After a lengthy layover in Atlanta, it felt good to hit the road again. I headed to Charlotte, NC to visit a former student, then to the Rayleigh-Durham area to visit relatives, and on to North Carolina’s Outer Banks to see the Wright Brothers Memorial, something I’d always wanted to visit. These stops were just the beginning of a busy campaign I had planned to travel up the East Coast. I didn’t realize a nagging health issue would curtail those plans for weeks to come.
When I was a newly minted Ph.D. and just starting my career at UC San Diego, I was lucky to get Mike as my first graduate student. There were less than ten years difference in our ages, so it was natural to socialize with him and his wife, Denise, and we became close friends. When I married a couple years later, my wife, Pam, joined the circle.
Mike is a brilliant guy. He did truly groundbreaking work in my lab, things industry is just now catching up with. When he graduated, he became a professor at UNC-Charlotte. He also formed a business on the side based on some of his thesis work, and it grew to become very successful. As it became larger, it was less fun for him, so he sold his interest and, after a period of trying out some ideas, formed a new business in an unrelated field. Almost needless to say, that business in growing rapidly now, too.
After years apart, I’d had a chance to visit Mike briefly two years ago when my niece got married in Charlotte, but I was anxious to see him again. Also, Denise had a schedule conflict the last time I visited, so it was a special treat to see her again after so many years, when we all got together for a pizza lunch. To top it off, their daughter, Morgan, who I remembered as a toddler, joined us. We had a wonderful time reminiscing and talking about the paths our lives had taken. After lunch, we walked to their house, about half a mile away, and I got the tour. Modest, for a couple that has done so well, but very charming. They’re also into gardening: flowers, trees, and vegetables, and in the process of turning their backyard into a little paradise.
Mike and I walked back to our lunchtime shopping center for some ice cream. Along the way, we discussed the strategy and plans he has for his current business. I see good things ahead. I’d toured the company facilities on my previous visit, so there was no need to do that.
As I headed from Charlotte toward Raleigh, my mind drifted from what a great visit I’d had to another issue. As we had walked from lunch to their house, I’d noticed a twinge in my back. I had shoved it aside, not wanting it to mar our reunion. It was still there when we walked back to get ice cream, and now, driving the van, I could still feel it. The pain felt sharp and localized, in the area of my right kidney. My amateur diagnosis immediately lept to a kidney stone, a personal bogeyman for me; something I’ve never endured, but know from friends how excruciating it can be. Fanning the flames was the fact that a doctor studying my x-rays had once told me I have one forming, but it hadn’t knocked loose yet. Great! That would be one of the worst things to happen while I’m traveling.The pain was manageable yet, but I noticed it got worse when I stood, for instance, to fuel up the van.
I arrived in Cary, NC, outside of Raleigh, without further incident. I was pleased to see that the campground I’d selected, William B. Umstead State Park, was very pretty and lightly populated:
The public restroom was only 50 yards from my site (I use public facilities when I can, to conserve space in my RV’s tank), but just walking that distance caused the pain in my back to grow so intense that I had to lean on the restroom counter and pant until it subsided. Luckily, in a sitting position, which included driving, it was just a dull ache.
