I was stuck in Richmond, VA over the weekend with a free Sunday and decided I
needed to take a drive. Was sitting in the Waffle House eating breakfast and I
looked at the map Avis supplied and what did I see down on the bottom corner of
the map but Kitty Hawk, NC. Now living in Dayton, OH and having just finished a
bio on the Wright Brothers, and not knowing when if ever I'll be in this
neighborhood again, a quick decision was made to got to the shore vs. poke
around Civil War battlefields. After getting lost trying to find my way through
Norfolk I found myself taking a very pleasant drive on a nice sunny but windy
day through the VA and NC countryside.
I pulled into the Wright Monument at Kill Devil Hills and what do I spot but a
Blue '74 Midget with Minilites and Abarth and a Red '72 Midget equipped the
same. Both loaded up for camping and touring with luggage rack or both loaded
up with mattress pads. Cars were absolutely stuffed for the weekend with gear
and luggage. I didn't get their names but they are brothers, and the one guy
said they were from Chapel Hill, NC area. They were there touring with their
wives and said that they would by the time weekend was over put 500+ miles on
their cars. With a jaunty wave off they went. Again didn't get their names and
as much as I love driving Bugsy a 250 mile one way drive makes my ass hurt
thinking about it.
Wright Brothers monument at Kill Devil Hills is quite interesting as is the
scenery along the sea shore. I realized that they didn't fly all that fat on
the first flight day, and the lngest fllight only covered 859' but into a 25-30
mph headwind the plane was only averaging 6 1/2 mph but stayed aloft for almost
a minute. Once out of Nag's Head and all of the houses on stilts, Rt. 12 South
of there is quite pretty and at times even desolate. Based on all of the
traffic down there in April I can just imagine bumper to bumper horrible
traffic in July. Anyway, a nice way to put 350 miles on the rental car this
afternoon, plus even a little unexpected LBC time.
Temps in Dayton are 65 for Tuesday and I'm taking the day off. Bugsy get ready,
we're going for a ride.
Jim Gruber
Bugsy '68 Sprite (future Bugeye in disguise)
Dayton, OH
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