Test Walk With My Foot

This morning I went for my first walk since having my foot surgery. Actually I did one "lap" around the neighborhood and then took a brief break to take some photos and then I did another "lap". I have no idea how long these "laps" are in distance but eventually I will build myself and my foot up again, so that I can do many "laps". So far my foot feels pretty good but we will wait and see how it feels later on tonight.

We live on the sound side of the Outer Banks. On one side you have the Atlantic Ocean and on the other side is the sound. The photo below is of Blount Bay, which is right behind and to the side of our place. They are 2 other bays on either side of Blount Bay...there is Kitty Hawk Bay and then Buzzard Bay. If you boat out of Blount Bay, you end up in Albemarle Sound. We are approximately 3 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

Here is the view that we have from our 3rd floor deck

While going on my walk I found a few things to take photos of.

Here is a photo of Blount Bay.

This is a cloe up photo of what we can see from our 3rd floor deck.

This pier has seen better days. Part of it is has collapsed into the water

There is a road that goes through the neighborhood and ends in a circle drive. Beyond the land is some marsh land and then Blount Bay

There is a canal that runs behind the neighborhood clubhouse and swimming pool. There is a wooden walkway that runs parallel to this canal. While walking on the walkway, I found this neat looking boat that must have sunk some time ago based on the plant growth around it and in it.

Here is the canal and the wooden walkway that I was speaking of. This canal opens up into Blount Bay

Below is a photo looking up into the canal towards the main road

I am not sure what these are for...possibly for clams or crabs. They have troughs, lights and a lot of pvc piping

They are a lot of these traps in the area...the dark cages that are piled up on the right side of the picture..near the building. I am thinking that these are crab traps

Another view of this channel

It Is Now Official - We Are Moving And Why??

Last week Veronica and I went to the Outer Banks. It originally was for a couple of days just to get away, enjoy ourselves and to take in a few of the sights that the area had to offer.
Things ended up changing rather quickly right before we left on this little getaway. Veronica is currently a store manager for a large discount retail business and they offered her a new store that is being built on the Outer Banks. So as it turned out, we ended up looking for our future place to live. I did some quick research on the internet and Veronica made several telephone calls so that when we arrived, we would have several places to look at.
This trip ended up being very hectic and rather stressful at times. We had 2 full days in which to locate our new residence.
Besides the sticker shock, we were blown away by how few quality places that were actually available for long term leases and at a reasonable price point. Most places catered to the weekly summer rental crowds. So many of the places were really run down and that was sad to see. I guess that is what happenes when you have a lot of turn around with tourist coming in and out for a week or two at a time.
Because we were there during the off season, other than the locals, the place was rather quiet.
We noticed that many of the restaurants close up for the off season. We found a few that were open and they seemed to cater to the locals that live there year round.
After much looking and being very disheartened at our possibilities, we did find a place that we could make do with. It was not an ideal choice but we could and would have to make it work...we just could not find anything else in the time frame that we had..even though we had gone through about 5 -6 realtors and property management businesses.
Late Friday afternoon, we decided to stop at one last property management business just to see what we might stumble onto.
As it turned out, we got very lucky and stumbled upon a gem.
For just a little more money than we were going to have to spend on the original place, that we felt stuck with, we ended up getting a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath beauty. This was a condo that was made in 2007 or 2008 but had not been leased out until we showed up.
We walked into the place and it was brand spanking new....never lived in.
This condo has so much space and tons of storage too. It is away from the beach front area and the main hectic travel corridor. It is a very small development area with only a few condo buildings...2 Five unit buildings and a few newer homes.
There is a club house and pool.
The development sits close to the sound, so from the back condo windows, you have a sound/water view.
The garage/carport area can hold up to 3 cars...it is very deep and in the back of it, there is a enclosed 11 1/2' x 6' storage area.
This unit comes with a brand new washer and dryer too.
We will be moving into it around March 1st.
There is so much work to be done before that date that at times I feel very overwhelmed by it all.
This definitely will be a year of change and lots of travel.