Downtown Stevensville NC on Route 14 going north.  Downtown consists of this restores but closed Esso station, the closed and restores Texacto station across the street (in the background) and a lovely old restored and empty house.

When I made my vision board at Christine Kane’s retreat in Asheville, NC earlier this year, I put on it "dream weekends" and a car made from a map with the words:  Indulge whenever you can. 

Once doesn’t say no to unplanned trips that present themselves.  One bundles two dogs, some clothes and joins the Husband in an impromptu trek to the Outer Banks to do sun and surf and dog bonding and checking in with my local shops there.

Timing was perfect:  several days of close quarters with the dogs and Gracie is less skittish (at least with me, with whom she has fast bonded…still not too sure about Husband who conjoles her with treats and sweet talk and lots of back scratching which she loves) and has the idea of potty outside.  Most excellent.  Dogs traveled great, the weather was warm but not humid so perfect for traveling in our non-air-conditioned car with all the windows down (well, the back windows not all the way down to make sure doggies stayed where they were in the back seat).

We stayed two night on the ocean in Nags Head.  The first night there was a heavy on shore wind, shortly after the full moon, and the Atlantic Ocean not 4 yards from our window.  We slept with the windows open both nights to listen to the sound of the surf. 

We had two great dining experiences, leaving doggies in their kennel in the room, worn out after much walking and romping on the beach and the sidewalk.  The first night we ate at Owens Restaurant, which was a short walk from our motel (The Dolphin), and the 2nd night was a 6 course dinner with wine, courtesy of Husband at Elizabeth’s Cafe & Winery in Duck.  Neither of us have ever done the 6 course wine thing before.  The food was amazing, the wine perfect for each course and my acid reflux seems to be very calm and hasn’t acted up at all.  What more could I wish?!  Well, maye to eat the beautiful dessert made with dark chocolate, mousse and whipped cream but it was too rich for me (Husband made sure it didn’t go to waste). 

We stopped in and visited with Linda at Sandy Bay Gallery in Hatteras and Kathleen at Island Artworks on Ocracoke (she wants some Wylde Women), and then took the Cedar Island Ferry off Ocracoke because last minute phone calls turned up no room at the doggie hotels (only 2) or the doggie inn (only 1).  And the island was wall to wall people anyways – October is much more sane.  The Ferry was very relaxing and cool as there is an overdeck so we were out of the sun for the 2+ hours it takes to cross.  We took another short Ferry on route 32 across Albemarle Sound and then found a doggie motel in Elizabeth City, which we know pretty well from having to get a car there our last trip because the car we were driving (the same as this time) developed a loud clunking noise and we were afraid to drive it onto the Outer Banks where AAA doesn’t seem to be in any evidance at all (just try calling them…whomever answers doesn’t have a clue where the outer banks are – one of the major vacation spots in this area).

Home again we traveled the byways and backroads, which is how we came upon downtown Stevensville NC with all of its 3 buildings (I tried Google.  Stevensville NC doesn’t even come up).  We would very much like to know who is responsible for restoring these lovely old buildings and this other gas station just down the road (Route 14 and 629)(to the right here – look at the gas price!).

The whole trip reminds me that I was going to made a new vision board every month.  I haven’t done that.  But we just started July and it isn’t too late to start keeping that little resolution.  Because I surely have traveled this year since Asheville:  to Washington State and just last week to a lovely little spot in Montgomery County, and now off to OBX – and that just for a lark.   

I have work in the studio ready to glaze for a kiln load, and may even get to that today, although if I get too immersed I might not do the St. Mary’s First Friday Art crawl.  And since I missed it last month, I want to commit to making it this evening (two of my places are on it: Heron’s Way Gallery and Room with a Brew).  Must support the arts if I want the arts to support me!

thought for the day: Synchronistic coincidences…stand out from the background of everyday events because of the sense of purpose or meaning that accompanies them.  At the same time, they violate our confidence in a world of events chronologically ordered and based on cause and effect.  They create a conspicuous discontinuity in ordinary reality, an opening to the miraculous.

In the mythologies of many peoples, the mythic figure who is the embodiment of the unexpected is the Trickster, who steps godlike through cracks and flaws in the ordered world of ordinary reality, bringing good luck and bad, profit and loss.  Allan Combs and Mark Holland, Synchronicity:  through the esys of science, myth and the trickster.

We actually need some frustration, exasperation, doubt, self-criticism, desire, and rage.  This kind of soul-feuding hurtles us spinning out of our bodies so we can’t ever squeeze back into our tiny, familiar selves.  Our hurdles will stop us, enrage us, and engage us, until we sumon a wild power from the bowels of the will we did not know we had.  Then we can never again mask our magnificence, even to ourselves….Transformation of any kind always exats a holy tussle.  Tama Kieves, This Time I Dance:  Trusting the Journey of Creating the Work You Love