Greetings from Monster Truck Madness

I am in Kill Devil Hills at the same Travelodge where we stayed the past two years, where the weather is magnificent and the ocean is gorgeous. We left our cats in the care of Adam's girlfriend in the morning and drove to the New Kent Welcome Center south of Richmond, where we met up with and had a picnic. Then we drove to Poplar Branch, North Carolina, home of the monster truck Grave Digger, which we last saw in July 2003 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. At this point I think we were more entertained by it than the kids!



We got to the hotel in the late afternoon, unpacked, and went to the beach. It was nearly 6 p.m. and the water was pretty chilly, but we swam for a while, found mole crabs, watched pelicans and seagulls, and played with a puppy another family had brought to the beach. We went back to the hotel for dinner and a bit of Olympics, then went back out after dark to see mole crabs and the moonless sky which gave us a very good view of the Milky Way in the much lower light pollution in the Outer Banks. We also saw a toad behind the hotel. By then it was 10 p.m., so we watched Political Animals and now we are going to bed!