Now I know what kind of spider that has been terrifying us - a Banana Spider. It is native to North Carolina. I thought that it might be some kind of exotic invasive species from an African jungle.

We saw this info plaque at the aquarium just south of Kure (coo-ree) Beach in the Wilmington area.

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Although it was a washout, the storm didn’t have any real impact. The wind seemed to actually diminish. The rain dripped all day but never came down hard. The storm surge never materialized. It was just a boring, drab, blah day. It was too crappy to do anything, so we just caught up on journaling.

Friday, November 11, 2022

Today was supposed to be the worst day of the storm. It turned out to be salvageable - far better than yesterday. The storm center drifted farther west then originally expected. We had a series of black storm cells interspersed with a series of sunny blue skies. The wind further diminished from yesterday. It was time to get out of the camper.

We started off at the North Carolina Aquarium located just south of Kure Beach, a tiny sand dune community that melds into Carolina Beach. North Carolina has a bunch of these aquariums dispersed throughout the state. We passed on two or three of them, but today, with the iffy weather, it seemed like a good time to check one of them out.

It was a bit pricey at $11 for seniors for the size of the aquarium. It wasn’t Shed Aquarium in Chicago or the giant aquarium in Atlanta, but on a day like today, it fit the bill nicely. The tanks were nice, but I especially like the art work of sea animals hanging on the walls.

I always love the colorful Clownfish.

Every aquarium has to have a shark.

Did someone knit a stocking hat?

Duh!?!?!?

For the first time in my life, I saw a freshwater version of these jellyfish in a lake in Northern Wisconsin. They looked exactly like these. I had to look them up as I thought jellyfishes were saltwater only. Not so!

An albino crocodile.

These paintings were beautiful.

Here are examples of the shells that we were looking for on the beaches. We only found pieces, except for one nearly intact Scotch Bonnet. I kept that one.

It didn’t take too long to see everything at the aquarium, so we checked out the ferry to Southport. The waves on the Atlantic Ocean side of the sand peninsula were pounding. Black storm cells were buzzing by to the north, south, east, and west of us. Surprisingly, the ferry was still running. We decided to wait until tomorrow to take the ferry to Southport. From Southport, we can take another ferry to Cape Fear if the weather clears.

In spite of the waves and the black storm cloud rolling in, the ferry sailed.

This is the Cape Fear River close to where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is just off the Fort Fisher State Recreational Area. The tide is rolling in and the Atlantic Ocean is pushing up the river.

And yet, there was also sun and blue skies. This walkway is almost overwhelmed by the high tide. The grasses are now wetlands.

Next, we drove up to Wrightsville Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. The waves should be wild there and it is supposed to be a QT. This area is just about the southern end of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. We crossed the Intercoastal Waterway to reach Wrightsville Beach. The boat traffic was impressive for just being grazed by a potentially deadly storm.

We were astounded at the pack of surfers taking advantage of the waves stirred up by Nicole. We even saw a parasail surfer skim up and down the waterfront at near light speed. Most of the surfers were average. Catching waves is an art that befuddled a lot of the amateurs. There were some pros that put on a good show. We got caught in a downpour running for our van, but the rain wasn’t exactly unpleasant. It was warm.

The surfers were out in force. They did not fear the storm.

This was one of the surfers that knew what he was doing. He caught an excellent wave.

Oops, this guy missed his wave. The parasail surfer in the back just zoomed by.

Here is one of those black cells that kept rolling past us. Most of them missed us, but not this guy. He nailed us pretty good as we were running for the van.

Of course, Wrightsville Beach featured another couple thousand of those pastel-colored rentals. Some of the beach houses had great horticultural landscaping.

More rows and rows of beach rentals.

Hurricane Nicole sidelined us one day, yesterday. Today was supposed to be the worst day, but it was salvageable. We heard that the Smokey Mountains, on the Tennessee/North Carolina border got drenched in rain.

We were lucky. We just caught the tail end of Hurricane Ida when we arrived in Virginia last month. Yesterday, Hurricane Nicole just nipped us. We must live a charmed life.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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