Coastal NC, An Interesting Mix of Old and New

I recently ran into a tide table dated 1969.  It came from a restaurant in Morehead City.  It is likely that my uncle Austin and I picked it up on a fishing trip that summer nearly forty two years ago.

In those days what is now called the Southern Outer Banks or the Crystal Coast was a pretty undeveloped place.  We drove across the bridge at Morehead City and eventually cut over to the beach when the roads disappeared.  We managed to drive down to the Point at the end of Emerald Isle.

The Point is a much different place today.  The area is filled with homes, Coast Guard Road, and in the summer, a fair number of people.  I made a recent visit to the Point to take a picture of snow on the beach and gather material for a post on the colder than normal winter that we have endured this winter of 2010-11.

The previous Saturday a snowstorm had come about as close as you can get to snowing us in down here on the coast.  It brought back some memories of years and blizzards in Canada, and even got me to decide that just maybe being snowed in isn't so bad even on the North Carolina coast.

Having a day to contemplate things and fix our computer network gave me a chance to contemplate what an interesting mix of life we have along the North Carolina's beaches.

One the one hand, ancient birds like pelicans are our everyday neighbors.  We live in area rich with wildlife.  Just today, I have enjoyed herons, pelicans, and hooded merganser ducks, and I have not even walked more than 100 yards from my house.  There was also a grey fox that I caught sight of this morning.  Having 158,000 acres of the Croatan National Forest on one side and the fifty-six miles of the Cape Lookout National Seashore does not hurt.

Yesterday as I took my afternoon hike, I had to marvel that I was recording my hike with my Android based Droid phone.  After I got back I was able to send the GPS track of my hike to my Google maps.

Having 3G phone service here on the edge of the continent is not that amazing given the reach of technology these days.  Of course 3G service doesn't come in a lot of flavors down here.  If you are an iPhone lover, you might be out of luck.  However, Verizon does do a good job here so I guess you could switch carriers if you just cannot live without your iPhone.

Several years ago I wrote a post about the Instant Economy  and how easy it is easy to find the services needed to start a business.  I was living in Roanoke, VA at the time, and it is a much more populated area than the Southern Outer Banks.

After being down here over four years, I cannot see much difference between the technology I find on the Crystal Coast and what I find in Roanoke.  It might be easier to get a Macintosh computer repaired in Roanoke, but that is about the only thing that I can see.

In fact my cable modem service provider is a little more reliable here on the coast.  Where our home is in Roanoke, it is still impossible to get Internet phone service through the cable provider. We can do that here on the coast and save a few dollars by bundling television, Internet access, and telephone services.
 
Winds, storms, and water have a huge impact on our life here at the coast.  We are close to the land and sea.  We pay attention to the weather, but at the same time, we have all the conveniences of modern society like grocery stores, shopping malls, restaurants, health care services, good schools, and very good roads.

In fact you might say that we get the best of both worlds.  Our services and stores end up being over built to handle the short influx of visitors that we have during the summer tourist season.  In the winter, late fall, and much of the spring, we are here by ourselves.  Our stores and roads are uncrowded, and everything moves to a slower pace.  It is not a bad way to live. 

We have almost the best of the Internet world in a place where there are still farmers' markets along the roads, and you can still buy local fish fresh off the boasts.  It is a little like a wired paradise.

We enjoy the visitors in the summer. They bring some hustle and bustle to a normally very quiet area. Other than crowding the grocery stores some on the weekends, there are almost no challenges that come from our summer visitors.  We are blessed with a tourist area made up almost exclusively of single family homes.  While there are a few condo complexes sprinkled around, the density of housing for our summer visitors is very low, so we just don't get the crowds that other places have.

It does not hurt that we also have four lane roads coming at the area from two different ends, and that we have the Northern Outer Banks to handle many of the tourists who often have never even heard of our area.  Myrtle Beach also helps us by drawing off the golfers, and Wilmington picks up many of the day trippers.  We have our own little niche, and in this case it is not so bad to be a niche player.

So while many of us feel very close to the sea and the creatures that swim in it and fly over it, it is very possible to be a person immersed in technology here.  You can twitter and post to Facebook just as easily as you can in more urban areas.  You might even be more likely to actually know the people online than you would be in a city.  While you might not have access to Verizon FIOS, you can probably survive quite well on the technology that you find here on the Southern Outer Banks.

