Long gone, but not forgotten

WEST END, NC - - The weathered wood of an out building or barn on a property near where we are staying shows the effects of the passage of time.  About 60 years ago, this area - -West End - - was a thriving location.  Not the quiet place it is today.
      There was a large factory making bedroom furniture; a sawmill; a railroad station where the locals used to gather; a post office; a handkerchief / scarf maker; a grocery store and more.
     Today, any remnants of some of the buildings left are vine covered skeletons or maybe a foundation.  Some brick and mortar hulks remain.  But not the furniture factory, the life blood of bygone WE.  There were empty buildings last year.  Now, there's a big empty field ready for highway expansion.

Toucan time at the bookstore

Just wandering around

A view from (almost) the end of the driveway

WEST END, NC - - Freight trains rumble by where we are staying day and night. Not many, but there are enough. Most are 15 - 20 cars, but some are quite long.  It's quiet country where we are so you can hear the warning whistles at road crossings a good distance away...even at 4:30am the past two nights.
     During the day, if I was quick enough, I could probably make it close to the tracks before the engine rolls by.  As you can see by the photo I need to work on my sprinting.

We've escaped...to North Carolina

WEST END, NC - - After a bit of van trouble on Thursday, we were able to get an early (5:30am) start on Friday heading to NC. Our destination was / is familiar as we head to West End both in May and October to bookend our summer travels. 
     After  nearly nine hours on the road it was an easy choice to stop at one of our favorite eating places.  Breakfast at 2:30 in the afternoon??  Why not. 
     Saturday and Sunday we ventured to Southern Pines where the railroad tracks split the town about in half.  With both freight and AMTRACK traffic the place has a good flow of train traffic.
     Saturday morning in SP is farmer's market time.  There were plenty of masks present except on the numerous four-legged versions of man's best friend.  However,  this very friendly female corgi with short legs which barely kept her tummy off the grass, has a female owner.
     The long-leaf pine is responsible for a good deal of lawn covering via pine straw.  The long-leaf does not have leaves nor does it look much like straw.  As the final photo shows, the LLP does have nice long needles.  

Sunrise & Sunset on the Gulf...Christmas week, 2012

It's Twilight time

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - If you're not a "young adult" you may never have heard of the 'Twilight' series of books and films featuring a young vampire hungering for love (pun intended).  You're not alone.  Last year, about Labor Day, we wandered into Forks, Washington as we headed for Olympic National Park.  Bingo.  This is the town/area where the books' author, Stephanie Meyer, set the action.
     So what?  Well, after 10 years the author has just released book number 5 ("Midnight Sun") in the series.  It's number one on the USA Today best seller list with one million copies ordered.  Sounds like a shot in the arm tourism/business-wise for a sleepy town of approximately 4,000 in logging country.

Hey, bro!!

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Sorry, I meant Hey, bromeliad ... as in the decorative plant seen above.  When we moved into our house 25 years ago there were a few clumps of bromeliads in the back yard.  Today, we've got a lot more. 
     Look closely at this photo for the snail clinging to the center of the 'bloom'.  Click on the pic to enlarge it.

Sole rebel Plus odds & ends

Let's detour right into this home owner's front yard

Mama sea turtles get help from the 'turtle patrol'

A line in the sand

This Great Blue Heron was playing 'shady character'

Cat pics are always good

And finally, a little color to even things out

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - While out wandering:  These running / walking shoes were clean; the laces tied; the soles not (very) worn and were tossed near the sidewalk at the edge of the OB Bridge.  It's definitely not a barefoot area to walk around.

Breakfast time

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Everybody deserves a good breakfast.  But sometimes it takes a bit of time to come up with the most delicious item.  This honeybee and a number of cohorts found the powder puff blooms in a local nursery to be enticing...and probably tasty, too.

Tropical storm blowout

Early on Monday the sun kept trying to break out

High tide and good wave action at the beach

A quartet of seagulls played dodge-the-waves

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Hurry up and wait best describes our weekend with hurricane / tropical storm Isaias.  How do you describe a storm whose name you can 't pronounce?  (According to Google,  the name is a modified version  of Hebrew for Isaiah.)
     Friday was "batten down the hatches" by securing or moving to a sheltered spot anything which might take flight in the projected 70mph winds.  Gas for the portable generator we have; fresh flashlight batteries; candles and matches were also on the list.  Why a list?  We haven't spent a summer in OB but once in the past 13 years.
    And then the wait.  The storm crawled up a path off the Florida coast on Saturday.  The slow crawl continued on Sunday.  Until 7pm when a band of showers spawned by the storm blew through with heavy rain and strong, gusty winds. 
     The havoc lasted all of 20 minutes.  And that was it.  Sure we got a fair bit of gusting winds during the night, but by dawn Isaias was up the coast and heading for North Carolina. 
     In reality, this was good practice for the next storms coming our way...and there will be more.  Hurricane season lasts until early October.