Traffic For Tranquility (Part 1)

On my birthday last week, I told Steve I wanted to have a Me Day which basically means I just get into the car and drive off to wherever I want to go and do whatever I want to do. No big plan, no big schedule—just the lovely lure of intentional meandering.

I spent the first couple hours visiting my favorite thrift stores and was especially happy to discover that one of them was having an 80% sale. Doesn’t get much better than that!

And then? Then it was time for the adventurous part of my day.  

After driving through mediumish traffic, stopping at countless lights and dealing with the busy pace of a bustling Friday at the beach, I got to a certain stoplight, took a certain turn and within a mere 120 seconds, I had traded traffic for tranquility.

Oh the beauty of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Well, I should say that it was a tranquil place until I turned a particular corner and saw a particular place where the waves were actually washing over the road.

Now I just have to say right here I have always been a big believer in letting Steve do any Scary Driving that has come up in our marriage. But . . . there I was, all by myself. What’s a girl to do?

I went for it!  And the whole time I was going for it, I was thinking of what horrible timing it would be to swept out to sea in a minivan on my 51st birthday.  (I’m a positive thinker like that.)

Now I realize there isn’t a whole lot of suspense involved in the reading of this story since you obviously realize I survived my Big Adventure or I wouldn’t even be writing this post.  But still. It was just a teeny wee bit scary for me.

And then? Then a thing even worse than water ravaged roads happened to me.

I realized I had to use the restroom!  Really, really, REALLY badly.

And restrooms are a little hard to come by when one is wandering around a place like this.

I mean, the ocean has a lot going for it in terms of beauty, majesty, grandeur and all that. What it does NOT have going for it, however, is readily available restroom facilities.

Imagine my immense happiness when I rounded the corner of the dunes and spotted this welcome sight in a parking lot. Even though I wasn’t overjoyed at the thought of having to wade through water to use a cold, buffetted-by-the-wind, non-inspiring facility, I was past the point of caring because my bladder was full and my options were nil. (And guess what?  It actually came equipped with toilet paper!  I was so happy.)

Now one thing I haven’t yet mentioned about this particular adventure is that the high winds that were blowing had dropped the temp to just below freezing.  And I am a wimp when it comes to being cold.

But I was not to be deterred. This was my Me Day, dadgummit it, and I was going to make the most of it. And so I donned gloves, scarf, ear muffs and wool jacket and continued to luxuriously lollygag around, making a great attempt to not shiver so much that my pictures would be shaky.

My next stop (after my Lovely Bathroom Experience) was at an area I hadn’t noticed before–the Pea Island Nature Trail. 

I followed this path  . . .

. . . out to a wipe open space.

I felt like I could see forever . . . .

 I even met a new friend out there who introduced himself as Mr. Shiny Eyed Fella.

He and I stood in companionable, shivering, silence and looked around for a few minutes.

And then I headed my freezing self back to the car.

And when I said it was cold?

It was so cold that even the fence posts were wearing hats and ear muffs!

I actually have no idea why these particular posts happened to be wearing cold weather gear, but they sure made me smile! (And I didn’t feel like such a wimp anymore. I mean when a fence post is cold, you know it’s cold!)

To be continued. . .