cotton fields

okay, jesu! where am i? i have a vague recollection of where i have been and how i got here but now i am in a strange place. wilmington, north carolina. i drove "all night" (which just means that i drove after dark) to get here. well, i left virginia beach a couple of days ago for what seemed like the illustrious and beautiful outer banks of north carolina. that first day i drove from vb all the way to kill devil hills. that was further than i wanted to go, but there isnt much on the mainland once you get close to the islands, so i had to cross over.

that first night i didnt have much going on. i drove around and looked at all the water that had pooled along the roads and under people houses, i drove on highway 12 which was still partially closed, and then i found a coffee shop to sit and write at for awhile. then it was dark and i didnt have anything else to do.

the islands string along for about 200 miles and are 2 miles wide or less for that stretch. at kitty hawk/kill devil hills there are two arterial roads - highway 158 and highway 12 - once you get past roanoke island there is only one, 12. so there arent many places to seamlessly fit in, especially since a bunch of places are underwater, including many of the side roads. so, this is just a long way to say that i went to walmart. (kitty hawk is where the wright brothers first flew a heavier than air plane.)

right when you get on the island there is a walmart. when i decided to go there, i was about ten miles into the island. so i came back and parked in a dark corner to sleep for the night. but it was only 7:pm. i cannot go to sleep at 7 - i would get up at 3 and that wouldnt solve any of my problems. and my main problems right now include the sun setting at 5:30pm. i need more light. so, i walked around the mini mall area and then went into the walmart. i spent a good hour walking around in there.

by the time i got done with my mini-mall walkabout in was 8:30pm. thats good enough. i got get in my truck, watch a movie, and it is 10:30 when i am starting to think about sleeping. and thats what i did. in the morning i went to the ocean and walked along the beach - playing cat and mouse with the tide - to collect some seashells that i thought were pretty. mostly purple ones. i found one that was deep red, but it wasnt a good shape. that was the only red one i saw.

then i went back to the coffee shop for awhile, but instead of going in i just sat in the parking lot and used the internet. really, my time on the island was really boring. because of the storm alot of places were closed and even if they werent there just isnt much going on. i wasted away the day, eventually going to a bar, and then slept in the walmart parking lot again. every day i was there i was told that the road south, which had about 800 feet washed away during the storm, would be open. so i waited. this day i decided that i was done in kill devil hills. i couldnt waste away here again.

so i drove south to roanoke island. first i sat at jockeys ridge for a few hours. jockeys ridge is the tallest and largest active dunes on the east coast. it was really amazing to be there. by saying tallest i thought that they would be huge, but they fluctuate between 80-100 feet above sea level. they are formed by storms (like the one that just came through) whipping sand from the ocean up onto the beach and the sand on the beach shifting in the storms. after i walked around there for awhile i actually drove to roanoke island.

i was hoping for more from roanoke, it is the birthplace of the first english person on this continent. or so they say. the name of that person was anne dare, and we were in dare county. i had wondered why the county was called dare now i knew. when i actually got to roanoke it was about an hour till dark...shitty. i went to the library and used the internet for a bit and then down to the water to read the day away. there on the shore i got to see a fight and finish my book in the dying light.

let me talk about this fight real quick. there was a group of about twenty kids (13-18 or so) that were out on the pier and making a lot of noise, just yelling. it was pretty annoying, i thought about leaving to find a better place to read but i liked where i was. and they were walking my way so i figured they were on their way out. out in front was a black girl and a white boy walking and talking. from the middle of the pier another girl starting yelling at them. she was sitting down and making fun of them for being together.

she stops yelling, gets up and continues walking down the pier where the rest of the folks are waiting. i think this is a group of friends or a school group or something. but then i look up from my book and see the two girls punching each other. they werent doing a very good job, but i think the one that was walking with the boy starting the fight with the one making fun of her. the one that was making fun was winning. punching her in the head and face, and all these kids formed a semi-circle and one of them was taking video.

it wasnt a very violent fight, no blood, mostly hurt egos, but it reminded me of this piece of news i read awhile back - gang rape raises questions about bystanders' role. that story is about a young woman who was gang raped, and during the act a number of people came by to watch, join in, or take pictures/shoot video. when i read that story i thought about how sick our society/spectacle had become. this fight wasnt nearly as violent as what happened to that young lady, but the way the folks around just started watching and shooting video of it. i didnt understand it.

but then i realized that i was the same. i was sitting about 40 feet away and just watching. four people that werent part of the group walked by while the fight was happening and didnt pay it any mind. i thought about going over to stop it, but i wanted to see if one of them would go into the water. i wanted to see what would happen. and i felt bad about that. this whole sequence lasted only about two minutes. and then a large group of kids, including the girl that was making fun, walked off in the opposite direction. the girl and her boy walked in my direction.

and thats when i figured out that the person that was taking the video was this girls boy friend. i just shook my head and continued reading my book. when i finished the book it was dark out. i walked around the little downtown area and then started hearing some hollering (like a party) in the distance. so i walked toward it. i was walking for blocks and blocks, it is darker and darker, there are no street lights. i didnt want to get lost but i could go to a party. so i followed the shouts, which sounded like a frat party where guys are taking shots and then yelling afterwards.

after i had gone about ten blocks i started to realize that it was monday night, who parties like this on a monday? but i kept on. i ended up at the local high school where they were having football practice. i shook my head. but while i was there i did get to steal a bike. i know, stealing bikes is a mean thing. but this was a school bike that had two flat tires and wasnt locked up. i rode it for about ten blocks but it was harder to ride that bike than walking. it wasnt even taking me much faster. so i ditched it and walked the rest of the way back to my truck.

again, it was very dark but still early and i was on a small island that closes up around 7. so i walked around some more, along the piers and through some parks. i parked in a parking lot near the water and watched a movie. eventually i went to bed. in the morning i went back to the library and i checked the road report. still not open. i sat in the library for a little bit while my computer charged and by the time it was done i had decided to leave the island.

it had been three days and the road still wasnt open, who knows when it would be, and there isnt anything to do here. so around 1:pm i got my stuff together and started driving. i took 264 south through the great dismal swamp, the first mileage sign i saw surprised me. the town marker that i wanted to get to was about 140 miles away! had i been able to head south on the islands it wouldve been only about 70 miles. no turning back now, so i pushed on. around 4:pm i got to washington, nc.

i got out and walked around for a little bit, thought about staying there but decided against it. i drove another 30 miles to new bern, nc and it was dark by the time i got there. generally i dont drive at night, but i couldnt find the downtown area and i didnt want to stay there anyway. another 60 miles downt he road was wilmington, nc it looked like a good place to go. so i turned around and got back on the highway. i drove about 240 miles yesterday. thats alot for me - considering i had done less than that the previous seven days.

i got into wilmington around 8:pm and saw a hotel chain that has free wireless. going into downtown at night wouldnt have offered me much, i was tired and didnt want to drive anymore, so i parked there. i used the internet and then got in back and made some dinner. then i watched a movie and went to bed. today is another day for me to explore. i am excited to get through these states and on to florida. the weather is much nicer down here, i may be able to bust out the ugly shorts again soon.