Few people may have heard of Foursquare, but you might find it easier to get to know a real mayor.  In fact if you come down and buy a beach house from me, I will make it a point to introduce you to the mayor of Emerald Isle.   He is a very nice guy and much more accessible than your average mayor.

I have not seen any limitations that come from living in this beautiful area.  That is one of the reasons that I am proud to help people find homes in this special spot.  It is a beautiful area, and I am excited to wake up here every morning.  You just never know what you might find in the Gut behind our home.

You might even get to do some heron noodling.

Winter Storm on the Horizon at the Beach

Here it is the heart of winter.  We are supposed to be seeing January average temperatures in the mid-fifties with lows in the mid-thirties.

January 2011 is not turning out that way.  We started warm, and it brought some crowds to the beach, but we are going to have to wait until the middle of the month for our next nice weather.  We are lucky in that there are four days supposedly on tap in the mid-sixties.

Four warm days could definitely put a dent in winter, but first we have to get through the impending winter storm.

Winter storms are serious things even at the beach.  If we are lucky we will just get some cold rain and winds.  We could get sleet and freezing rain. With freezing rain comes the danger of power outages.

Of course you don't have to live at the beach to face the threat of power outages because of freezing rain.  If I had to bet on those places facing the most impact from freeing rain in this next storm, I would guess a few miles inland all the way to Greensboro and maybe even in to South Carolina.

Looking at this storm in particular, the Greensboro to Raleigh area might be the sweet spot.  I have faced plenty of iced up roads in Virginia and Atlantic Canada. Ice in my opinion is never nice.  I even have some chains for my feet.  They are indispensable when things get really icy on the mountain. Unfortunately they won't me any good hanging in the garage in Virginia.

I doubt that we will not face a situation like the one depicted in the linked pictures. While ice is bad in the flat country of coastal Carolina, it can be deadly in the mountains.  Anyone can go up an icy hill, only someone with a divine guiding hand can make it down safely.  I am thankful for the absence of hills and mountains in Coastal NC.

Actually I don't even have a snow shovel down here at the beach.  Going into our fifth winter, I have yet to see the need for a snow shovel.  I hope it stays that way.

While we had good crowds a week ago, yesterday things were quiet almost everywhere including the beach and sound.  A little more of this winter weather, and we will have to kick off our annual visits to the museums of the area.

We are about to run out of football to watch, but fortunately the warm Carolina sun should start making itself known fairly soon.  Then we can start thinking about gardening and boating.  I have to get my tomato plans started very soon.

The first of the week January storm is going to bring us a taste of winter, but as usual I suspect we will come through it in fine shape.  I have not heard any predictions of damaging winds or surf.

I can't wait until there are people on the beach once again.

Winter at the Beach

While winter is not the most desirable time to visit the beach, there are still things to do and beautiful scenery to enjoy.  Sometimes finding a good day for a beach walk becomes something of  a challenge, but there are times that Mother Nature will smile upon you.

You can luck into some great winter beach weather.  The winter of 2008, I kept track of temperatures during the month of January.  We only had 19 hours below freezing for the whole month, and we managed 11 days when we hit 70 degrees or better.

While I did not keep track during January 2010, I know it was much colder. Every year has it cold spells and warm times on the beach.  The temperature reached 75F on February 9, 2009. It prompted me to write an article about the great weather.

That day was just a couple weeks after a late January dusting of snow along the beach.  Winter time at the beach is actually a huge war between warm and cold air masses. You never quite know which one is going to win.

While in the late fall, we often have the benefit of warm waters to protect us from the cold.  By the middle of December, our area waters are cooling off just at the time Canadian air masses often invade the US.

This year, the whole east coast has endured early cold weather that is much colder than normal.  Normal December temperatures for the Crystal Coast in December are 58F for the high and 35F for the low.  The first week of December 2010 we saw a couple of days when our high temperature barely made it to 35F.

We have seen a year when we did not have a day when the high temperature was lower than 40F.

Considering parts of Maritime Canada were higher than ours last week, the weather the first week of December was a little upside down.

