Evacuating for Earl

As Earl swirled his way straight for my little island, all the seasonal staff was ordered to evacuate government housing. This meant I packed my life into my car, again, and headed inland. I stayed Wednesday night in a hotel in Williamston because I was just too tired to keep going. A mandatory evacuation was given to all residents later that evening and my ranger friend Jen joined me. Her husband is a law enforcement ranger and had to stay. She joined me in my room and the next morning we headed to a little town south of Raleigh where Jen's Aunt Ruby lived to wait out the storm.

Friday, we decided to explore Raleigh. I'd flown in and out of the airport, but wanted to go see the capitol.

Below are two pictures. It is your responsibility to determine which is the real capital building for the state of North Carolina.

Which do you think? The top or the bottom?

The answer is the second. The top picture is the academic building on the campus of Texas A&M. Yep, I found the state capitol a bit pathetic.

I took a picture with the United States presidents that came from North Carolina, then, following in the tradition of my friend Rachel, Jen and I both turned cartwheels on the steps of the capitol.

We went in and it was a nice building, but about as plain inside as it was out. I found this very interesting.

The library. Has nothing, nothing, compared to the fabulous library in the Iowa state capitol.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the mall. Holy cow, a mall. A place that has more than bait, boards, and bikinis! We ended with a fabulous slice of cheese cake from the Cheesecake Factory.

Highway 12 south opened at 7am Saturday morning and I got the call on my way back to Buxton that I was to report to work at 7am the next day. There was a ton of washover (water and sand) on the road in the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge area and I did not feel good driving through it. As long as you go slow, high water shouldn't be a problem. This, however, was not fresh water, but salt water and I worry that in another six months my little car is going to have corrosion damage.

I am back in my little trailer, the trailerhood is lively once again, and I've got five weeks until my season at Cape Hatteras ends. Hopefully another hurricane won't end it before then.