I took an couple Advil and drove to my relatives’ house, just 20 minutes away. Ed is the oldest of my wife’s brothers, and Susan is his wife. Any member of my wife’s family will readily admit that for decades they didn’t do a great job staying in touch, but when Pam got sick, they really came together, visiting at our home several times during her illness; Ed, Susan, and several other siblings and spouses as well. For the first time since I’d known Pam, we all really felt like a family, and though she was gone now, I was glad for this chance to renew those ties. Ed and Susan have a lovely house in Cary. We reminisced over some photos I had, and since it was a Sunday, Ed had time to drive me around Raleigh for a quick tour. I had planned to tour by myself the next day, but as Ed said, Raleigh is smaller than I thought, and can be seen in about an hour. When we got back, Susan had a wonderful home cooked meal ready for us. As a surprise to me, their daughter, Lauren was there, too. It was her wedding that I’d attended two years before in Charlotte. As it turned out, her husband’s job had taken him to work in Memphis and Lauren was stuck in Raleigh finishing her social work credential. Fate can be so cruel to young couples sometimes. As I write this now, though, she has just finished that credential, and I think their permanent reunion is in the offing. Here’s a photo of the four of us:
Over dinner we discussed what I could do with the next day, that I now had free. Touring the campus of Duke University emerged as the top choice, and I’m glad it did. I took my time getting started the next day and didn’t arrive until after lunch. I was apprehensive about finding parking on campus for my RV, but with luck, I did. The tower of the Duke University Chapel is visible from almost anywhere on campus, so, after a couple pills for my back, I headed in that direction. I really had no prior knowledge about the campus architecture, but learned very quickly that it is strongly Gothic:
What you see above is an assortment of classroom and dormitory buildings; I’m afraid I didn’t keep track. It was very easy for me to feel that I was on the campus of an ancient European university or city. One building that is unmistakeable is the chapel itself:
which stacks up well with fine European cathedrals. I made a circuit around the outside:
Even buildings adjacent to the chapel are quite impressive. This one houses a cafe:
The interior of the chapel is every bit as magnificent as the exterior:
There is plenty of gorgeous stained glass:
The sanctuary is flanked by impressive organ pipes:
and there’s another set at the rear:
There’s no lack of beautiful statuary:
and I liked the intricate columns and arches of a side chapel:
Another stop on campus was the student center, which uses modern architecture but in stone that coordinates with the Gothic character of other buildings:
It’s interesting how even the most modern buildings on campus reflect the Gothic style:
The Duke campus also is renown for its flower garden, but I was too early in the season to see its blooms.
I had another wonderful home cooked dinner with Ed, Susan, and Lauren, and the next morning I was on my way to the Outer Banks. On the drive over, I remembered that I had suffered similar back pain a couple years earlier, and it had turned out to be a pulled muscle. That somewhat set my mind at ease, though it seemed to be growing worse each day. I stayed in an RV park just a couple miles from the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. I was determined not to let the pain prevent me from seeing the memorial. I dug around in my medical supplies and found a few pills left from when I’d been treated for the pain before. Those significantly eased the discomfort, but I still couldn’t walk more than a hundred yards before the pain would make me nauseous and I’d have to sit and rest until it passed. Throughout my self-guided walking tour, I would plan where the next reachable spot was for me to sit and recover. Even so, I really enjoyed what I saw:
The visitor center:
A wind tunnel the brothers used for models:
I had no idea they made use of such technology. I think the popular conception, and one I bought into, is that they were tinkerers who got lucky. No, they were serious engineers, scientists, and mathematicians. The centerpiece of the museum is a replica of their powered plane:
Here are closer shots of the drivetrain and motor:
They even designed and built that lightweight motor. In the same space is a replica of one of the numerous glider designs they flew before the motorized plane:
Outside a large granite stone marks the starting point for the first four powered flights they made:
The iron rail in the foreground represents their monorail system for taking off. The four white markers that stretch off into the distance represent the endpoints of the four flights, each one successively longer. The final one is at the tree line in the background, but there were no trees in the brothers’ time.
Nearby, this is one of two hangers they built:
Inside is a depiction of a wing assembly:
Traveling from Ohio, the brothers would live in the hanger for weeks at a time. They hung their bunks in the rafters:
and had a small kitchen for cooking:
Turning the other direction, a large stone monolith marks the hilltop from which they launched their glider flights:
On the other side of the hill is a sculpture commemorating their first flights:
The other Outer Banks landmark that intrigued me was Cape Hatteras, so the next day I drove there. It’s on the other, southern, end of the Outer Banks, so I got to see their entire length in the process. On the way out of town, I had to stop to take a photo of this restaurant:
It’s Bob’s Grill, and the story is that they got such a long waiting line at lunch, Bob would walk among the tables admonishing patrons with the phrase above. Business actually increased when they put the motto on a sign.
The drive to Cape Hatteras was pretty, but also somewhat long and monotonous. There are several cute villages along the way that I wouldn’t mind exploring sometime. The lighthouse was impressive:
but unfortunately, closed to tours because the tourist season hadn’t started yet. I contented myself with watching a film in the museum/keepers quarters
which showed the views available if the lighthouse had been open. It’s probably just as well, since once again I was forced to plan my tour from rest stop to rest stop to accommodate the back pain. On the drive out, I came across an adorable family of deer:
No, that’s not Rudolph; he’s sticking his tongue out at me.
On the recommendation of many friends, I had been looking forward to visiting Asheville, NC, so I made the trek back across the state to the Appalachians. My visit to Asheville is the topic of my next post.
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