We spent Sunday morning in the city of Asheville. We visited Malaprops bookstore, an independent bookstore with a big section of local books. I'll be feeding everyone southern-style biscuits soon, from my newly-purchased cookbook Biscuits, Spoonbread and Sweet Potato Pie. We also wandered through several craft galleries; I decided that the ONLY craft I have no interest in is basket-making. At least there's one! Strangely, Sandeep did not seem relieved by this announcement: perhaps it was because I had just been looking through knitting books and was admiring a loom several minutes later. He's not much better, though; he has added pottery and wood-carving to the (long) list of things he wants to try!
We had a tasty lunch at a sidewalk table of the Flying Frog Cafe, and then drove a little way up the Blue Ridge Parkway to visit the Southern Highland Craft Guild's Folk Art Center. We walked through a wood-carving exhibit, and a nice lady showed Sandeep how to burn feather patterns onto a duck carving. We also saw a pottery exhibit, listened to a hammered dulcimer workshop, and watched an artist use leaves and sun-sensitive silk paint to make patterned cloth. The Guild's shop is full of handmade wood, metal, glass, cloth, leather and paper objects, as well as some cornhusk dolls with shrunken apple faces (like the ones you made, Mom!). We admired everything, but only bought one lovely jar, made by a Tennessee potter from Maryville, the nice little town we had driven through just a day or so earlier.
Our goal for the rest of the day was to drive as far as possible across North Carolina, towards the coast. We took the dull but reliable Highway 40 as often as we could bear, exiting for the parallel Highway 70 (slower but more interesting) when we were overcome by tedium. We camped for the night in Enfield, arriving in the dark and waking to find that we were surrounded by cotton fields! We drove east to Edenton, passing through more fields of cotton (some containing big rectangular bales of cotton, somewhat like hay bales but much larger), as well as fields of soybeans and probably of tobacco.
Edenton is a lovely, waterfront town with beautiful old homes. It is on the Albemarle Sound, which looks like the ocean but holds freshwater instead of saltwater. Sandeep photographed a cypress tree, standing just off the shore; the bay was dotted with these trees, each making its own small island.
We drove through more farmland, and then the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. No swimming there for Molly! Sandeep saw a large animal cross the road; he thought it was a wolf, but he wasn't sure if that was possible. I was looking away from the road and didn't see it. We later learned that a population of red wolves, native to the Southeast, had been introduced into the refuge in the 1980s after reaching near extinction in the wild. So Sandeep, who had been wishing to see a wolf since our visit to Yellowstone, finally saw one in North Carolina.
We crossed several long bridges along Route 64, passing over Albemarle Sound, Croatan Sound, and Roanoke Sound, and then we could go east no further, as Route 64 ends at the Atlantic Ocean! The Humble Gumby van goes coast-to-coast...to-coast! We drove south on Route 12, along the long and VERY skinny Cape Hatteras. It is such a little strip of land that you can easily see across it in some places. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore includes much of the land all down the cape, protecting it from development and providing public (and dog!) access. We saw pelicans and egrets, as well as lots of smaller ocean birds, as we drove.
We are camped - for TWO days! what luxury! - in the little village of Rodanthe, part of the way down the long cape. We even have an oceanside campsite, although it is really a duneside campsite, as we have to climb over a sand dune to get to the ocean. Oh, the hardship... We played on the beach and in the ocean Monday afternoon; it was a lovely, warm day, and the water is warm, too. Warm when compared with the inhospitable Atlantic we know in New Hampshire, anyway... Molly and I were nearly knocked over by an extra-big wave, but Molly didn't seem to mind and neither did I. We enjoyed watching the little shorebirds run along the sand, dashing out after each retreating wave, pecking frantically at the wet sand, and then dashing back in before each advancing wave. Molly, by the way, gives North Carolina two paws WAY up for having miles and miles of dog-friendly beaches! Yippee! I know it looks like she was being unfairly influenced in the photo, but she really does love the beach.
At night, Sandeep and I sat on the beach and looked for falling stars; we saw quite a few. We also looked for little ghost crabs. They dig holes for themselves all over the beach; we had fun watching for the sand flying out as they excavated, and occasionally one would peek out or run, sideways, across the beach. We cornered a few with the flashlight, and after staring at us out of their big black eyes, they would fling sand over themselves and sit motionless. "I'm just a lump of sand. You can't see me anymore because I'm just a harmless lump of sand." We humored them and moved along.
Sandeep, now promoted to primary trip photographer, has been taking some lovely photographs lately. Goodnight, beach. Goodnight, little crabs. Goodnight, tired, happy, sandy dog. Goodnight, moon.
No comments:
Post a Comment