Jolly Holiday

I went out to the beach at 6:30 to watch the sun rise. Our Christmas present to ourselves this year was coming to live in the Outer Banks, so I considered this holiday sunrise a gift that I had to get out an enjoy.

My mother had sent a few gifts to my post office box, including a pair of Capelli polka dot rain boots (with winter boot liners!) that I completely adore. I pulled on my boots, grabbed a bottle of egg nog and headed to the shore with Mike to accept what nature had to show us.

We saw nary a soul the entire time we were there. Sitting up on the dunes, we had an amazing view of all the activity below us: rolling waves, seagulls rising and falling in the sky over the water and sea grass meadows blowing in a pleasant, slow rhythm. Mike said, "This is an amazing and important moment." I am not sure what he was thinking about as it applied to himself, but I agreed.

It was an important moment.

I realize that I am very happy in this physical environment. The coastal winter, although unpredictable and windy, is everything I dreamed it would be. I have met valuable people in this community and I get to see a crucial part of nature that has always been in my heart. I have always been holding on to memories of this feeling, savored from a week's vacation I prioritized every year. I want to stay here and make this my home. I need to be here.

Kill Devil Chills

For a very brief period today, there was a beautiful blanket of snow in Kill Devil Hills. It's a rare event in this area and a shoreline of snow is something you simply don't see every day. I walked on the beach to witness Mother Nature's magnificent oddity as my hair became dotted with pieces of ice and snow. I was unable to stay out long because the chill coming off the ocean was practically unbearable. I wish the frosty snow could have stayed around just a bit longer, but rain washed it into a soggy mess before completely making it disappear in less than an hour after the snow stopped falling.

As I sat in the warmth and comfort of the local bar to thaw out after taking the above picture, I looked up too see that Knoxville was featured on the Weather Channel. Apparently snow and ice have been teaming up to cause serious chaos for drivers in the town I left only two weeks ago. Schools have been out for days and many of my friends have (happily, I assume) missed work. I doubt Kill Devil Hills gets many snow closures and I am willing to bet that they don't have big salt trucks or a snow removal protocol. They do, however, get something Tennesseans have never witnessed. Outer Banks schools get closed for wind! When it gets extremely gusty, it's a danger for buses crossing the long bridges between islands. Never would of thought of this being a problem, having lived my life in a valley.

I am still excited to winter here in the Outer Banks, despite the stories I am hearing from locals about how bitter, frigid and windy the weather here can become. Most businesses close in January and February because the weather is so miserable and the few people who are here don't want to get out and about. With the winter decline in business, even my local bar and comfort spot is about to close for six weeks. So, what will I do? I guess brace for the cold, stock up on Kahlua for coffee drinks and get a lot of reading done. Thankfully, I am the proud owner of a Kill Devil Hills library card and some very cozy flannel pajamas because it looks like it might be a long, cold winter.

Local Language 101

Today, I got a crash course in how not to sound like a tourist in Kill Devil Hills. They say it takes 9 years of living in the Outer Banks before you are considered a real local. By those standards, I have a really long way to go.

So, as I was saying, I learned today a few ways I am showing my newbie colors every time I open my mouth. You see, I have been saying things like "I took 158 towards Manteo, but maybe I should take 12?" and "Is Corolla where the wild horses are?" These immediately make me sound silly to those seasoned beach folks here. I am using all the wrong language and pronunciations.

Here are the errors in my questions above:

1) 158 - This is the number on the signage for one of two main roads in this town. Locals call it "the bypass", something I never would have considered.

2) 12 - The other main road in town that locals call "beach road"

3) Manteo - I have been referring to this town as Man-tay-oh and it is Mannie-oh.

4) Corolla - I pronounced this like the car - Core-oh-luh. It is Cuh-ral-uh.

These small mistakes immediately identify me as "not from around here" to the locals who are used to the annual invasions of tourists in warmer weather. I am sure more of these will come with time, but for now I can make some small changes to fit in a bit better - and be understood when asking directions around town. I appreciate the lesson and will be thinking about it tomorrow morning when I decide if I should take beach road or the bypass to see the Wright Brother's site.

Talk Derby to Me!

Last night at around 7:30, I walked about 75 feet to the oyster bar across the street. Awful Arthur's is rated one of the top ten oyster bars in the nation and the place gets packed pretty tight for dinner. The bar had one seat at the end and I happily took it since all I was wanting was a couple of cold beers. I had a front row seat to the shucking show behind the bar and their domestics were only $2!

I was seated next to a sweet couple in their early sixties and I was trying not to interrupt their meal despite their conversation about the marsh areas of the island sparked my interest. I sat silently for about five minutes taking in my surroundings and before I knew it the christmas sweater donning couple were engaging me in conversation. Everyone here wants to talk to me, or anyone else around for that matter, and it makes it way easier to get comfortable. I had noticed this earlier at a thrift store when every single person that passed me asked how I was doing. This sweet couple was no exception and they told me all about their rental property on Nags Head and what they do for the holidays. Before I knew it, they were saying goodbye and wishing me luck on my adventure here in Kill Devil Hills like we were old buddies.

After they left, the bartender started talking to me about what neighborhoods I could look into as far as annual rentals go. We talked about the National Park Service (who I am volunteering for in the Outer Banks), roller derby (since I had been skating earlier that day) and freelance writing (his wife is a writer). As we talked derby, we caught a man's attention that had just emerged from the kitchen. He asked me how I found the local derby team here in KDH and I told him about some videos I had seen on Facebook of their team starting up. Turns out, he shot that footage. I always thought Knoxville seemed small but being in a town with a population of 5K makes it possible for me to have connections with lots of folks and I have not even been in town for a full week!

Aviation Park!

Today was a break through day as far as finding my way around this small community. I went to the library and got a Kill Devil Hills library card from a loopy librarian who gave me weird directions to a park that happened to be just a block away from where I already was. I checked out four books about the area including one called The Wreckers about scavengers of ship wrecks, one about salt water marshes and a book of pirate stories from the Outer Banks.

Afterward, I went to Aviation Park, an outdoor 24 hour public facility that has a well-lit skateboard park and a flat track roller rink. Perfect for a former roller derby girl! The surface is amazing to skate and I can't wait for my first skate session with some local girls of the Outer Banks Roller Derby League this weekend. My behavior seemed like that of a local today but I still feel like I am on vacation and have to go home in a few days.

Strong Enough

Kill Devil Hills gets it's name from the strong rum being imported during the Colonial era. Shipwrecks were common and local wreckers would scavenge rum from the wreck sites and hide it in the large sand dunes.Locals said that the rum was strong enough to "kill the devil," so the dunes became known as "Kill Devil Hills"

Roanoke Island Sunset

My first sunset on Roanoke Island

viewed from my front yard