Ocracoke

Today I'm wearing my "Pirates of Ocracoke" tee-shirt (which includes many different "Jolly Rogers", including "Not-so-Jolly Roger" and my favorite, the "Bloody Pissed-Off Roger") and wondering is Ocracoke will still be there when I return next summer.

The Outer Banks have been our family vacation spot for the past 15 years or so. We started going because of my interest in Wind Surfing, but since I blew out the disc in my back (surprisingly, also at the Outer Banks playing football on the beach) I don't do that any more. But we love the area and really enjoy visiting every year. But talk about a fragile environment. In most parts, it's a strip of sand you could spit across (if you could spit really far). It's peaceful and has large, undeveloped parts that are a joy to be in.

I see in the news reports that once again, some residents are considering not leaving. Are these the same people we see every time after the big storm saying, "thank God we survived. We'll never do that again!", but yet, here they are sitting out another one. Some day, maybe even this week, the hand of god in the form of a hurricane is going to scour those little barrier islands right off the face of the planet. Gone will be the million dollar vacation homes and little fishing huts. Gone the lighthouse they just drug back up the beach and away from the pounding surf. Gone the Wright Brothers monument, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Avon and our Buxton.

While I have a chance, I'll continue to visit Ocracoke every year, find my seat at on the deck of the Jolly Roger restaurant, have a beer and look out over the pond where Blackbeard himself held court. Hell, I'd retire there if I had the chance. But when a hurricane like Isabell had me in its headlights I'd tuck tale and head for the hills.