Day 121: sand stories

The Wright brothers changed the world with something called "roll." Up until their breakthrough flights with gliders and later, on December 17, 1903, the first powered flight, the brothers were in stiff competition with other inventors throughout the world. These Dayton boys were the first to apply a particular law of physics that they'd experienced in their years of bicycle races...that the best way to turn when going fast is to bank--to literally tilt into the turn. Such an idea was anathema to most thinkers; who in their right mind would take a level object, one that is in the air, and aim part of it toward the ground? Wouldn't that result in death at the worst, certain failure at the least? The Wright brothers did just that, and proved that doing so--banking--is what makes mid-flight turns possible. Their game-changer, called wing-warping, was the predecessor of ailerons, still in use in today's modern era of flight.

The Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, is a 60-foot stone monument atop a 90-foot hill. It overlooks the actual site of their work, 450 yards to the north, where the sand hill used to stand. It had shifted those 4+ football fields of length in the 29 years between the Wrights' 1903 milestone event and 1932, when the memorial was created. It's the only memorial in U.S. history dedicated to a living (at the time) person. Orville lived until 1945, while his older brother, Wilbur, died in 1912. The location of the large hill isn't the only thing that's changed since 1903; the brothers wouldn't recognize the busy highway lined by shops, restaurants, motels and beach houses that have swallowed the seemingly endless dunes of sand that dominated the landscape in their time. But the gusting winds are still there!

From the memorial, we drove a few miles south to Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a narrow finger of land stretching down the North Carolina coast. It's still recovering from the devastation brought by Hurricane Irene. In fact, we were some of the first tourists to get past the hard-hit town of Rodanthe, halfway down the north/south stretch of the cape. We saw huge piles of rubbish and debris standing along the road, much of it from campers and shoddily-built structures. Roads are newly paved, and one of the bridges is just now passable. The rangers at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse were so glad to share their lovely old light and stories of the sea turtles they care for...their visitor numbers have been very low and are only now beginning to recover. The Hatteras light is the tallest brick lighthouse in the U.S., as well as the tallest brick structure to ever be moved. All 210 feet of it were moved 2,900 feet in 1999 to escape the encroaching sea. The ever-moving sand is a steady thread in the cape's history.

Its shifting nature doesn't affect the miracle of nesting sea turtles, who return to the same stretch of beach on which they were hatched, despite having traveled thousands of miles on the ocean's currents, often on the other side of the world. The hatchlings, crawling from their nests to the sea, follow the light of moon and stars to the water. Sadly, only one out of every 1,000 survives to adulthood. They face tough odds against predators, drowning, and false lights such as cars and campfires. Kelsey and Kendall were inspired to learn of their struggle for survival and the dedicated volunteers who try to make their way easier and their chances stronger.

The mystery of sea turtles' internal compass, bringing them back to nest at Cape Hatteras, isn't the only mystery of this area. The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island still puzzles and intrigues historians. The first English colony in the New World, established in 1584 and recolonized in 1587, had vanished without a trace when its leader returned from England with supplies in 1590. No clues remained as to the fate or whereabouts of the colony's 116 men, women and children (two of them born on Roanoke), aside from a cryptic word printed above the entrance to the fort: Croatoan. Our visit to the rebuilt earthen fort was quite short, being at the end of a long day. But the 420-year-old mystery captivated us as it has countless other visitors. Roanoke Island's history also includes an interesting chapter during the Civil War, when it was captured by the Union and then established as the site of a colony for freed slaves. Although disbanded at the end of the war, the colony was, for many former slaves, their first exposure to independence and self-fulfillment. The island's tiny size in no way reflects its huge role in U.S. history.

Ranger Darrell at the Wright Memorial gave a fantastic talk about the 1903 Flyer (replica in the background) that helped us understand the basics of flying and how the Wrights changed the world. The original flyer hangs in the Smithsonian, near the rockets, a shuttle and planes that stemmed from their work.

The memorial, on Kill Devil Hill, is in the background

On Cape Hatteras

Talkin' turtle

the size of a hatchling when it's emerging from its nest and heading for the sea

a mother turtle lays aproximately 100 eggs, each the size of a ping-pong ball, in a nest. Doing the math, only 1 egg out of 10 nests will survive to adulthood.