Beachy Rain

Sunday, August 23, 2020, was a cloudy almost dark day. The clouds kept the heat from building so it was a good time for a nice long walk through our neighborhood along Raymond’s Gut. Raymond’s Gut flows into the White Oak River which merges with Bogue Sound before finishing its journey to the Atlantic Ocean.

After my morning walk, lunch and our weekly trip to the local recycling and brush collection site, we planned to head over to the island to pick a few things from the grocery store and perhaps make our way down the island to Third Street, our favorite easy-access beach. We even brought a cooler along for our groceries. As we neared the approach to the bridge over to the island, we both noticed that there was more than a little beach traffic and the skies were starting to darken.

I made an executive decision, we aborted our trip to the island and we headed off to Piggly Wiggly for our groceries. When we came out of the store, a light warm rain was falling. It reminded me of many summer rains that come to the beach but aren’t really hard enough to drive you inside. If you are in a boat, you will likely head back to the dock unless the fish are biting. If you walking on the beach and one of these rains finds you, you’ll probably just keep walking and just change your shirt once you get home. However, the rain was enough to discourage us from thinking seriously about a beach walk.

We managed to get almost everything we wanted at the grocery store and were getting ready to turn out of the parking lot when I noticed the drive thru line at Dairy Queen had only one car. I made another snap decision and turned into Dairy Queen and we got our once-a-summer treat of a small soft serve vanilla ice cream cone. Summer must be ending, the blueberries are now from Canada and we have had our ice cream cone. We measure the summer by where the blueberries are picked. This year the first came from South Carolina in late May. In early June the North Carolina berries started. Sometime in late July and early August, the blueberries are from Canada. Somehow we skipped the Maine blueberries this year but still made it through the summer.

As we driving back home I decided to swing onto the bridge to the island just to see if the island had as big crowd as we had surmrised. It always a privilege to drive across the bridge from the mainland to Bogue Banks Island. The trip takes you across the Intracoastal Waterway and you get a great view of the marshes of Bogue Sound.

Our trip was quick because the traffic was heavy enough that I just circled around the rotary and headed home. People seemed to be streaming off the beaches to towards the bridge but it more to do with the time of day than any rain. The rain had stopped as we crossed the bridge to the island.

Home is only ten minutes from the rotary and we drove back into the light rain. It is always nice to get back to our marsh. With the rain lightly touching the surface of Raymond’s Gut, it is a pretty peaceful spot. The rain scattered the people at the pool and brought all the boaters home. It also made the grass wet enough that no one was mowing which is a rarity. There will be another sunnier day when we can enjoy a beach hike. That’s the nice thing about living here. We can wait for the weather to get nice. With a little luck, we might have one of those magic falls that are unforgettable. We also should not complain about a little rain. July was very dry with only 1.5 inches. August has barely caught us up with 6.5 inches and the last week of August looks like it will be very dry. It might be a very nice beach week.

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This is the link to my Newsletter update after Hurricane Isaias passed through the area.

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