Vacation 2010: Kill Devil Hills, NC, and Columbia, SC.

Another advantage of our OBX hotel was its proximity to the Wright Brothers' memorial. On this stretch of land not far from the beach, the age of flight began.




This stone marks the starting point for the first flights.

Nearby there's a centennial marker that was placed in 2003.

Then there are these stone markers to designate the distance traveled by each of the first four flights. After we saw the third marker, I thought we'd seen 'em all. Then we saw the fourth one WAAAAY down the path (852 feet, in fact).


We were all inspired to take flight!

It wasn't hard to find the brothers' inspiration!

Also on display are models of their rustic on-site camp.


These guys from Ohio set up this home-away-from-home while they conducted their tests.

"They taught us to fly."

The memorial pylon marks the location of the glider tests in 1902.

There's Amelia Earhart!

It really was interesting to be in this spot where such a world-changing event took place.

After that educational stop, we felt obliged to pay a visit to Duck Donuts. We'd seen signs for it all over town, and our boy just happens to be a connoisseur of the donut. Unfortunately, these treats paled in comparison to our fave, T&D. After that stop plus a little souvenir shopping, we had to hit the highway for our long drive to Atlanta.

Along the way we passed an exit for Farmville, which shares its name with the Facebook phenomenon.

Hello, South Carolina!

At a truck stop, we were well aware that we were in SEC country now!


I was thrilled that our path took us through Columbia, SC. A dear friend from college is a professor at the University of South Carolina, so we dropped by his home that afternoon.

Although we missed getting to meet Ed's husband, we at least got to visit with Dora the cat and Elvis (holding one of Ed's books). Ed was the ringleader of our big spring break road trip to Graceland 20 years ago, so our Memphis visit on this vacation brought back lots of memories.

Considering his travels (he had just returned from a semester in Ireland), I was thrilled that Ed was in town when we passed through. It was great to see him!

From Columbia it was on to Atlanta, our last tourist destination of this incredible vacation.