We have not let the cold weather get us down.  With a gas fireplace, it takes only a few minutes to warm up a home to the point of it being very toasty.  The cold weather is always a great time to get a bowl of stuffed pepper soup from Mike's on the Island or some of the delicious chowder at Nicky's of Swansboro.  One day last week, we had a great bowl of vegetable beef soup from Yana Mama's in Swansboro.

Even during this most recent period of cold weather, we have had plenty of sunshine.  With the power of the Carolina sun, all you have to do is find a spot out of the wind, and you will likely find some heat.

Even this week, I managed to stop at one of the many beach accesses and take a few pictures of the waves to go along with the ones that I had of the icy gut behind our home .

I had planned to do more than take pictures this weekend, but rain fell all day Saturday, December 11, and we are supposed to have showers all day Sunday.  Our Sunday temperature of 61F likely would normally tempt me to run down the river in my boat, but a boat ride in the rain at 61F is not very appealing even at the beach.

Still there are things to do besides boat rides. This is a great time of year to watch some of the birds.  Today we had a great blue heron fishing in the gut behind our house.  He was very successful.  I think he managed four fish in just a couple of minutes.  When the rain stops, and we get some warmer days, it will be a great time to hit area trails.

People often fail to consider some of the wonderful indoor activities that are always available here along the Southern Outer Banks.  Three of the most popular are the Maritime Museum at Beaufort, the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, and the Core Sound Museum on Harkers' Island.

So while it might not be a great time for a beach walk, a boat ride, or some fishing, winter is still not a bad time to visit the beach.  There is plenty of easily accessible scenery.  Most of our businesses and restaurants are still open, and you certainly won't have to wait in line.  Even our department stores are not as crowded as you would find in a large city.  We recently had visitors who did much of their Christmas shopping in Morehead City.

When you come to the beach in the winter, there is no question the weather is a gamble, but it is highly unlikely that you will run into a blizzard, and you might just luck into one of those 75F days.  A few of those and winter seems a lot shorter.

Standing Tall in Adversity

Even the most fortunate of us go through some tough times.  Sometimes it seems like you cannot win for losing.  Yet it is in those most challenging moments that we actually find out who we are.

My wife and I are very fortunate, but since my exit from Apple in 2004, I have worked far harder for less money than I ever have.  I feel no bitterness for having to work hard.  I actually feel great pride in my ability to work long hours.  I am proud deliver creative work that makes a positive contribution to the world.

My first career after college was that of cattleman selling purebred bulls and cattle to others raising cattle.  I long ago learned that your reputation was worth far more than any quick sale.  I have never tried to trick anyone into a sale.  I have always prided myself in walking away from potential business if the business would not be a good thing for both parties.

Over the years of selling farm equipment, computers, email services, ultra high speed networking, and real estate, I have seen no reason to change the way that I do business.

I try to help people achieve their needs.  If you have people's best interests at the forefront of your mind, then you really do not have to worry about having enough business.  People will find you eventually even in tough times like today's real estate downturn.

We recently had clients who commented that I was unlike any real estate agent they had ever worked with in their lives.  They were surprised that I did not try to pressure them to buy a particular property.  They were very pleased that I tried to present all their options objectively and without bias.

That is the way I operate, but there are plenty of others who treat people just like I do.

I sometimes feel sad that people distrust sales people.  When I am trying to buy something, there is nothing that I would rather have than a really good sales person who knows their product inside and out.

The last four years have been very tough for real estate agents.  Even the well established agents have felt the pressure.  I have found that getting a real estate career going during a down period in an area where you know few people is almost an impossible challenge.  However, I have never let the near impossibility of it stop me from trying or from doing an outstanding job.

I have managed a few real estate sales in each of first few years, but I also supplemented my income by writing a blog for a real estate company.  I had to be very careful to not draw clients to me personally.  The pay that I received was about what I needed to cover my real estate expenses.

This summer the company made the decision to discontinue the blog.  It was an immediate loss of income to us, and a fatal shot for my real estate career.  However, I made the decision to buckle down and work even harder.

I had been working extremely hard to deliver Internet traffic to the company.  I had links from all of my many websites flowing to my company.  When they gave up on my blog, I pulled all the links and focused them on delivering traffic to me.

