NM today 1: 30
NM today 2: 3
NM To Date: 5522
Our plan for today set our departure time at 9:00, and low and behold, at 9:00, we were pulling away from the slip at Alligator Creek Marina.
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| Lighthouse at Alligator Creek Marina |
Our cruising guide told us to be on the lookout for the Blimp Hangar at ICW MM 58. We found it. The description said that all blimps except the Goodyear Blimp are made here including those for Fuji Film and MetLife.
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| Weeksville Blimp Hangar |
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| Free Docks at Elizabeth City, NC (no electric = no air conditioning) |
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| In New Bern we had Pepsi, here we have coke |
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| Water Street in Elizabeth City, NC |
Elizabeth City is proud to claim an association with Wilbur Wright. Per the historical markers in town, he stayed at the Arlington Hotel here while scoping out the North Carolina area to find a place for a manned flight. Then on a later visit, and I do not know how this is known, he bought a barrel of gasoline here in 1902 and again in 1903. The latter being needed to fuel the first powered flight on December 17th, 1903. Perhaps Wilbur kept a journal.
We walked up and down Water, Main, and Ehringhaus Streets and did not find a single ice cream store or a place to buy deli meat. When we asked some locals about the ice cream, we were told where we could find great hot dogs instead. Somehow that just did not seem to be the same thing.
Before leaving Water Street we walked down to the Pasquotank River Bridge for a quick picture. This bridge is the main reason we decided not to stay at the free docks in town tonight. The bridge has very restricted openings during the morning rush hour. We thought this might preclude us from reaching the lock on the Dismal Swamp Canal at the designated opening time there. By staying after this bridge, we can head straight for the lock in the morning without delay.
We visited the Pool Street Park with a Civil War Monument on one side of Main Street and a Fountain on the other.
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| Civil War Memorial remembering "Our Heroes" of the town |
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| Pool Street Park Fountain |
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| United States Courthouse in Elizabeth City, NC |
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| County Courthouse c. 1882 Elizabeth City, NC |
The museum charged no admission price and had four exhibits - "Tiffany", "Our Story", "I Do", and "Elizabeth City University". When we entered the museum, we were greeted by a life-sized "Shad" boat complete with crew.
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| Shad Boat |
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| "Lilies" in Tiffany Glass |
The second exhibit, "Our Story", told the story of the area from the time of Indians through the late1900s. For this exhibit, the museum had a huge number of artifacts and displays including a full-size, furnished two-room house and a smokehouse. They also had a full-size Farmsall Tractor on show. A couple of the displays that caught my eye are shown below.
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| Stills! |
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| Old-time Washing Machine |
The other two displays, "I Do" about the history of weddings and Elizabeth City University, did not hold my interest. I walked through both of them at a much quicker pace than the other two exhibits.
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| History of Weddings "I Do" Exhibit at Albemarle Museum |
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| Waterfront Park in Elizabeth City, NC |
At the park I made a new friend. I was surprised to see an exotic bird climbing all over her owner. I mentioned my surprise and learned from the owner that the bird was a Cockatoo aka a "Velcro Bird" since they stick to their owners like velcro. She was happy to come visit me and literally say "Hi". She also seemed to know how to give a "high five", i.e. wave, when she did it.
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| Cockatoo Saying "Hi" |
The "scotty" dog that was with the bird owner got his nose out of joint since he got no attention from us at all - the bird got it all.
After my close encounter with a cockatoo, we left the park to get back to the town docks in time to leave by 3:30 to make the bridge opening before the restricted hours starting at 4:00. We made the bridge well before 4:00, but Clark had to "station keep" on the windy waters by the bridge while we waited for the bridge tender to decide to open for us.
Before we reached Lambs Marina for the night, we had one more bridge to pass through. This one, fortunately, is generally kept in the open position. As we approached this bridge we had a difficult time seeing if it was indeed in the open position. We had to get at the correct angle to see that it was open but very narrow making it appear closed.
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| Railroad Swing Bridge on the Pasquotank River |
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| Entrance to Lambs Marina in Camden, NC |
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| The owner told us to dock in front of the "flag" boat. |
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| Sea Moss docked at Lamb's Marina with Dockside Restaurant and Convenience Store |
We used the courtesy car and drove into Elizabeth City to the Fresh Market to pick up some essentials. When we got back, we ate on board and then took our showers. Although we had no rain, we noticed the unusual look of the sky as we prepared to walk over to the washroom.
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| Dark Clouds with a Single Spot of Bright Sun in the Clouds (an interesting change from the usual sunset picture) |
Later in the day, around 10:00, while I worked on this blog entry, we did get hit with a freaky storm. The wind came up suddenly and we had lightening flashes. With one flash, we lost the internet. The boat got tossed about and bumped into the bulkhead. As suddenly as the storm came, it left. Shortly after the storm began, all was calm once more.
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