Kitty Hawk – The Beach Food Pantry

North Carolina – Wednesday, February 27

As of last night, I couldn’t make up my mind whether to head east or west in North Carolina – so many choices! Part of me wanted to head east to the Outer Banks, which I’ve been to in the past and really like, and part of me wanted to head west for Asheville and the mountains – I’ve heard wonderful things about Asheville and I’ve never been there. So, I read up to find the most interesting donation possibility, and the Outer Banks won! On the drive toward Kitty Hawk, I stopped in the town of Plymouth to get the first couple miles of walking in.

As I continued toward the outer banks, I drove across bridges and a causeway, and I noticed there was the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island. So I had to go see what that was all about. This national park site commemorates “The Lost Colony” – the first settlement in the Americas in 1587 that vanished without a trace during the 3 years its governor had gone back to England to see about getting more supplies and equipment. Virginia Dare, the first English baby born in the New World, was part of the lost colony. When the governor returned from England (delayed because of a naval war between England and Spain), the colonists had vanished and so had all their cabins and all traces of life, except for the word “Croatoan” carved on a post. Whether they simply perished due to hardship, or if the Native Americans were involved, or they tried to sail back on their own without success, remains a mystery to this day. While Indian/English relations had been good in the beginning, the English became a bit greedy and aggressive, and relationships had deteriorated. Since this settlement vanished, Jamestown in Virginia became the official first colony.

Then I finished the drive to Kitty Hawk and found the Beach Food Pantry – the Beach Food Pantry on Sand Dune Drive in the Outer Banks – I couldn’t pass this one up! This was a fun stop – I met the volunteers and they told me about moving into their wonderful new facility in January. Their old one had flooded in a hurricane, and this new space was bigger, and they had everything well organized. At this food pantry, people can come in up to 4 times a year and they get 2 weeks worth of food for their family size. They even provide pet food for people with pets. They also have some stores and businesses drop things off – today there was a table of bakery goods and a shelf of fresh produce that people could choose whatever they wanted to add to the food they were already getting. One of the volunteers knew a reporter from the local paper and he came over to do an interview and get a picture of me and Tula.

We were right near the Wright Brothers Memorial which I visited a couple years ago with Toni, and I knew it’d be a good place to get out for a few more miles of walking. But I didn’t do all 8 miles today – I wanted to get out onto the “real” (not commercial) outer banks for a little driving before dark, and I made it about halfway down – to Rodanthe – through the twilight hour. There wasn’t much traffic and it was kind of desolate in a very pretty way. There was some heavy equipment here and there, and sand across the road in a couple places, and even some water on the road – don’t know what storm all that was left over from.

Even though it was a short visit to the outer banks, I’m really glad I came. I walked 6 miles today, and will use my extra from Monday, so I only have one extra to do before I leave North Carolina. I got on the highway and made my way over to Rocky Mount to get back into the middle of the state – current plans are to head for West Virginia next, so I couldn’t linger on the east coast.