Reasons why I am moving to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a few days

1. i fell in love with it when i was there the past two summers

2. I am living in this house that is one block from the Avalon Fishing Pier

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=201+e+avalon+kill+devil+hills+nc&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=201+E+Avalon+Dr,+Kill+Devil+Hills,+NC+27948&gl=us&ei=p7XqTI-cLcSqlAffyZ3KCw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ8gEwAA

Avalon Fishing Pier:
http://www.fishing-nc.com/images/nc-fishing-pier.jpg

3. Corolla Beach has wild horses on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R29ruf1Uk8

3. Population under 6,000 will be such a departure from metro population 655,400

oops. 4.

5. This event happened this week in what will be my neighborhood:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onHAlzXEYe4

6. I can catch blue crabs in the Pamlico Sound and boil them for free dinner!

There are a million reasons to live in a beautiful rural location. I hope you can scrape together a living there. Have a ton of fun!

7. I already have been asked to rollerskate in the St. Patrick's Day parade in March

The boring and v v real reasons I am moving include that my lease is up and everywhere I can find to move in Knoxville is costing twice as much as this winter rental. I figured saving some money up and moving somewhere beautiful that is cheap even for 6 months is totally worth it.

I had found a great place in my home town but the deposit was way higher than rent inexplicably. I made myself literally sick over trying to figure all this out but in the end this seems better and doable. It is costing me half as much to move to a beach town.

hang-ten

last time i tried to hang ten i broke a longboard and nursed a hand injury for two and half months.

still, this is part of my plan.

you lucky dog! be sure to kayak or canoe the marshes, they rule! come on down and say hi sometime!

where are you located?

i have not been to the marshy areas of the outer banks but i do love that type of landscape. i am going to be volunteering for the national park service on pea island and the national seashore so hopefully I will be right smack in some real awesome beauty.

Well, this explains the footwear thread. I didn't know you were moving there!

where do you stand re: bbq?

I have kayaked pea island reserve! I'm down in the Triangle.

where do you stand re: bbq?

― mookieproof, Monday, November 22, 2010 1:07 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

itsatrap.jpg

i lived in a beach town for an offseason once. so fun! drunk on the beach on new year's in the snow with no one else around was a wonder

I love bbq more than almost anything.

yes but do u love ~NC~ bbq

she will convert to eastern nc bbq

none escape

i lived in a beach town for an offseason once. so fun! drunk on the beach on new year's in the snow with no one else around was a wonder

― con suelo, Monday, November 22, 2010 7:14 PM

that sounds lovely!

i am unsure about eastern nc bbq, actually. school me?

vinegar-based, essentially

yes. i do like that. we have bbq that all over tennessee, too.

Good luck! Looks nice - almost Australian, I'd say (I tend to Google Street View sometimes when I'm bored), but maybe mighty windy, so near the coast?

I just moved from Asheville and I swear there are more than 6,000 cars in Asheville with an OBX sticker.

I have never been there :(

con suelo - i wanna know more about when and where and why you overwintered at the beach. tell me more...

how is the climate in the winter?

it stays about 5 to 10 degrees warmer than here in Knoxville - which can get pretty cold - but the wind can be pretty bitter on the East Coast. It snows there some years, same as where I live now. I am really looking forward to cold beach, tbh. Mikey grew up surfing and can't wait to put on a hooded wet suit and join the crazy maniacs that surf all winter in awesome waves by the pier. I can't wait until it gets warmer weather so I can do the same but have no interest in surfing in the cold winter water. Those dudes are sort of nuts, imo.

i vacationed there over the summer. amazing.

I am completely gonna show up on your porch and be like LET'S HANG GOT A GUEST BEDROOM

love the outer banks but haven't managed to get there for several years

We have a three bedroom winter lease for 6 months and everyone is welcome. Throw some cash towards our weekly grocery bill and come grill and chill, imo.

Sweet. I was at a wedding there last summer, right on the beach. Really beautiful, and warm water for swimming!

Here is the Avalon fishing pier in last years snow storm:

http://seasidevacations.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/snow-1-30-10-008.jpg?w=900

I love seaside towns in the winter and envious that you get to do this.

i am gonna be broke there but i feel like i really need this right now.

