My All Time Favorite - Oriental, NC (slowly catching up!)

We stayed 2 nights here in Oriental.  I love this town!  They experienced some bad flooding from Hurricane Florence and are still going through renovations.  The cute coffee shop, The Bean, was closed for another couple of months.  Several other shops were still under reconstruction, and the laundry, at the marina where we were docked, had signs up that said that "thanks to Flo" the machines were all down till new ones came in 3 weeks.  We could see piles of debris from the inside of places that were flooded out.

The greatest part of this town in the community's enthusiasm.  There always seems to be an event when we come in.  This year it was a Halloween costume party/fundraiser to benefit the renovation of the city's cemetery.  It was a hoot!  So many creative costumes and a live local band.  One of the town's people told us the band needs to change their venue since they play the same songs and in the same order every event.  For me it was just fun since I had never  heard them before. 

 There was a witches' crawl through different areas of the town and they did a dance and sang for the crowd.  They also passed a bucket for donations.

 


 This was my favorite costume - a jellyfish!



Our friend, David, who was at their camp site nearby, came by for a visit.  He has a house just past Raleigh, and that's where his wife Kim and Salt were when we arrived.  We didn't give them enough notice that we were going to be in Oriental for Kim and Salt to join us.  Next time!  We met them the last trip and sailed through the Chesapeake together - us on our way North to go home, they were also going North but were doing the great Loop and were going through New York and beyond to complete the Loop.  We first met them in Elizabeth City.  Great people!


Somehow I don't have any photos of another friend, Mike, who came by to visit us.  He also drove us to a Walmart where I did a little provisioning.  We also went to a restaurant called Mayo and had some delicious seafood!  Mike is a really good guy.  He did his own single sailing cruise similar to ours last year and is getting his boat ready for another one this November.  We wish him fair winds!

In the following photos you will see the friends we met at the Dismal Swamp.  They were the ones rafted on the other side of us, blocking us in!  We met up again in Oriental.  They had 2 Border Collies with them, Marvin who is 10 yrs. old and the other is 9 yrs. old (sorry, I keep forgetting the girl dog's name!)   Marvin is feeling his age, but the girl is very lovey and I got lots of kisses from her!

 
Sean and company

f
Ewa (pronouned Ava)
We enjoyed being with them!  They had the youth and zest for life that is so refreshing for us middleagers!

I got to shop in my favorite shop, the Inland Waterway Provision Company. They have a fun assortment of things.  I bought myself a pair of sailing boots for the next time it rains.  They have fishing gear, clothing, used boat parts and food.  I also bought a filleting knife.  
This filleting knife floats!
 Now all I need is a big enough cutting board that meets Ed's standards for cleaning any fish I catch.  I have plenty of foil to put under the board to catch most of the mess.  Ed says I need a cooler and ice.  I heard a bucket would work just as well!  I just have to make Lynn's new hubby proud of me since he loaned me a rod and lures!

One day I will come back to Oriental!

Fair Winds to All!

Joan


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