!  We went to Kitty Hawk, where the Wright brothers first flew.

It was windy, appropriately, since they chose this locale specifically for the wind and the large sand dunes.  It is part of the Outer Banks (OBX) and is commercially very grown up.

It was pretty amazing to stand at the same site where this historic event took place!  We took a hike up the dune (now held fast by ground covering) where they practiced their gliders in 1901 and 1902.

We then went to the ‘flightline’ where the first powered flight happened in 1903.  It shows the takeoff marker and the 4 flights and distances:

On our way back we went on Roanoke Island.  We did not know it was there but we stopped and learned about the lost colony of Roanoke.  I had heard about this but had no clue where it all went down.  Here are the remnants of the fort at Roanoke:

It was a fun and historical day!

Family visiting and a wedding

Posted on by

We made it to Roxie’s cousin’s house.  I met her many years ago and cannot remember but I had not met any of the others in the family.  But it didn’t really matter as we were treated as family.  It was wonderful.  This gave Roxie, and her cousin (technically her 1st cousin, 1x removed) a time to catch up and reminisce.  It gave me a chance to get to know a new side of the family.  Here is Roxie and Angelique:

We stayed in the trailer by Steve and Angelique’s house for a few nights.  It was weird, and nice in a way, to get back to a house and just sit in one.  We also did some visitor things, like seeing the lighthouse in Edenton:

We were even able to sneak into the top lighthouse portion with Roxie being a real trooper to get up there:

The time came to move the trailer down to where the wedding was going to happen.  We were ‘moochdocking’ at Steve and Angelique’s for a few nights like this:

But it doesn’t really compare to the ‘moochdocking’ locale where their son lives:

It was amazing, initially cool and even rained pretty heavily one night!  The rehearsal was performed right in the yard at their house also:

The next day was the wedding at MCAS Cherry Point.  We had to get clearance to attend this wedding and we just have newly issued Texas drivers’ licenses.  I got a bit of a shock the week before when someone at the base said my clearance did not go through.  Roxie immediately was suspicious and asked what I had done.  I told her I would be the most surprised if something came up.  We gave them my full SSN as they had only asked for the last 4.  Once that was checked, everything came up clear.  It appears there was another person with my same full name, same birthday, and same last 4 of the SSN in Colorado and had Grand Larceny and other charges.  I find that pretty far fetched but was happy I could attend the wedding.

The happy couple after being pronounced:

Steve Jr and Jenny Baxley

This is Steve Jr dancing with his mom, Angelique and Steve’s niece Stella making it a trio (it was getting dark):

We were going to stay another day by the water but it was going to heat up drastically and there was no A/C there.  We headed back to Steve and Angelique’s for a few more days of visiting before we headed north.  It was good for both of use to see some relatives after such a dearth of it on the road.