Not that you care, but your willingness (however grudging) to pick up and move away from your "home" and your lyfe, even temporarily, is really trying to tell me something about myself. The damn thing won't leave me alone. Which is my way of saying, I'm thinking about you and your winter abode a lot.

I hope it's awesome.

Thanks, Laurel. My life has been very complicated and emotional this year and nothing very good has come of it. This is a renewal period for me, of sorts. I got engaged, am getting rid of lots of my belongings, getting married away from everyone and living for at least six months at the beach. This will have to do something for my spirit - right?

One of my friends in Knoxville is having a going away party for me and asking guests to bring gas cards and food lion gift cards to me as going away/engagement/house warming presents. How cool is that? This will help us not be so broke on our move, for sure.

I am actually very terrified of this move.

Don't be afraid Nijoli. This is going to be awesome for you.

I love seaside towns in the winter and envious that you get to do this.

― ENBB, Tuesday, 23 November 2010 15:41 (38 minutes ago)

english seaside towns in the winter = pretty terrible, mostly

I think they're pretty similar to ours tbh and I like that slightly creepy loneliness they give off.

My life has been very complicated and emotional this year and nothing very good has come of it. This is a renewal period for me, of sorts. I got engaged, am getting rid of lots of my belongings, getting married away from everyone and living for at least six months at the beach.

Ditto, ditto...still waiting for a renewal period, iirc. I refuse to get rid of my belongings and I'm deeply ambivalent about moving out of this city where my whole life is. Your "touring the US by caravan and playing records" thing was much on my mind, and it seems to have gone totally by the wayside and I've been really curious (in a not-unsympathetic way) about how all this is goin' down.

I know you're mostly only showing us the part that tries to stay upbeat and make things sound like fun, because re-envisioning the future MAKES it more fun. But I think you're being very brave and this shd be a winter of awesome experiences and memories that could never be superseded by having spent your time in any other way.

Meanwhile I'm gonna try to siphon off a little of your derring-do for myself; I promise it won't hurt a bit.

wait laurel yr moving too?

The Soulstreamers are still a thing - but the trailer expense is insane and I am waiting on the other two to be able to pitch in their part on the whole thing. Since we all live in different towns anyway, this move in no way changes the Soulstreamers plans. We never lived in the same city but wanted to tour the country together and still do. We had done a Kickstarter fundraiser but didn't reach our goal and have not really had a brilliant idea of how to finance the concept. It will come around, I am sure.

Want the bad side of the move? I am leaving behind a community of people who have always been there for me. I know that if crisis hit me in Knoxville, I am somewhat taken care of. My resources here are HUGE and I am abandoning that. When my two friends got cancer last year, we had fundraisers to pay for what their healthcare coverage wouldn't. They would do that in return for me. Leaving that type of support for a town that is in economic depression during the winter might be crazy.

gib: Not yet, but it has been discussed at length for a lot of reasons. Also there is the poss of living in Europe short-term, which you'd think anyone would be amazed at, right? I feel like I should be open to this stuff but I don't WANT new experiences, I want my comfy familiar old ones. Not very brave, not very change-y, not very interesting. Trying to be more of those things.

I draw the line at Texas, though, or the humid South. I've been promised an air conditioner for every room but that's just silly and could be resolved much more neatly by living north of the 40th parallel.

Nij, yeah, I am terrified of leaving everyone I know. I'm a people person, not some kind of self-sufficient world-traveling thick-skinned Australian.

who are you talking about when you say "self-sufficient world-traveling thick-skinned Australian" - just curious

The character sketch of Australians bunked up in hostels across Europe and Southeast Asia, mostly.

think she might have seen that film....with the dude....with the knife ;_;

ime at least some australians do have feelings, but they can express them only in the form of sports metaphors

gotcha

i am definitely not thicked skinned

only problem with NC was i had to drive 20 miles to an ABC store.

there is a liquor store on my block there

an ABC store? Where are you exactly. I was smack in the middle, in Waves.

