Monday, May 8 - Meeting Old Friends!

Monday, May 8 - Meeting Old Friends!

The restaurant in the Shell station served breakfast!  They even had country ham.  I loved this sign over the counter.   

Coming in yesterday, I had commented on how long the bridge was.  Leaving today, it looked monstrous.  I consulted my magic black box and found that the Alligator River Bridge is 2.8 miles long!

A view of the North River.  Huge! 

These random sticks caught my eye.  Danny explained that they were fish lines.

It was time to cross the dreaded Albermarle Sound.  It is wide and shallow, so contrary winds can make for a rough crossing.  We lucked into a great crossing day!  So calm, we didn't get any spray.

From the Albermarle Sound, we entered the North River.  Again, the size of these rivers is amazing!  I guess that's what you get with flat country.  

Thanks to our early start, we reached Coinjock Marina on the Virginia Cut at noon. 

The down side of our early arrival was that we had time to clean the Eisenglass on the boat!  Crossing the Pamlico Sound had left our boat covered with salt spray.  We didn't wash it last night because we figured the Albermarle Sound would be just add more spray.  It didn't, and now I had no excuse to postpone the cleaning.  What a pain!  But the boat did look so much better when we finished.

This was a very special night!  Marcha and John, our first friends as a married couple, came to meet us for dinner in Coinjock.  We would have recognized them anywhere!  Marcha and I worked together in the Extension Service EFNEP program in Macon right after we got married.  The four of us shared fishing trips, antique auctions, dog outings, Christmas parties, and so much more.  They have lived and sold real estate in the Outer Banks for many years, so this was the perfect chance for us to get together.  We had a delicious dinner at the Coinjock Restaurant, and enjoyed catching up.  The last time we saw them was 35 years ago when we took the girls to their beach house to visit in 1982. They were kind enough to bring wine, brownies, and onions and lettuce from their garden, but their company was the best thing! 

At dinner we saw Mia, the youngest of the 4 Wilson girls (Wilsons on the Water) and .  Then walking the dock with John and Marcha, we saw Bobby and talked to him a little bit.  Most of us Loopers who have met the family are just intrigued by their journey.  We hope our paths keep crossing.