Three months after seeing the blog cut, I am getting more leads than I ever got when I was writing the blog for the company.  I have resurrected the blog on my own site, and I finally feel like I am on the way to building some momentum in real estate.  Unfortunately real estate is still a career where financial success looks to be too far away.

So perhaps the fatal blow has turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me.  I could have moaned and complained,  but I just refused to let the bad news pull me down.  I have worked harder than ever, and the web results that I am seeing have convinced me that I have talents which can make be successful once again.

With that in mind I will wind down my real estate career within the next year.  It is the right move for me.  It will take time, but I will get to that next success.

I think it was Dennis Waitley, a famous motivational speaker, who once said, "Bad news is opportunity riding a dangerous wind."

I have taken the position that I am responsible for my own success or failure.  It will be my efforts that lift us back to success.

It helps to be living in a wonderful place like the Southern Outer Banks where the weather and the people make life much more enjoyable than it would be in a big city.  I can draw strength from my natural surroundings and the people around me.

A bad day never seems as bad after a boat ride on the river or a walk on the beach.

Firmly believing that who you are is much more important than what you are or how much stuff you have will pave our road to success.

Fall Pleasures on the Carolina Coast

Living on the coast is a wonderful experience.

That is especially true in the fall of the year.

Fall, which hardly seemed to be on the horizon ten days ago is treating us well.

I love fall and will readily admit that Fall is great season almost anywhere.

The Roanoke Valley where we lived for years can be especially beautiful.   However, there is nothing like the wonderful warm days and cool nights that you find on the North Carolina Coast in October.

Like other places, the weather can be variable, but we have just finished a near perfect first week of October, and from the forecast, it looks like we have another two great weeks in store.  Beyond two weeks, it is anyone's guess.

Living along the coast has some challenges,  but there is no other place that I would rather be. With water right at my back door, fall is the best time of year to enjoy it.  We are passed the heat and humidity of summer, and we usually do not have the winds of spring.  It is just a great time to be outside and enjoy the beach and area waters.

Even the fall chores like getting my yard ready for winter are a pleasure in the fall.  I enjoy working in the yard with a light breeze and a warm sun on my back.  Our centipede yards stop growing early so usually that works out to give us some extra time for fall fishing.

Of course the beaches are less crowded, and during the week the waterways are almost empty except when the spots are running.  A boat ride we took one evening this week reinforced my belief that is a truly beautiful area.  The clear skies of fall provide us with some wonderful sunsets.

Just to add a little excitement we have our fall festivals.  This weekend is the 56th Annual Swansboro Mullet  Festival, and we are headed off to eat some Episcopalian Lobsters for lunch.

For the latest information visit my Crystal Coast Life Blog.

August on the River

Each summer has its own pleasures and challenges. Years ago, I spent an August camping in the mountains of North Carolina. Another August just before I graduated from college, I was coming back from a summer long cross country trip to Alaska.

In the summer of 1971, I bought a farm on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. I moved there in August of that year. I spent many nights camping in a tent along the shore and feasting on steaks cooked over driftwood.

This August has been different, while we have walked the beaches over on Emerald Isle when the opportunity presented itself, we have not spent as much time on the beach as we normally do.

Some challenges have conspired to keep our beach trips down to only one or two a week. Many people would consider that lots of time on the beach, but when things are right we usually are over on the beach four or five evenings a week.

A hotter than normal summer, and my wife not feeling so well this summer were the main culprits.

Last summer we spent a lot of time in our skiff wandering around the ocean just outside of Bogue Inlet. This year Bogue Inlet has proved to be something of a challenge so we have stayed on the inside of the Inlet.

Fortunately we live in a world of dazzling water so if one avenue to the water is closed off, there are still other options. In our case water leading to the White Oak River is just by our back door. That easy access presents an opportunity is hard to resist. In fact I don't try to resist. I take advantage it whenever I can.

It has taken me a few years to learn the White Oak River, but now I am pretty comfortable with it. That turns out to be a good thing, since this summer the White Oak has been the water that I have enjoyed the most during the month of August.

Even on the warmest of days, an early morning ride down the river can be like a breath of fresh air that sustains you all day.

