greenvillesky

Another go at it

CURRENT MOON

moon info

Last night I hiked the eight-mile loop at Goose Creek State Park but the skies were cloudy and I had to use my head lamp to see. As luck would have it, I'm here again tonight and hopefully the skies will be clear. The weather is perfect, but no telescope, this trip. The moon is way too bright to see anything decent. -- Post From My iPhone

The Moon may be moot

I planned on a nice 8-mile hike in the nearly-full moonlight tonight but we will have to see what the clouds have to say about that. I am holding out that they will go away. The wind has picked up and the temp has dropped considerably making this a perfect night for camping. There was a small thuderstorm that barely missed me but I could see it across the creek. So, if the clouds move out I'll be able to enjoy a great hike among the blue-lit trees, but right now that plan is moot. I may have to get out the headlamp. -- Post From My iPhone

No better time than this

I've been spending the day reading the info on an iPhone application I've had for a while called Emerald Chronometer. This app reproduces 11 different very expensive watches with faces on the front and back of most. There's everything you could ever imagine needing if you are an astronomy buff, and it's on sale until July 11. Here's an iTunes link to the app. Check it out for yourself, but beware- you might be spending a lot of time just learning to use it.

Mayberry

It's been almost a week since we've adopted a new member into the family - Mayberry. He's a big 90 lb. Tennessee Walker Hound who is set in his ways. He's a cruelty case saved by the Humane Society and about 8-years old. He weighed 45 pounds when they rescued him - had to carry him out of a pen. They told us that nobody else was going to adopt him. He's doing well, but for the last two days, he's been stubborn as a mule when walking him around the block. He decides that he's going to stop and not move and nothing you can do will get him started again. Yesterday was quite the spectacle when he did this and even our neighbor came out to have a look and ponder how to get him going again.

214 steps

The Currituck Beach Light Station was the first real stop we made on our second day of the trip along the coast. It's the farthest point north that we visited. From there we traveled all the way to Sunset Beach, near the South Carolina border. There are 214 steps to the top of this lighthouse and I actually snapped the top pic on the way down. Up at the top, though, the wind was fierce and it was noticably cooler. Children that had come up to the top with their parents were running around and playing while I kept a good hold on the guardrails.

Jockey's Ridge

We didn't visit Jockey's Ridge because it was closing time before we found ourselves in Nags Head. But we did visit Jockey's Ribs, a great BBQ restaurant across the street from the dunes. This was the view I saw when I parked at the restaurant. Two kiters were still up on the dunes, soaking up the remaining sunlight and I grabbed my camera real quick to get a snap of them. They made for a nice silhouette and this one wound up on the front page of the paper. The restaurant is family-owned and has been so since 1985. It's on the Beach Road, at Milepost 13, and you have your choice of homemade BBQ ribs, chicken, seafood and steaks. I had a pork plate that had a little Kentucky flare to it. It was a nice alternative to Awful Arthurs, were I had hoped to go for some steamed shrimp, but it just didn't work out with the schedule. I guess I needed to miss that so I could get this pic.

The Aquarium

I shot the photo above of some Lookdown fish, and the pic at left of Balloon fish, at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, our first day on the road. It was good to get out of the heat index of 101 degrees and into the aquarium. I could have spent the whole day in there but we had to make tracks, so after about an hour and a half we continued on our journey along the coast. Now. this is not exactly a little-known place to visit but the cost was $7 and that's pretty cheap in my book.

Ocracoke, NC

The Ocracoke Lighthouse in the light of the setting Sun. Ocracoke is a place that everyone should visit. You can only get there via Ferry so it takes a little planning.
We stayed in Teeter's Campground for $20. It's a very short distance from the village. There were a lot of RV's there but it was quiet. After we visited the lighthouse we had dinner at Creakside Cafe. Here's my blog entry for The Daily Reflector from Ocracoke.

Pleasure Island

On the southern tip of Pleasure Island, south of Kure Beach on the coast of North Carolina, this concrete walkway extends all the way to a nearby, small island. You can walk along the walkway to the island during low tide, but better get back quickly so you don't get stranded there. Nearby is Fort Fisher State Park. If you turned around 180º the photo you see of the trees would be your view. I thought they made for a nice pic.

Oregon Inlet dark sky

Here's a pic I took with my camera sitting on top of my car at a National Park Service campground at Oregon Inlet on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The exposure is thirty seconds so there's a little star-trailing going on, but not much. Jupiter is the bright planet rising at right. Click on the image to see a bigger version. Here's my blog for The Daily Reflector from Oregon Inlet.