We finally arrived at 10:30 Tuesday evening, after a LONG day of driving. Why is it these road trips of mine always turn out taking longer than they are supposed to?? Instead of about 9 hours of driving that day, it took more like 14. A nearly 100 mile detour didn't help matters.
But we arrived, and today, Wednesday, was a glorious day. High of 73, sunny, but with a cool north wind.
Ever since my vacation at Outer Banks last summer (2008), I looked forward to a reason when I could return to the area, and I guess I found a good one.
We went to Wrightsville Beach so I could hopefully get in a swim. The public beach is about 7 miles from the public beach. It reminded me a lot of Outer Banks beaches with one main road leading to the public beach, and small narrow streets behind that lined by houses on both sides--one side the beach side, the other the road side.
We found plenty of parking, since it is obviously the off season. Yet there were fishermen here and there fishing and at least one other athlete who had completed a swim and was fixing himself a little lunch on a camp stove. We also talked to one of the water volunteers for the race Saturday who made some observations about the tide, the wind direction, and the water temp.
One side of the beach was on the Atlantic side and the other was on the channel side. There was a huge difference, just in waves alone. There were a few surfers out today since with the north wind the waves were several feet. The channel side was fairly calm.
I finally got my wetsuit on and stepped into the water, which was frigid. It reminded me a lot of Lake Michigan most any time but with one difference. The farther out I went, even though the water was seeping through the wetsuit some, it didn't have that completely icy feel Lake Michigan has. But it was still hard getting my bare arms in the water.
I finally made the plunge and put my face in and it wasn't that bad. My head had brain freeze right away but that eased up eventually. I only swam maybe 10 minutes and it wasn't as bad as I thought.
Tonight Don goes to the volunteer dinner and orientation and then we'll see what else we do. More later! Pictures tomorrow.
4 comments:
Have fun Vickie, enjoy your time there and say a Big HI to Don for me please...
You must be getting that great feeling between "I can't wait to do this" and "I can't wait for this to be over". Enjoy it and have a great time.
Yes, pics please. Hope you have fun girl!
Glad you made it safely!
Brrrrrr! I have the chills just thinking about stepping into cold water! Good to hear that it's not too bad, though.
Enjoy your time settling in and getting organized!
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