The last day here always sucks. At least I know this year there’s a decent chance I’ll get myself down here in the off-season rather than starting the 365 countdown as has been the case in years past…
Wanted to get one last afternoon on the sound, but there’s a storm just a bit inland that has been stalled there all afternoon - not exactly a good idea to head out on the water with thunder fairly close by.
Today continued the trend of seeing how much of my wardrobe can be from REI and North Beach Outfitters with the acquisition of two North Face shirts. I think it’s easily 90% at this point.
If you have the choice between renting through Southern Shores & Sun Realty, go with Southern Shores. It’s not that Sun Realty is bad, but Southern Shores is just better. Little things like the rented linens are left at the house for you, a stack of dishtowels is left in the kitchen, and a little bag w/ paper towels, toilet paper and such so you’re not making a midnight run to the quickie mart the night you get here.
If you’re used to Friday to Friday trips, a Sunday to Sunday will screw with your head. Felt like I’d lost two days from the minute I got here, and little bro’s friends came up two days earlier, so part of my brain is still convinced I’ve lost 4 days. Despite the fact that the 2 weeks have flown by, it has also made me realize I still have a few tenuous ties to NoVa.
Two weeks here will have you getting annoyed with the out-of-towners towards the end of the trip. The “idiot state” for this trip was sadly, Virginia. This is courtesy of a jackass on his new jetski out on the sound breaking pretty much all the PWC regs. (I’m quite certain he didn’t have a permit, either since you have to demonstrate knowledge of the PWC regs to get said permit.) Dave & I nearly got waked by this idiot when we were out on Monday.
Took a swing by one of the condos that I’d seen online to get an idea of what exactly 275K gets you down here. Didn’t go in, just checked out the neighborhood. Not too bad - this one was in a development right on the sound. There are some others a little further up north that I didn’t see, but that’s probably for the best. The less temptation the better I suppose.
Non-surprising discovery of the two weeks: I am still a workaholic. Non-surprising discovery #2: 9 days with 3 other people in close proximity it about my limit. 6 years of living alone followed by a year of living with someone you see maybe 90 seconds a day will do that to you.
SkyNet’s OBXWAN service is OK, but not spectacular. They need to bulk up the service just a bit more in the area to really have good coverage everywhere they say they do.
I am quite certain that trying to get everything together to leave takes 3x as long as it does to get it together to get here in the first place.