My most recent trip was one of the nicest. I managed to be on the river before sunrise, and I was back home by 7:30 AM. There is nothing quite like seeing the river smooth and quiet in the morning.

In early summer, a sunrise ride down the river can be a chilly enterprise. This week, the warmth of the river water took away any thought of chilly air. It actually felt good to get moving, and even the 30 mph that I hit on the trip to Swansboro felt just like a nice summer ride.

One of my favorite rides down the river I call Mackerel Morning. I did not give my most recent trip a fancy name, but it was right up there with my favorites. You can check my recent August 2010 trip out at my Picasa Web Albums site.

I was even out on the river a recent evening in my kayak, but the water was a little too warm for my taste. I will save my kayaking energy for September.

Spending more time on the river has helped keep my beach lust in check. I am sure the pendulum will swing in the other direction one day soon.

Summer in Full Swing

There is no doubt we are in the middle of summer. All along the east coast, you can find heat and people seeking ways to cool down.

I took this picture just east of the Point at Emerald Isle, NC. It is one of the places you can almost always find a breeze. In the winter time, there is more of breeze most days than I want.

While we are in the middle of summer here on the Southern Outer Banks, we are actually on the downhill slope for beach visitors. In three or four weeks, those visiting will drop sharply as school children and college students head back to school.

There will be a wave of folks without children and with children too young for school. Then we will see the fishermen for a couple of months, and by early November, the beaches are mostly empty except for hardcore fishermen.

This has been an exceptionally warm summer in a number of spots. I have grown much more tolerant of the heat since we moved to the US from Canada in 1987. When we were fresh out of college and living on the farm in Nova Scotia, it was neat to hardly ever see temperatures above 75 degrees. I did not even mind the cold winter temperatures of Atlantic Canada.

Now I much prefer the warmth of coastal Carolina and the eighty-degree waters off Emerald Isle to the Bay of Fundy which seemed to hover in the mid-forties for much of the summer. Summer is about heat, and I like to absorb as much of it as possible.

There have been a number of what I like to call Crystal Coast days. Those are days when you get to fully savor summer by doing everything you love like biking, swimming, boating and walking on the beach. To make those days even more special, we have seen some days this summer when the water is indescribably beautiful. There is nothing like visiting the beach and being mesmerized by the colors of the waves, water, and skies. Each season at the beach has its special palette of colors. The emerald waters of summer are the ones that sustain me through winter.

These days only when the temperatures climb past the mid-nineties do I feel some pain and wish that I was wading in ocean waters. Most of the time wading in ocean waters is a desire that I can fulfill with a short trip to the beach from our home along Raymond's Gut. This particularly hot weekend I am in the slowly simmering mountains of Southwest Virginia at least six hours from the coast.

By the time I get back to the beach sometime in the next week or so, you will just be able to see fall on the horizon. For the last couple of years being on the road has been part of my life in July. Getting back to the beach in August gives me just enough time to contemplate my approaching favorite season. Fall is a magnificent time to live at the beach. The waters are still warm, the humidity drops rapidly, and the fish are biting.

While I love a nearly perfect July day on the beach or even better on the water, time on the water in September is truly special. The holiday crowds are long gone, and we mostly have the waters to ourselves until some of the fish start running.

Most of us at the beach do not mind our summer crowds since our economy depends on them, and for the most part, if you can time your grocery store shopping trips, and stay away from the bridge during a couple of short periods on the weekend, you will hardly notice our visitors. Usually, even during the summer, our world of dazzling water is empty except on weekends.

While visitors might stand in line for meals on the island in the evenings, usually places on the mainland are much less crowded, and we natives can usually get almost immediate service at some of the lesser-known restaurants.

Having summer in full swing and some crowds at the beach actually give our area a very festive atmosphere for a couple of months. The ice cream shops are busy, the beaches have some people on them, and for the most part, everyone is having a good time.

Sometimes it seems like the peak of summer is a fleeting kiss that comes but once a year and too quickly dances away until next year. I will certainly miss summer, but we likely have some more heat waiting for us in August and even September.

By February, we will all be dreaming of summer once again, and hoping that we get another fleeting kiss that will warm our souls and bodies.