Friday October 28: Elizabeth City, NC

At the visitors center in the Dismal Swamp, Larry and Salty Suzie (aboard SV Kanau) invited us and John and Karin (from the sailing vessel Auburn Angel) over to their boat after dinner. Larry plays the guitar and sings (quite well!) songs that folks our age just love - you know the old ones :-) Turns out John plays the keyboard so he joined in the playing as well. It was a very nice evening. Wednesday was another beautiful day (although quite cool) when we awoke. No wind and wonderful fall colors in the trees.

The last lock at the end of the Dismal Swamp: done and done. No more locks until we turn around and head back north in the spring. River travel was again very pleasant even though the wind picked up and the plastic went back in. It's getting cold :-) We tied up at Elizabeth City with Auburn Angel following shortly behind. Again a dock to ourselves? Wow! The sunrise yesterday was again wonderful - not that I ever see it. Steve is usually up by 6 am .....

Yesterday (Thursday) we stayed put. The high was 77 degrees - sunny day but one of the last as a cold front was due in. By last night the docks were beyond packed with boats headed south. Amanzi (Lance and Mary from Baltimore) finally caught up with us. We had left Baltimore one day before they did and have been that one day ahead until we stopped here at Elizabeth City. It was great to see them again!! They stayed at the same dock we were at so we all ended up going to breakfast this morning (joined by another couple in a boat just like ours except a year newer), Joe and Mikki

The bridge tender for Elizabeth City Bridge is a gentleman named Jack. When we first arrived and docked just before the bridge, he told Steve (over the radio) to come up and see him as he had something Steve would have some interest in. So over Steve went - and Jack said "See that truck there? You're welcome to use it anytime you want but there are two rules: don't put any gas in it and don't take any dust out of it!" What a nice thing to do! So we used it twice: once to go out to dinner with John and Karin and then the next day to go to the grocery store (Steve, Karin and Mary) - coming back with a pickup load of groceries!! It was the coolest thing: the traffic was constant over the bridge, so Jack put the arms on the drawbridge down and stopped the traffic so I could back out of his parking space! How fun was that!! I skipped the grocery run and instead rode my bike to the Auto Electric and Auto Zone (3 1/2 miles round trip) for wiring and parts to add another battery so we are able to stay out longer without plugging in or running the generator so much. But that project will wait until Saturday!

After breakfast this morning, we stopped at the Museum of the Abermarle. It was really well done with exhibits that went through the history of the region. There was a very nice room dedicated to the Coast Guard (the Abermarle Sound is the home of the largest Coast Guard station in the US). I made one more bike trip to Auto Zone to pick up another fuse we had to order in as well as a batter box for the new battery. More exercise ...... it's a good thing :-)

We've moved to a marina 1/2 mile away (our free dock did not have electric) as it is cold today and will get colder tonight (lows in the high 30's). We love our heaters :-) Snow is coming to the northeast - 1" in Baltimore. Happy to not be there!