We Are In Rodanthe!!

Sorry about the delay in posting the first "official" vacation entry, but I've been too busy and/or tired to write anything.  Plus, I had to figure out how to hookup to the Internet.  I was hoping that the cottage would have broad band, but, alak & alas, no such luck.  Yesterday I tried connecting via dial up ...... I didn't realize that the laptop had two phone jacks ..... and of course I was using the wrong one.  I finally saw the other jack this morning.  So, I'm up and running!!

Here's a quick recap of the past few days.  Susie arrived in Davenport on Wednesday.  We finished packing up the truck Thursday morning and got on the road at 10:00 a.m.  Had great driving weather, no construction, no traffic jams, etc.  Decided to keep driving until we were tired and made it to Beckley, WV.  That's a long ass drive!  Thirteen hours.  Of course, we couldn't find any room vacancies in Beckley - there was a state wide convention of EMT's, firefighters and law enforcement agencies there.  We drove on and got a room in Beaver, WV. 

We were back on the road Friday morning at about 9:00 a.m.  I took a different route to OBX ..... went south at Richmond, then east through NC at Rockey Mount.  It is a longer drive, so won't do that again, but did see a lot of interesting sites!  The tobacco harvest has begun, and saw lots of drying barns in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.  Likewise, it is cotton & peanut pickin' time.  We made a stop at Mackey's Ferry Peanuts ..... free samples!  I bought fresh peanut butter (yum!) and some blistered peanuts (yum again!)  I tried the boiled peanuts ...... blech. 

We arrived in Nags Head around 7:00 p.m. - ended up getting a room at Owens' Motel, as the Sea Foam was full up.  Susie & I had dinner at Sam and Omies .... we split a seafood platter, shrimp, scallops, oysters, clams, flounder, french fries, collard greens and slaw - there was so much food, we couldn't finish it! 

We woke up early Saturday morning and went shopping for a while, then watched the kite boarders.  That looks like fun, but too fast paced for me.  After getting groceries at the Food Lion, we got the key for the cottage. 

Wow!  The Island Jewel is NICE!  The photos on the website do not do it justice.  It's large enough for all of us, but still cottage cozy.  The views from the cottage are incredible - both sea and sound from levels 2, 3 and 4. 

Jen got in Saturday evening, then Soren and Birgit Sunday afternoon. 

Must run for now ...... I'm making NC BBQ for dinner.  More later!