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UNCLE JACK'S WEBLOG
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| Friday, July 28, 2017 | | Trip to Hatteras on Blackout Day | Yesterday (Thursday) seemed like a perfect day to take Uncle Jack's visiting daughter Emily for a run down to Hatteras Village to see all the improvements that have been made to Hatteras Island since her last visit 17 years ago. They didn't know when they started out that the entire island, and Ocracoke too, had been without power for several hours. They passed the scene of the crime at the south end of the Bonner Bridge twice but still didn't know what had happened until they got home and heard about it on the internet. Bad. Very bad.
They had a delightful trip as the pictures might suggest. This is not likely to be the experience of the thousands of vacationers who will descend on Hatteras on turnover day tomorrow only to find total chaos. Uncle Jack's heart goes out to them. |
click for larger image | It seemed odd to us that all the traffic on the Bonner Bridge seemed to be heading north when we crossed but it made sense when we found out about the power outage later. |
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click for larger image | We were impressed by the progress made on the new bridge which is obviously much bigger and sturdier than the present one. It looks like it could still be standing when the rest of Route 12 has washed away south of it. |
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click for larger image | The old cemetery in the Salvo Day Use Area is nicely fenced at the present time but waves from the sound keep chopping away at the remaining grave sites. |
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click for larger image | The huge Salvo campground, a Park Service maintained facility that once accommodated hundreds of campers and RVs is now reduced to a tiny Day Use Area adjacent to the cemetery. Uncle Jack has never understood why. |
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click for larger image | The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum was up and running, apparently on generator power. The ferry landing next door was completely devoid of cars on a busy day in July which made us wonder if we were in a Stephen King novel. Weird. |
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click for larger image | This granite marker stands at the entrance to the museum, an addition since we last visited. The building houses many more interesting exhibits than before and is well worth a visit now. |
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click for larger image | Lunch at Fish Heads on the Outer Banks Pier on the way home. Not a single restaurant on Hatteras was open as far as we could tell. The crowd on both sides of the pier was the biggest Uncle Jack has ever seen. |
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click for larger image | After the trip there was still time for a refreshing dip. Emily can't do this in Fitchburg, MA. |
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posted by Uncle Jack at 11:20 AM |
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| Tuesday, July 25, 2017 | | Home Again....To Stay | Uncle Jack has two good reasons to resume writing his blog this week. For one thing he and Mrs. Uncle Jack have sold their condo in Baltimore where they have lived most of the time for the past eight years and they have returned home to South Nags Head where they intend to stay from now on. That in itself is enough reason to celebrate but there is more.
For the past several years Uncle Jack's ancient Toshiba laptop has been slowly dying. He spends more time now waiting for gmail to open on his desktop than he spends actually reading his mail. Instead of the delightful companion and tool that it was in the beginning it has become a daily source of annoyance bordering on rage. Lucky for him Mrs. Uncle Jack could not help but notice his outbursts of frustration which have occurred more and more frequently in recent months and are marked by increasingly creative profanity.
As his 87th birthday approached last month she colluded with her daughter, who knows IT inside and out, to find a solution to his problem before it drove both of us over the brink. He is happy to report that they found the perfect remedy in the form of a brand new state of the art iPad Pro which became one of the best birthday presents of his long and happy life.
He has been exploring its many wondrous features for about a month now and he can tell you it has given him a new lease on life. No longer is writing a painful and frustrating chore. Everything he wants his iPad to do it does instantly, no questions asked. And if he has questions himself he simply asks Siri, the pleasant young lady who lives behind the screen and knows everything and never sleeps.
Writing an occasional blog entry will no longer be the onerous chore it has become for the past couple of years and it will give him an excuse to play with his new toy in a semi-constructive way that he hopes at least a few readers will find at least slightly entertaining.
He promises that this is the last time you will see the word Trump in this space. He also promises to find a way to upload all his pictures in the correct orientation. Stay tuned.
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click for larger image | Looking south from the walkover near the Black Pelican in Kitty Hawk on Tuesday July 25. This should make it a little more difficult for Mother Nature to wash out the Beach Road. For a while at least. |
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click for larger image | Mrs. U.J.'s tomato plants shot up like rockets until the rains came and submerged the roots for several days. Now most of the leaves are shriveled and have not been revived by the recent sunshine. Bad. Very bad. |
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click for larger image | Looking north from the Black Pelican walkover on Tuesday. One wonders if folks will be permitted to build on the ocean side after renourishment is finished. Pelican's Perch should provide some incentive to the daring. |
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click for larger image | Uncle Jack's brother Don caught this fish but generously let him pose with it. He is too old to practice this kind of deception any more unlike some politicians he knows. This picture was taken at his uncle's cabin in Minnesota back around 1940. |
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click for larger image | You would have to be pretty old to remember the First Colony Gallery which was the precursor of Yellowhouse Gallery back in the early 70's. The building still survives amongst a group of vintage Nags Head structures gathered by the late Carolista Baum. |
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click for larger image | Many years ago Uncle Jack would get up before dawn and trudge up to the beach with his coffee to take a picture of the sunrise. He has since come to his senses but he still has the pictures to remind him of when he was young and foolish. |
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click for larger image | Anybody remember Nags Head's first attempt at beach renourishment many years ago? Didn't work out too well as this photo by Ray Midgett shows. |
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posted by Uncle Jack at 3:40 PM |
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click picture for more | | After retiring in 2005 after 35 years as owner/operator of Yellowhouse Gallery and Annex on the Beach Road in Nags Head, Uncle Jack, accompanied by Mrs. Uncle Jack (a.k.a. Susan), commenced to travel extensively. This blog is a chronicle of their ramblings around the U.S. (in their redoubtable Mini Cooper convertible) as well as visits to England, Ireland, France, Italy, and Malta, interspersed with lengthy stays in South Nags Head and Baltimore between trips. He took a lot of pictures along the way, many of which are posted along with each blog entry. |
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