The pie was southern sin on a plate. Lemon and chocolate fudge with homemade meringue. Zena dropped it off and offered to do my hair for me. She said she would curl it for me. Like I need more curls. It was then that I found out that her name isn't Zena at all. It's Tina. Tina Turner. Again, I shit you not. I declined the hair styling offer.
Next morning, today, we had to time our departure to make a nearby swing bridge that opens strictly on the hour. If you are five minutes late too bad for you. It is near Camp Lejuene and they do live ammo exercises in the area. Sometimes the ICW is closed for a few hours while they practice. Luckily, that was not the case today. We made it thru the bridge and some serious zig zagging around the never ending shoaling--reminiscent of Georgian Bay; only there you hit granite and not soft mud.
We passed this house:
Wonder who he's voting for??
Then the real challenge began. How can I even explain the next part of the trip?
Imagine you are on a really freaky, extreme roller coaster ride that you wish you weren't on for 3 1/3 hours? or you have strayed into a really bad part of town and can't find your way out? or you are cornered by some Jehovah's Witnesses in really bad suits and can't escape? well, maybe not that one. Anyway, on a scale of 1 to 10 the ride across Pamlico Sound was a 0. A big fat 0. The wind was blowing 25-30 mph with guts up around 39 mpg. The sea was frothy white and crashing into the windshield and up over the boat (like on Deadliest Catch). The windshield was a salty mess and the wipers could no way keep up. Nine footers put me so far over my comfort level. Heavy duty Blue Moon was made for this, me? Not so much!! So why were we even out there in those conditions? Good question. We made the classic mistake of trying to keep a schedule on a boat. Trying to get home makes you do questionable things. I was a very unhappy camper until we got across the big bay and into a channel.
Now, this being hell is all from my normal person point of view. My dear husband, who apparently has the "fear" chip missing from his hard drive was cool with it.
We travelled up the calm channel for awhile until we came to the Mungo River. River, big deal you think. Piece of cake. Time to hit this:
The same nasty ride up this river as the Pamlico Sound. This time only 1 1/2 hours of feeling like you are in a blender on the puree setting. I was so thrilled when we pulled into a little marina and there were 4 very sympathetic dockhands waiting to help us in the wind. I tried to sell one of them the boat but no luck.
They have had boaters at their marina waiting 5 days for the wind to subside so they could do what we did today. They are a whole lot smarter than us.
I was trembling for hours inside and had to walk around on solid earth for awhile to get over it. I usually try my feeble attempt at humor in these blogs but this day was not in the least funny to me.
Dave has been stepping quite gingerly around me since we docked I must say.
But, tomorrow is another day. The winds are supposed to subside and sun and warmth return. We might traverse the picturesque Dismal Swamp. It involves two little locks that only open certain times so we will decide that one in the morning. Norfolk is our goal for Tuesday and then rent a car and go home until Part 2 continues in a few weeks.
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