Indian River Inlet Delaware.






The weather has been choice lately, sunny with little to no humidity, I had a fun solo road ride through Pretty Boy resavoir on the QuickBeam last Sunday. It was beautiful here in the north county.
Then a ride at the Lower Loch with Sieverts that was a blast, the trails were wet but not muddy or slow, and I hadn't been their since early or maybe mid summer, this spring was excellent for m.t.b.ing around here and I rode the lower quite a bit, I even did a couple tour de raven's.We had a strong storm I think it was the end of July and it blew a bunch of trees down, I had heard the trails were wasted and it'll never be the same talk, but not suprisingly the re-routs are super fun and creative, it's as good and better than before, not that a whole lot has changed anyway.

Over the summer I worked on a chair design that I had been thinking about for a couple of years, I made two, one with a poplar seat that doesn't really need stretchers(the things that tie the legs together under the seat) because poplar is strong and resilient enough to withstand racking streses that are common to a chair and one with a pine seat that needs stretchers because pine is not as resilient. All of the wood except the poplar is from logs that were given to me and milled into boards or split right out of the log.
The back spindles and leg assemblies are red oak and the crest and arm rest are cherry. The shape of the seat is my take on the shape of a poplar leaf and the arm rest are taken from a child's rocking chair I had as a kid, kind of a torpedo shape, their suprisingly comfy and the crest I don't think is final I feel I should change it some how but it's basically what I was going for, a swooping arch that cradles the chair.

scroll to the next post before looking at this.


Nags Head pier, N.C Sunday morning T.S Florence pushes it's first bits of swell in.
We spent our last night in Nags head at the pier hotel, just because it was convenient, after we settled in we walked up to Tortuga's for dinner. I always want to go here, the food is good their is a bit of a beer selection and its a good vibe.
I woke up at sixthirty and checked the waves, also took some pics ,they don't really do it justice.
It was the biggest day I've had in a long while and since we had a lot of driving to do I needed to hit it early, it worked out better than expected, Amelia wanted to go for a run, that bought me a little more time to surf.

My work week shaped up nicely, I was able to go to O.C M.D early Wednesday morn for some more T.S Florence, the forecast was showing wed and thues would bring the more favorable winds and size, then the winds were to switch to the north for the next bunch of days and that'll mess it up, so this was my window.

It wasn't quite as big as N.H.P, but it was back to the sand bars, and in town it was out of control. So I went to Indian River inlet where it was breaking more reliable but closing out pretty good. It gets so crowded there its silly. I walked north a little bit where there were a few less people and it was a bit bigger, I'd say over a foot at times but the inside was really working the sand bar hard, I didn't want to get caught in there, but it wasn't as crowded so I went out there. I got a few rides took some beatings and the tide filled in to much or something happened with it cause it started closing out real bad and slacked off in sets. The rides I got Sunday in N.C were much longer and the water warmer and not this crowded at all. Some trips are hard to come home from.

A Fish and I were on the Outer Banks of N.C the last two weeks.
We went as far south as Kure beach, and arrived four hours or so before T.S Ernesto. It rained and blew hard that night. We woke up to over cast sky's and waist high surf, I really expected it to be bigger, I am not complaining it was fun and I was in the water from eight am. To almost noon, the sun was out by the end of the day.
We get a house every year with a big group of Amelia's college friends,it was in Wrightsville beach every year but with so many having kids it wasn't as accommodating so the last two years we got a house in Kure, more laid back and less people, I love that whole area though. We have the house until Labor day, always a lot of fun!
I didn't get any pics from that part of the trip this time, kinda sucks, I guess I was preoccupied, it goes so fast. The pic top left is from the second part, Salvo, on Hatteras Island, of a thunder head moving north east, If you like watching the weather happen this is a good place,the sky is so close and seemingly always active in O.B.X
Labor day is a travel day, we take the ferry's , it's scenic and usually a bottle of wine works it's way out of the cooler at some point, drive across Ocracoke with usually a quick stop at Howards pub, they have a HUGE beer list, then the next ferry to Hatteras Village and if time allows we drive out on the beach there and check things out, this year we kept heading north. We were staying in Salvo with a group of people, some we knew and some we didn't. I had to drive out to the point on cape hatteras. It's another world out there, so much life and activity, it's the farthest east you can drive in the mid Atlantic, and you feel like your out there. So over the next few days we caught some fish caught some waves, Tuesday surfing at the light house was really memorable. We caught some sun and some rain too.

This is my favorite trip of the year and A-Fish and I connect on a different level. Your surroundings have an impact on mood and attitude.