The travels of the Rambling Roses: July 4, 2014 to September 30, 2014. The highlights of a summer in Rodanthe

In our last blog entry, I was stopped short of reaching the outer banks by hurricane Arthur. We survived the hurricane by evacuating to Edenton, NC, which is a few hours inland from the outer banks. I never did finish the ride, but my ending point in Chesapeake was only a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean, so I'm okay with that. After several days in a motel in Edenton, we were allowed on to Hatteras Island, where we found that Rodanthe had been hammered again. Many of our neighbors had been flooded and knocked off their support blocks, but no one was devastated or demolished. We missed taking water by a few inches. The recovery and cleanup took time, but we enjoyed the summer. Highlights included a visit from Jamie and Andi, along with their families. Buddy also spent some time with us. I rode about 1600 miles in the three months we spent on Hatteras. It was an effort, as it took some time to reboot my desire to saddle up. I put on a few pounds, and enjoyed the down time, until I got bored. The stretch of road between Salvo and Avon became my least favorite ride. The stretch of highway 12 that used to be therapeutic for all those vacation years, and served as my training route for the big ride, became almost intolerable. The wind never seemed to die down, and I was over it. Finally, just when I was getting really bored, the stars and circumstances aligned, and I got a job that I really enjoyed for six weeks. My good friend at the campground, Bird Baldwin, arranged for me to fill an opening for a dock hand at the Outer Banks Marina, in Wanchese. Wanchese is a little, drinking town with a fishing problem, about 32 miles from Rodanthe. I know, because I rode the bike to and from work many times. My duties included emptying trash, hosing sea gull poop off the wooden docks, and the more glamorous chores. I got to help unload all the fish off the charter boats that came in from off shore and in shore, take pictures of the fish and fishermen for the marina web sight, and haul the fish to the fish cleaner, whose shop was at the far corner of the marina. I also got to cut grass and paint various pieces of equipment, as well as stock beer at the tiki bar. There was enough different things to do to keep me from getting bored for the six weeks I worked, but when the time came to go back to Pittsburgh, I was ready to end it. That is going to be my style for the rest of my working days, I hope....working a few weeks or months at a time at different jobs that I never thought I'd do, in places I never thought I'd be. Sounds good to me.