Whew! In case anyone was wondering, driving two year old triplets from Fort Worth to the North Carolina coast is something of a feat. (Getting them in the car to come back is even harder.)
The fam and I went on vacation a few weeks ago and it has taken me every bit of that time since to recover. I hate the fact that I haven’t had the chance to update my comic or blog, but it was a small price to pay for such a good time.
My wife and I packed the triplets in the Honda Pilot and headed across the nation. MADNESS! Ol’ Google maps shows that it is 1,498 miles, one way. With that being said, I don’t know that I would recommend what we did…to anyone.
We made stops along the way, the first in Clarksville, visiting Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, and anyone else we could find. It was great getting a chance to catch up with family and friends that had been too long since we had seen.
Departing Clarksville TN, we caravanned with my sister Amy, her husband Tim, and there kiddo, Neva. Along the way Tim had found a trail not far off the freeway in the Smoky Mts. You know you are going to the good hiking spots when you get down to the one lane roads. We stopped, had some lunch and went for a hike.
Uncle Tim provides the necessary means of transportation.
Riley is skipping stones like her momma. A few moments later Riley fell in the cold water and got soaked. For Riley, the fun had worn off.
Some good looking folks hanging out in the woods.
After several days of visiting and traveling we finally made it to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. We camped with my parents along with my sister and her family. The beach was great and so was the company. The campsite was so close to the beach, that when you would lay still at night, you could just hear the water meet the land.
My wife loves the beach, so she spent as much time as she could there. The girls learned to enjoy the beach as well, but Ben wasn’t as sure. Well, that’s not true, he flat out didn’t like it. When we would get close he would scream and climb up the nearest adult like a monkey going up a tree. There were a few moments when we got him to calm down, (that became our photo time,) so he became my touring buddy. We would go see the sights while Mom and sisters soaked up the beach.
Finally at the beach!
Over the course of a few days, Ben, myself, and assorted other family members went to the see the several of the sights practically stacked one on top of the other. At Jockey’s Ridge State Park, the tallest living natural sand dune system in the eastern US, (sounds good, not exactly sure what it means though,) we watched as hang glider pilots launched themselves off the large dune and glide to the valley below. Speaking to one of the instructors, he said that this was one of the best places in the world to learn. The combination of a steady wind coming off the ocean, high dunes to launch from, and soft landings in the form of sand, attracts glider pilots from all over. It’s interesting, a pair of brothers a little more than a hundred years before would agree.
That evening as the sun was making it’s slow dive to the horizon we happened by the Bodie Island Light Station. On a whim I decided to check it out. The lighthouse, now a park, had officially closed for the evening, but you could still walk the grounds and look it over. So with Ben in one hand, (he literally wouldn’t let me put him down at this point) and my camera in the other, we had a mini adventure. It was really nice, the white of the light house really captured the orange of the setting sun. I got some really cool pictures, although some lady keep photo-bombing my pics…wait, that lady is my mom. “Mom!”
Who is that photobombing my beautiful picture! Wait a tick, I think I know her.
So to set the stage, I’m holding the camera one handed with my right hand, Ben with my left hand, (while he is slapping the camera, although I don’t know why,) and my mom is wondering through my shots. This got tricky. All that to say, I got a few shots that I am really happy with and had a lot of fun doing it.
As I said, we didn’t go up in that lighthouse, however, the following day, the whole family did go over to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. We took turns watching the kiddos as the adults made the climb. It was really neat. A bit of a climb, but well worth it. Being the tallest brick lighthouse in North America, you can see pretty much the whole of the island from up there. It was in danger of its foundation failing due to erosion and the potential of seawater getting into the supports, so to be safe, they just moved it.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Back on the surface it was our turn to watch the kiddos. The climb was the easy part, watching four two year olds was the challenge. They had a very nice covered sitting area, which they used for historic lectures, meanwhile my beautiful wife, the kids and I roasted in the sun. (I guess they were historic lectures, they had sepia photos. If they we not historic, they really needed to get better photos.) Anyway, soon enough the rest of our group came back down, and we took a few family pictures at the base of the lighthouse.
A bunch of Manns and several Joyners, what can I say?
The later that day Ben, my dad, my brother-in-law and I got to visit the sight of the first flight at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, just a little north of Jockey’s Ridge. I always though that they took off from a tall dune to fly for the first time. They had used the dunes for glider tests, but the field that they took off from for the first flight is actually very level. They did this on purpose. The Brothers didn’t want someone to come alone later and say that they didn’t really fly but had only glided.
Ben and I and large rock. (First Flight Boulder. I suppose when you name everything it just sounds important.)
In the field where they took off for the first time there were large stones marking where they look off and landed for the first through fourth times. (Although they probably could have made it a little further if those rocks weren’t in the way.) I understand that these rocks were there to mark the occasion, but when you get down to it, how do we know that they took off and landed here and not, lets say, over there, or a few feet over here… I mean when you get down to it, it’s a big open field. All joking aside, it was really cool to go to the place that flight happened for the first time, and I’m so happy that I got to share it with my little buddy.
Well, those are the broad strokes. It’s always funny what sticks out, there were so many amazing moments, I wish I could share all of them. I want to thank everyone for opening their homes, and choosing to feed our personal circus. (We are kind of like locus, we’re gonna eat something, it’s really in your best interest to put out what you would like us to eat rather than have us decide.)
One of my favorite quotes that I’ve thought about frequently since the trip is from the Wright Brothers National Memorial brochure. It talks about the Bros. being respectable proprietors in Ohio. Then it goes on, “But the Wright Brothers nurtured a dream, which at the time was barley respectable: the possibility of human flight.” I love it. Here’s to bad ideas, barley respectable dreams, and trips which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. I am so glad that we had an opportunity to go, and can’t wait for the next one.
