The Sighting

This morning I was in our 3rd floor kitchen washing a cup out.

From the kitchen window we have a great view of the marshlands that are directly behind our place.

I was looking out of the window and saw what I thought was some type of brownish colored rock/boulder.

Unfortunately I did not have my glasses on at this time but after going downstairs and grabbing them, I returned upstairs and gave this object a closer look.

To my delight I saw a rather large deer...at least large compared to the other deers that I have seen in our immediate area. This deer was just laying down and relaxing in a large patch of trees and brush that kind of formed an island in the marshland area. This particular patch of land seemed to be just high enough to keep dry when the tide is in.

I must have stood there for 15 minutes just watching this deer and taking a few photos of him.

Since Hurricane Irene has come through, we have only seen 2 other smaller deer that used to frequent the piles of cracked corn that I would pile outside of our 1st floor computer room.

We saw those 2 deer about 2 weeks ago but have not seen them since they last stopped by looking for something to eat.

Of course I didn't have the piles of cracked corn out there waiting for them because I had run out. And of course after seeing them, I made a special trip to Walmart just to get them a couple of large bags of the cracked corn. And of course....after putting the piles of cracked corn out for them, I have not seen them since and the cracked corn piles are in the same condition that I had left them in almost a week ago.

So I was really happy to see that there was at least one deer in our immediate area.

With the rutting season getting ready to start soon, I am sure that the deer will be out looking for something to eat after they get done with all of their frolicking and deer duties completed.

Here are a few photos that I took of this relaxing deer. I apologize for the lack of sharpness on the photos. Unfortunately I took through our windows which have mesh screens that make photo taking tough.

New Toys

Veronica has been wanting a bicycle for quite some time. She also wanted me to get one so that we could go for rides around the area of the Wright Brothers First Flight Memorial.

A lot of people go for walks and ride bikes around the trails in the Monument area.

So yesterday we went to Walmart and bought ourselves a couple of bikes.

I had to order a special type of bike carrier for our vehicle because most would not fit nor could they be adapted to fit our Toyota RAV4s. I ended up getting a bike carrier that fits over the spare tire that is attached to the back of our RAV4s and then you can strap/tether/secure the bottom of the carrier either to the bottom of the vehicles back cargo door or underneath the rear bumper.

Here are some pictures of the bike carrier that I ended up ordering:

I ended up having to hang the bikes from the rafters due to space issues. As you can see, we are running out of space in our garage. We have a large grill and 3 pieces of exercise equipment and then room left over for one vehicle.

Below is Veronica's bike. It is a Panama Jack themed bike. This is an "old school" bike with no gears and no handle brakes. Veronica ordered a wicker basket for the front of the bike.

Below is my bike. It has 7 speeds. I bought the black bag for the front of the bike so that I could put a can or bottle of soda in it. I could also put a small coffee thermos in it. I bought a new seat also because the original was rather narrow and hard. This one is wider and has additional cushioning. I went for a ride on it and had to raise the seat up. It needs to be raised more but I am going to wait on doing that. I tried to raise the handle bars and angle them in towards me a bit. I felt like I was having to lean over too much to reach the handle bars in their current configuration. This was making my lower back rather sore. I tried to loosen the hex nuts and and other bolts but I could not get them to loosen at all. They really tightened them down at the factory. i actually snapped a pair of pliers trying to loosen the bolts up. I will end up taking the bike down to a local bike rental/repair shop and let them "fit" the bike properly to my body height and also raise and tilt the handle bars in so that I can ride it in more comfort. I will also have them adjust the gears because they are slipping a bit.

On The Road To Normalcy

When Hurricane Irene went through this area, the ocean wiped out a substantial portion of Highway 12 that links Hatteras Island to the mainland. The section of Highway 12 that was totally washed away was just North of Rodanthe.

On Monday 10/10 just prior to 6PM, the new temporary bridge was opened to traffic and once again Hatteras Island was linked to the mainland.

An 8 man crew put in 30 days and 15,000 man hours to build 662-foot engineering feat spanning a 200-foot channel just north of Rodanthe.

Jerry Jennings, an NCDOT engineer, said the project cost an estimated $11 million to $12 million. Though temporary, the bridge is expected to last a decade or more.

For additional information on the damage done by Hurricane Irene and the building of this new temporary bridge, please read the following articles:

PilotOnline.com

USAToday

In the USA Today article, you can see a photo taken of the washed away highway that effected the entire are from Rodanthe South including Hatteras Island.

This road should help those effected by Hurricane Irene in returning their lives to some sort of normalcy.