Labor-Day road trip

I am back from my Labor Day road trip with some nice pictures to share. It was an ambitious trip since I had planned an aggressive and tight schedule. Nonetheless, I tried to stick to it which means that I had to cover long journeys with early wake-up and late arrivals. But I am a warrior and I like that...

Friday Evening

Picked up the car at Atlanta - Hartsfield Jackson Intl and off I went to North Carolina through Greenville, Charlotte and Greensboro. Lot's of night driving and not a lot to see but I was expecting that. I finally arrived at Greensboro around 2am.

Saturday

Things become interesting as I head towards the Atlantic coast through the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina's cotton fields and Virginia's tobacco fields. Cotton plants were just blooming offering their nice white plumets while tobacco fields were magnificent with those huge light-green leaves.

Weather was on the party with a bright sunny sky. I finally reached Virginia Beach just in time to make a splash in the ocean. Man, I like the oceans...I must have been a sea-cow in a former life. Later in the day, I drove up to Norfolk to gaze at those three large aircraft-carriers mooring inside one of the largest US naval base.

Sunday

Early in the morning I drive past Nasa Langley heading towards Kitty Hawk. If Kitty Hawk itself has nothing exceptional to offer, the name by itself should raise the eyebrow of any aviation addict. Indeed this is the very place where the Wright Brothers succeeded in their first flight attempts. December of 1903 or the conquest of the third dimension opening a new era for Mankind.

Orville and Wilbur Wright monument

Stones marking the length of the four first flights. The first hop by Orville was 120 feet long, the next one by Wilbur, then Orville and finally Wilbur again reaching more than 500 feet.

The Wright's Flyer being launched. Orville is at the command while Wilbur assists pushing and balancing the right wingtip during the very first take-off.

I continued to drive South along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore until I reached the city of Cape Hatteras. The landscapes are magnificent offering miles and miles and miles of endless sand dunes. More than eighty miles of beach stretch along this narrow strip of land thirty miles East of North Carolina's coast.

Sand dunes with a strong easterly wind blowing sand

A few miles later, I reached Cape Hatteras where I pay a visit to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse and boarded my first ferry of the day to Ocracoke Island. A mere thirty minute ride in one of these old-fashioned ferries.

Cape Hatteras lighthouse

Once on Ocracoke Island, I elected to go surfing for a while and take a nap on the sand dunes while waiting for my night ferry. However, the windy conditions deterred me from laying for too long there and I took the car again just after sunset for another ferry ride.

Sunset on Okracoke sand dunes

This crossing was slightly longer : two dozen miles to reach terra firma again or two hours and a half of ferry-time heading South West to the coast of North Carolina.

Man I like boats and I just love ferry trips

This was a night journey starting around 8:30pm. In the middle of the night, away from any source of light-pollution these crossings are simply bewithching offering cristal clear skies with great views over the Milky-way, the Big-Dipper, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor and Polaris. The ferry finally reached mainland at Cedar Island in the middle of nowhere but it is still a long way to get to my bedroom. I finally arrived in Wilmington around 2am after wandering off the streets for half an hour looking for my Motel...

Monday

Off I went on the road again to reach South Carolina and the resort station of Myrtle Beach. However for me this was not vacation-time... I really really needed to submit my report for the lab so I went hunting around hotels searching for a non-secured wifi connection. Well I was kinda lucky and after just a few minutes I found my victim network...used their wifi connection directly from my car...and sent my report. If only Elena knew...thirty seconds later I was in the sea surfing.

In the mid-afternoon, I brought back everything into my car and started my long journey back home. Columbia first, then Augusta in Georgia where I took a shot of the enabler: a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt.

Chevy Cobalt.
36.7 MPG at 75 MPH. Quite impressive for a non-hybrid car...

End of my trip in Atlanta around 10pm after exactly 1509 miles, an exciting week-end and loads of fond memories. Stay tuned for the next one...