The theory on spontaneous traveling is alive and well! As far as I remember this is the first time ever we have just picked a place without any rhyme or reason, or reservation for that matter. While it was testing the limits of my anxiety a thrill to have the entire trip be one huge possibility, it also required excessive use of phone data and an extra hour or two of car time. The original destination was Wilmington NC and the TONS of gorgeous beaches along the coast in the area. I think I compensated the lack of planning with excessive packing. Like 40 extra t-shirts would make the unknown less unknown.
Hours into the trip it occurred that no one had bothered to check the weather…we were clearly very committed to flying blind on this one. Sure enough it was about to be the rainiest week of the summer for the exact 5 days of our projected stay. Somehow the non-existent plan had found a way to fall apart and we were dead center of nowhere Virgina, and like the 21st century electronic lovers we are, the iPhone became our life line.
The next few minutes were spent analyzing weather patters in random cities up the coast until rain chances got below 50%. I would make 5 reservations only to cancel 5 minutes later due to the weather crisis and patchy load times for the weather app. Finally rain clouds turned to suns over Kitty Hawk NC. Wohoo…OBX it is! No plan plan back in action. If only the name Kitty Hawk had the origin you picture (flying kittens dive bombing beach goers with their cuteness). No one actually knows where the name came from, they think “possibly the Native Americans.” So there’s that, the comprehensive history of KH OBX.
And this is where we stayed….
Just kidding we actually stayed at this palace.
My criteria for staying @ hotels/motels=no bed bugs. The Buccaneer Motel=(surprisingly enough) no bed bugs. It had the potential to be amazing or utterly traumatic with no wiggle room. The verdict….amazing for the most part. I mean the character of the place just makes my heart melt! To sum up our stay in two words…affordably cozy. And I am not one to argue with private beach access, even if it means a vintage pirate themed motel and toothless neighbors.
This sums up what the days consisted of…being horizontal, baking in the sun, beer, our high maintenance cooler baby. You “have to handle it with kid gloves” said the overly serious beer vendor at the Brew Thru and “it’ll be a real nice cooler for y’all.” Which means we guarded it with our lives.
My hand is on the camera… and I’m 90% sure his is on the cooler.
One morning we caught a little rain shower which was okay because we both had scalding sun burns on our river valley skin and neither would admit we needed a break from the sun. With the understanding that you don’t stay at the Buccaneer Motel longer than necessary during daylight hours, the decision came down to go try these raved about donuts or workout. We picked Duck Donuts. Apparently in OBX when the sun disappears everyone else goes to Duck Donuts too, and orders 72 donuts for them and their family to consume. Why any family or group of 20 people needs that many donuts is beyond me, but I can’t be a snob because we definitely waiting half hour for these beauties who were made right before our eyes.
Below…6 donuts that cost close to a month’s worth of groceries.
When I initially talked to the Buccaneer Motel about our impromptu stay the woman at the desk made sure to tell me “if you’re looking for a sunset Kitty Hawk is the worst.” Besides the fact that the motel owner just hated on her own beach, the sunset (top) and sunrise (bottom) were both so cool to see in the ways that sunrises and sunsets normally are. She failed to mention that if you absolutely need to see the sun set over water on your beach vacations you merely need to drive 5 minutes across the strip of land to the sound side to view that coveted sight. It was a nice change to watch it set over the beach front houses, making the weathered hurricane proof looking homes solid against the sky, not to mention that photogenic speck of a seagull. It was definitely the best worst sunset I’ve ever seen.
-RV
Healthy Lemon 