Let me finish the 10-21-11 saga, which occurred after I posted last night.  I always call my husband, so I decided to walk out to the beach so he could hear the surf.  When I got out there, the wondrous sight presented itself (my camera is not quality enough to take a photo of what I saw, so you will just have to take my word for it).  The black sky was FILLED with stars and since there was no moonlight, they stood out very prominently against the velvety background.  I saw a cluster of stars that looked like grapes, a a band of a dusty swatch arcing across the sky and a very bright “star” that was probably a planet.  The white cap foam on the waves glowed in a fluorescent blue-green color and the break on the horizon in the distance looked like a reproduction of an expolding star – a bright flash in the center and then radiating out on both sides in a lateral path – over and over again.  I have never seen such a sight and was blessed with the opportunity to have that experience.

Now, on to today’s events. We both had an uncomfortable night – mosquitos are a rarity in LV, but they sure like the beach (and us).  I walked to the beach one last time to see the sun rising into some angry clouds on the horizon as if it was telling us it was time to move on.  We programmed the GPS to take us to Chapel Hill, NC, BUT at the division of 64 and 264, it took a wrong turn from the more direct route and sent us down the 264.  Dad sensed that was incorrect, but we decided the trust the technology and away we went on a road with too narrow an access to allow us to turn around.  We were committed.

Our route paralleled Alligator Creek which ran like a canal along the roadside for many, many miles. It revealed none of the savage beasts, but did show us a few turtles sunning themselves and some unfortunate deer and small fuzzy animals who had met their demise on the roadside.  We passed the Dare Naval Bombing Range, an Air-Force bombing range and a Correctional Institution – these are not common travel attractions, which was evidenced by the one other car we saw for about 70 miles… The road took a turn at Stumpy Point and we entered cotton country.  The fields were large and plentiful, some had been picked and some still had tufts of white that looked like a dusting of snow.  Up above a bright blue sky had cumulus clouds that mimicked the fluffy cotton balls below.  Cotton was just about everywhere.  Since we had NO traffic to worry about, we pulled to the side of the road and I collected some as a memento, after picking out the boll-weevil larvae.

Just past the road named “Pity My Shoe”, we saw a field of yellow sunflowers out of nowhere, just like that. I turned on the radio and found James Taylor singing “Goin’ to Carolina”. Actually, this was a pretty scenic and unusual journey, albeit 60 miles or so longer than our intended route.  As we got back to the 64E, a billboard presented itself with the “WOTD”:  A million miles away is just down the road.

Now, we are far away from the ocean and back with the trees and the squirrels who are throwing acorns down on our roof and running to and fro in front of our door and up and down the trees like race cars chasing each other on a vertical track.

Great Things from Little Sprouts Grow