My favorite place

It's no secret that I love the ocean, the beach, the sand, the smell that accompanies the entire experience. I live about 45 minutes from Virginia Beach (but never go because it is like tourist hell) and the beach isn't what I want it to be. Instead I always venture to my trusted favorite: Hatteras Island, NC--it's part of the Outer Banks of NC, but down past the beaches of Nags Head, Corolla, Duck, Kitty Hawk, etc...

A single 2 lane road gets you there...the movie Nights in Rodanthe was filmed in Rodanthe, NC which is a part of Hatteras Island (the movie was based on the book by Nicholas Sparks)....but anyway...

It's one of those places where the highway occassionally gets washed out if the waves are rough and the tide comes in too far...Frequent mandatory evacuations occur during hurricane season...but none of that matters.
What does matter is the feeling I get when I cross that VA/NC line when the anticipation begins to build...and the smell that fills my insides as early as crossing the Wright Brothers Memorial Bridge heading to the Outer Banks....How ancy I get driving through tourist hell in Nags Head and Kitty Hawk, looking forward to the stop light where I will take that left hand turn and be on HWY 12...and almost there.

My parent's beach house (which used to belong to Gma) is in Salvo, down past Rodanthe, but before Avon...and a simple one story 2 bedroom cottage that was built in the 50's or 60's...it's not like these new multimillion dollar deals that people rent out for a week at a time and spend anywhere from a grand to ten grand (yes, for a single week)... whoa.
It's a place to go and relax. For the longest time we didn't even have a TV down there, no phones were allowed, fishing and relaxing...that was the key. Now there is a TV, everyone has their cell phones, and a couple of window units attempt to keep everyone cool in the sweltering, humid heat of July and August.

Most of the time when I visit it's soley to get away. To ride out on the beach (you have to have 4x4 to do that, so I generally catch a ride with mom or dad and just sit. Walk barefoot on the sand and let the waves crash at my ankles (though sometimes if I'm not paying attention I get hit by one at waist level...that'll wake you up.) The seaspray and salt sticking to your skin...the shells scattered are beautiful to me, but sad at the same time. I feel bad if I pick up one and not the other, as if indicated that one has a beauty that the other does not. Who am I to judge all that? But alas, my pockets are not big enough to carry all that I find, besides, I need to save some for those still waiting to experience all that Hatteras has to offer.
When I can, I like to drive farther down the island until I reach the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (pictured above)...it's the tallest in the country and absolutely amazing. I climbed it once, before they moved it (they had to get it away from where it was because the sand was eroding away and it was going to fall into the ocean...) Oh so many steps, but the view from the top is one I'll never forget. I told my mom that if I die before she does, it is imparative that my ashes be sprinkled and or dumped somewhere in the vacinity of this lighthouse, or at least on my favorite span of beach...I want to be there forever.

She of course said, "Oh, so you want like a burial at sea." I said, "Yeah, something like that." She responded back, "Well shit, why don't I just flush your ashes down the toilet...you're bound to make it to the sea eventually..."

Good grief. Lol. I'm overdue for a visit and I can tell. The beach/ocean is a part of me and I do periodically get like a fish out of water....gasping what seems like my last breath, not knowing if I'll make it before its too late.

I just want to escape and Hatteras will so let me do that. I will be allowed to be alone with my thoughts, but have the option to turn them and everything out with the crashing waves....If I wasn't doing hair this weekend I'd so just get in my car and drive, even if I had to trade sexual favors for gas money to get back (not literally)...

The time will be right soon enough...and then I will be rescued by the sea...even if only temporarily.