OBX Lighthouses

After church last Sunday Mike and I met up with Ben and Sara and we took off to explore more of the Outer Banks. We weren't going to be there long enough to fully explore the area so we decided to head South and climb a lighthouse. There are four lighthouses along the OBX (remember, that is the cool way to write "Outer Banks") and two of them were advertised as open to the public for climbing. We all wanted to do that. It seemed interesting and we knew the view from the top would be fantastic!

Well, even on a fantastic day such as that one, disappointments could still occur.

As it turned out, the lighthouses were NOT open for public climbing because it was still the off season. Bummer. Still, we were able to walk around outside two of them.

This first lighthouse is the Bodie Island Lighthouse. There was a lot of water around it (well, duh?!) and a lot of birds. There were also a lot of birdwatchers hauling around giant cameras and tripods.  Close enough for the birdwatchers to hear him, Ben said to Sara something like this, "This is why I can't go anywhere! The Paparazzi are always there." Funny guy.

Bodie Island Lighthouse

Sara and Ben must have outrun the paparrazi.

We continued on down the skinny piece of land called the Outer Banks/OBX.  The road looked to have been plowed as sand was piled high on each sand. Some places the highway was this skinny...

No, we didn't get a helicopter ride. This photo is public domain, compliments of Wikipedia. The crazy thing about driving along that highway was that, although we knew that we had ocean on both sides of us, much of the time we couldn't see it because of those piles of sand on each side of the highway. Not to worry, we parked from time to time and filled our shoes up with sand as we climbed over the sand to play on the beach. It was worth filling our shoes! 

These beaches just go on and on and on.

Mike Skipping Stones - Hard to Do With Waves Coming In

Sara and Ben

(I love this photo)

We stopped at another bird reserve and followed an interesting path that had been 

tunneled through the scruffy brush. It was pretty cool.

Aaaah, Ben and His Ladies

I was going to tell you what was going on with me here but I actually can't remember.

From there, we moved on to Hattaras Lighthouse. It is known for its diagonal stripes. Actually, all 4 lighthouses along the OBX are painted differently. That way, ships at sea would know where they were by recognizing the designs on the lighthouses. Although the gift shop was open, the doors to climb up inside were locked until April 1.

But, Ben wanted to climb a lighthouse. We didn't let him. That kid has been climbing things since he was 8 months old!

There were deer all around the grounds there. We see deer all the time in 

Wyoming but these seemed different, more petite.

Speaking of wildlife...

I am not sure which little village we ate at as they kind of ran together. It was a little seafood place but after I sat down Mike pointed out this guy behind us.

I am not a big fan of animal heads hanging over my meal but this one was just weird. Here we were, out in the ocean, far from Wyoming. There hung a Pronghorn. Many people may not know this but 80% of the world's pronghorn live within a 200 mile radius of our town in Wyoming. Many live right in our town. Some of them hang out on the lawn of our church! I asked the waitress about it and she said her boss had gone hunting in Wisconsin or Wyoming or somewhere. I guess it was one of those "W" states, huh?  

Well, I'm going to stop for now but check back tomorrow because I have a photo of a special house to show to you.

More Than Sagebrush

I love the drive from our town to the town where my mother, sister and other relatives live. It is only a two hour drive across part of Wyoming. It isn't through the mountains but rather covers mostly prairie. I've heard people say it was a boring drive...nothing but sagebrush...a whole lot of nothing, things like that. I disagree!

On my way home last week-end I decided to make a few stops to take some photographs. Let me share with you some of what I saw.

I saw a lot of horses.

They are so beautiful, aren't they?

Also, do you see the antelope behind this horse?

 Cattle are abundant in Wyoming.

 I saw a couple of buffalo herds.

This big guy was pretty majestic looking.

 Driving along there, you can almost feel the history.

It is not hard to imagine Native Americans riding living their nomadic life in this region.

Early settlers must have had adventures here.

It must have been a challenging environment!

My own great grandparents homesteaded very nearby.

Although it is easy to feel like few have been out in that lonely area before,

there are markers to tell you that the land is covered in history.

There really is a lot of sagebrush along the route.

I kind of like it.

 There are many, many weird rock formations. 

I couldn't stop to photograph all of them but you get the idea.

The landscape changes frequently.

I enjoyed watching this hawk soaring overhead.

On a previous trip I saw two bald eagles!

Sorry, not photos of them. 

Mama Deer led her twins to safety.

I was thrilled to see a badger up close.

He was in the middle of the road; I thought he was road kill

but he got up and scurried to the side of the road,

turned and looked at me as I passed.

A badger is kind of a rare sighting, especially during the day.

Sorry I didn't get a photograph.

I'm telling you...

... it is a beautiful drive.

New Family in the Neighborhood

I turned onto our street recently and nearly ran into this new family...

We are being warned that a lot of animals have been displaced by the fire and many will be moving down toward town.  I worry about the animals; I also worry about increasing interactions between humans and animals.  We occasionally have mountain lions show up in town and I'm expecting there will be more now.  This photo was taken this week, showing a bear escaping the fire.  I am sorry I can't credit the photographer.  It came to me via Facebook but I am unsure from whom it originated.

Can you see the bear in the bottom right corner?

It's just a reminder that this situation is not only hard on the people with property up there, but also for all the animals who lived there.

An Intersting Day in Our Town

Yesterday was an interesting day!  The weather was weird all day.  It seemed like it might rain but really I think the overcast feeling was mostly smoke from some distance fire.   We had periods of sunshine as well, so it was plenty warm.

Maria and I and the grandbabies went out and about on errands.  I got to be involved with one of her Kindness Bandit runs.  Maria has been doing Kindness Bandit Projects for years now.  She is very creative thinking up ways to improve someone else's life in some little way.  I will be telling you more about what we did yesterday but for now, click HERE to read about one of her previous Kindness Bandit Projects.

One our return trip from our little adventure, driving through town, we saw these beauties.

Don't they look sweet?  We didn't bother them much.  They are so used to people they felt very comfortable in our presence.  In fact, I couldn't use all the photos I took because they felt comfortable enough to poop and potty while I was snapping their photos.

I love that we live in a place where deer and antelope play...

or at least munch peacefully on a lawn, as long as it isn't mine.

Not long after leaving this peaceful scene we learned that there was a hostage situation occurring near our homes.  This is not a big city so something like that is pretty surprising.  The situation was at a nearby Super 8.  Click HERE if you want to read about that.  The photos below were taken for the Casper Star Tribune by Alan Rogers.

We have lots of company coming to town, beginning today, and we have reservations there for some of our relatives.  I'm really glad they weren't there yet!  Thankfully, it sounds like the situation was well-handled by our local protectors.  I don't know much about it all but I believe all the hostages survived.

It was also voting day in Wyoming.  Mike and I did our good citizen thing and looked through a bunch of voting propaganda information.  My favorite thing about voting is coming home and finally throwing away all those mailings!  OK, my favorite thing is really simply that I have the right to vote.  I do love throwing out that stuff, though!

So, that was my Tuesday.

What did you do?