Today Tim and I decided to jump ahead of our destinations, just for the day, and drove up to Nags Head. Leaving the Airstream behind for our day trip, we drove the one hour north to Jocky's Ridge State Park. It's there that the 44th Annual Hang Gliding Spectacular was taking place. We have never attended anything like this before and decided we better take advantage and go.
The Big Dune at Jocky's Ridge just happens to be the tallest natural sand dune system in the Eastern United States. Depending on weather conditions its height can vary from 80 to 100 feet. It did bring back a few memories from working in the desert in Swakopmund, Namibia in Africa!
After hiking the 3/4 mile up The Big Dune we got settled in. It took about thirty seconds for someone to whack me in the head with one. I'm not sure what their spotter was doing.
Tim took off in one direction to get some action shots while I stayed amidst the competition. Jett and I met a lovely girl who was there competing. She also had her dog there whom Jett just had to meet. They had fun! I also spoke to a guy who had come in all the way from Washington state to compete. He gave us the low down on what was going on, how competitions are held and judged and talked about the cost to get into it. You are looking at about $5,000 on the low end just to get started plus lessons.
As it turned out we had a good time in Nags Head. We are glad we went, enjoyed the experience and then stopped at Dairy Queen to 'treat ourselves' on the way back to Hatteras. After burning those calories on the dunes we deserved it. At this point we are not sure what we will get into tomorrow. We will need to study the weather, especially after what blew thru last night, before making any final decisions. Stay tuned . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment