NORTH CAROLINA/EASTERN U.S.
Dec. 28-30 2008
PART 4
This is at Wright Brothers National Memorial. Although this site is often said to be in Kitty Hawk, NC, this is actually in Kill Devil Hills. I guess this is looking out at where the Wrights' landing field was - although there is a modern runway behind this.
"We intend to be comfortable while we are here." The big babies! (Just joking!) Looking betweeen these replica cabins is part of the field used by the Wright brothers.
I guess the hill with the monument is where ol' Orv and Wilb flew from. Also, the walkway up to about here had so many piles of poop on it that I couldn't count them all. I couldn't believe how much poop there was! Also along this walkway, some kid peed all over a sign.
This is the beautiful monument commemorating the Wrights' first flight.
Looking out over Kill Devil Hills and the Atlantic Ocean from the hill with the monument.
From the hill with the monument again, this is another view looking towards the ocean. Visitors are crowding the poop-covered walkway. The flat areas must be the Wrights' landing field. The paved loop near the upper left is at the end of a modern runway.
"Wilbur and Orville Wright! You've discovered the airplane!" No, you idiot, they invented the airplane! The Wright brothers must have been gum connoisseurs to be reckoned with - at least according to this late 1970s commersh for Care-Free gum (in which some guy bubbled). (YouTube has yanked this clip repeatedly because someone got offended by it and it made them cry. However, it is not posted under my account.)
North on Bodie Island, we get moving again!
West on US 158, this bridge crosses Currituck Sound into the county of the same name (which the government considers part of the Norfolk, VA, metropolitan area, surprisingly).
Going over the peak of the bridge!
And back down again!
This would almost have to be north on the US 158 bridge at Coinjock, NC. It goes over that Intracoastal Waterway that you've seen marked on the road atlas ever since you were soiling your diaper.
Looking northeast on the Intracoastal Waterway. A USGS topo map shows a Coast Guard station up ahead.
At the end of the bridge, entering another swampy area.
West on US 158 after it becomes 2-lane. This is probably in western Currituck County.
Here, US 158 is about to cross the Pasquotank River into Elizabeth City, NC.
This is one of few photos I was able to get on the whole trip that comes close to being a cityscape. From the US 158 span, this is Elizabeth City, population 17,000.
I have no idea where this is, but this shows you a truck driving in the grass on the wrong side of the road. This is possibly NC 37 near Belvidere.
North on NC 32, around Corapeake.
NC 32 still, looking towards what appears to be the remnants of a destroyed house.
It's the Virginia lecture again! At the state line, NC 32 becomes...VA 32! The Great Dismal Swamp is just to the east of here. Once we enter Virginia, we're in Suffolk, a city that now takes up all of what used to be Nansemond County.
Looking southeast from US 13 (Carolina Road), probably right across from the ramp from the freeway bypass around central Suffolk. I don't know whether this spot was ever intended to have a ramp to the bypass if it was extended eastward.
US 13 bips onto the bypass. This is looking northeast into town on Carolina Road, where the bypass loops over it.
US 460 west near Zuni, VA. US 460 was 4 lanes undivided from Suffolk to the Petersburg area. Despite what my road atlas said, it was not a divided highway.