DAY 25 JUNE 12
Today is going to be an easy day. Just a few hours of scooting with Big Red and 5 hours of "yachting". We pulled out of Plymouth, NC about 7:30 headed down the "Sonny Boy" highway to Swan Quarter. This is mostly drained wetlands that now grow wheat, corn, something that I think to be hops, and lots and lots of tree farms.
We saved a few turtles today,but just took a picture of "Big Ed".
Jamie stopped to chat on the road as I was taking pictures. He immediately got the "scooter mentality" by saying " you can really see a lot traveling slow on that" and said that would be something he would love to do.
Swan Quarter is just a small town and the county seat of Hyde County. Fishing and shrimping is still operating out of here but nothing compared to the past.
We stopped to visit with James, the proud owner of a new 150cc Fly Scooter. With him was Allen and (not pictured) Simon and Chicken George. James has had a few scooting problems. While riding a 50cc, that is one that will do maybe 35 mph, on I-95 on the shoulder he got blown over by a 18 wheeler and had the elbow and knee scars to prove it. He had just received a ticket on the 150cc for speeding. He also got a ticket for no tag, no insurance and no motorcycle license. That will teach him to go to the big city of Manteo. They are all involved in the seafood business in some manner.
We rolled into Swan Quarter to the Ocracoke ferry. Our first "yacht" trip of the day. We were VIP's so we got our own lane.
On board I met Randalph Latimore, superintendent of schools for Hyde County. He and two board members were headed to Ocracoke for the high school graduation. The school would be graduating 9 students, way up from the 2 they graduated last year. Hyde county on the mainland is a relatively poor area, so the 32k teachers salary is not bad. On the resort island of Ocracoke 32k does not go far, but he said there is no problem keeping teachers. We discussed the state of education in America. NC seems to be particularly short sighted in this area. There is 1cent tax that the public voted in in the past for education. The legislature, in the rush to cut taxes, any tax, mainly for political gain, have decided to cut the tax. Of course, my home state of Florida is no better in this area.
Two and half hours later and we are in Ocracoke.
A unimpressive lunch on Ocracoke and back to the dock for the next ferry. I find the dock in a little bit of a frenzy. The ferry that I had come over on from Swan Quarter had loaded and left for the return trip, only to have a mechanical failure about 300 yards out and returned. They were backing cars off, a real sight to watch, putting them in line for refunds or rescheduling.
that boat is broke
They finally sorted that mess out and started processing us for our next two and half hour "yacht" trip. We loaded with Chris and Temor. They had left Calgary Canada, in western Canada, on May 25 and are riding around North America. They are covering a lot of territory in 5 weeks. Chris was light heartedly teasing Temor that they would never get there since he had planned today's trip and failed to notice the two ferries they had to take ,setting them back several hours.
They followed me off the ferry and across Cedar Island and when we came to the open road of the causeway to the mainland I waved them around and they roared off to their night stop of Myrtle Beach. It was a beautiful sight, that I was unable to capture with the camera, as the road in the marsh made a bend and there were two lone bikes, with a nice golden tint from the low sun,roaring off to distant horizons.
Big Red and I rolled into to Sea Level, NC around 6 pm and popped a well needed cold beer.
