So this wasn’t the vacation we planned, but that’s just what happens sometimes. We arrived to the house we rented in the Hatteras Village on Saturday afternoon. We knew there was a chance that hurricane Florence might chase us away later in the week but we figured we’d make the best of it and see what happened. What else could we do?
This was a special trip because it was Sids first time taking his new Tacoma off road. He was excited to see what it would do in the sand, and I was excited to see him find out! In addition to the whole Wood gang Meagan was also tagging along as Brandon’s plus one.
Saturday night we didn’t do anything too crazy. I was eager though to get out and do some astrophotography since we were in one of the darkest places on the east coast. Nikki decided to join Cherie and I as we headed up to the lighthouse to use it as a subject in our photos. I always enjoy teaching people and Nikki was eager to learn about this new photography technique I was trying. After covering the basics we got her going on her camera and me on ours. We struggled to get the shot I had imagined however. I think it was partially due to the location being slightly different than I had imagined and slightly because we were distracted by the biting insects that were eating us alive. In the morning I would count over 100 biting midge bites on my ankles. Even if the photography expedition didn’t go quite as planned we had fun.
Sunday we awoke and were eager to get out to the beach. I was eager to drive on the beach as was Sid! It always takes a while to get everyone fed and in the vehicles so we got a late start. But eventually we were off! We poked out onto a few different ORV access points. I think Sid had a good time. I enjoy that the 4×4 gives us access to less populated sections of beach. We paused and enjoyed the surf a few times before realizing we were all getting hungry and should head back for lunch. We hung out around the house the rest of the afternoon and evening. The pool was a big hit. Cherie and I snuck away one more time to try our hand again at astrophotography. We went to ramp 57 and tried to use the Xterra as a foreground subject since that is what we had. It kind of worked and gave me another opportunity to try these new techniques out.
Monday morning did not go as expected. Cherie, Sid and I all awoke early to enjoy a sunrise beach walk. I set up the GoPro on our motorized time-lapse pan head and we headed off to enjoy ourselves. When we got back we were all lazily starting our day when we all got the same text alert from the Dare County Emergency Management service. Hatteras guests were to begin evacuating at noon! The storm wasn’t supposed to hit until Friday so this came as a shock to me. I guess I assumed they would wait until it was closer.There were a few brief discussions about other options. Stay as long as you could? Pack up and beat the rush? Go to visit Tommy and Leslie? In the end we all kind of took our own approach. Cherie and I were the last ones out and chose to stop for lunch at Diamond Shoals in Buxton. We dragged our feet until they needed to close for the lunch hours, but did buy an OBX sticker with a hurricane on it, and headed out into a line of cars just north of town. We would move 5 miles in the next 3 hours.
Ultimately we only made it as far as Virginia Beach before calling it a night and finding a hotel to stay at. We made it home Tuesday and decided to just enjoy a staycation for the rest of the week. The real kick in the teeth came when the storm was downgraded and then hit far south of where we were located. I think we could have ridden out the storm just fine. Maybe next time.