Kill Devil Hills - there is one in Nags Head and one in KDH

way farther north on the outer banks than you were

i kept asking my wife for some Nags Head when i was there.

oh man sunsets at jockey ridge

nijoli you are about to be living that LIFE.

Was trying to think who is the most famous for traveling obliviously and being unaffected by a change of surroundings, and Australian back-packers were what came to mind.

Hopefully you won't need anything resembling the skin of an orange to survive a quiet, snowed-in, safe-from-the-elements simple down home winter without getting your peelings hurt. I highly recommend duvets and comforters! And a hot water bottle. If you want to be super pioneer, you can bag up some clean sand in a couple of layers of felt and microwave it, then stick in foot of bed before getting in.

this is where we stayed. Surprisingly cheap in May.
http://www.perfectplaces.com/vacation-rentals/44851.htm

i think the central heat will keep me warm enough

i think you should do this

not like yr travelling to the other side of the world, can always visit yr ppl if yr homesick

this is us:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=201+e+avalon+kill+devil+hills+nc&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=201+E+Avalon+Dr,+Kill+Devil+Hills,+NC+27948&gl=us&ei=4vPrTK7fGYK78gbsw5SSAw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ8gEwAA

there is no "think you should do this" - i have already signed a lease and am moving in 7 days!

i would move there in a second.

Kill Devil Hills is such an amazing name for a town!

The look of it from streetview is so lovely and melancholy - i really like the idea of a six-month stint, like you have this defined period of time where you can abandon yrself to the feeling of a place, its sadness and its delight.

The house is so fancy! I'd pictured something much more fishing-villagey, like Far Rockaway or something.

fancy? you must be looking at the wrong one!

it is the small flat blue one...

Oh yeah, nm, that was Chris. And your link is MUCH more what I thought it would look like.

we only payed $330 for our share. We shared with two other close friends.

oh and if anyone ever rents it, beware, i vomited in the hot tub.

house:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9338/exterior3bedroom.jpg

sunroom:
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7352/3bedroomcottage200811.jpg

laurel: oh i think maybe i'd caught some of this on some 'problems' thread? didn't realize moving might be involved, though! sounds like it could be...anywhere? i guess that bit is confusing

It COULD be anywhere. We wanted to move the biggest local city near my parents and even looked at apts there, but no jobs have materialized in the last 4 months, and the glow of our summer vacation wore off and now we have to be realistic. Europe most likely at this point, sometime in near fut if nothing else changes. Am horrified at chance of a great job turning up in, like, HOUSTON or SAVANNAH or something.

But I have all this STUFF, that has to be moved and stored and worried about, and I'm not willing to get rid of it and then have nothing, because it's been carefully collected and isn't replaceable. But it is a bit of a millstone when life calls for big changes.

That house is SO colorful! Could not be other than cheering in January.

whoah, so rilly big things afoot, huh. for some reason (again, from other threads), thought you were like moving out from apt w/bf. well lemme know if you land in mpls!

me in outer banks this summer:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs201.ash2/46469_10150237095270076_846520075_14377203_3354021_n.jpg

can't wait for warmer weather out there.
can't wait to be there.
scared to death of going broke.

Will you uh have any source of income while you're there?

hopefully! i have a few months to figure that out.

i am making an amazon wish list of stuff i want in the OBX and i just added a crab trap btw

um, i am hoping to find a crappy job when i get there and the rollergirls i have been in touch with have said they will help and that i will find SOMETHING

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8824/weatherlt.jpg

Finding a local job in winter does sound scary, but I'm glad you have the derby girls as a resource.

we are set for a few months with what we have saved up. i think we will be fine.

um, i am hoping to find a crappy job when i get there and the rollergirls i have been in touch with have said they will help and that i will find SOMETHING

holy shit have you been in touch w/my friend Sam? she does not herself roll but is really involved w/them

I have been speaking with a girl named Krystle through their Facebook page. I am hoping to help get them up and going as a league since they are just starting out. I played derby here in Knoxville. I think they have maybe 12 girls now and are just doing drills and working on skating at this point.

This will have to do something for my spirit - right?

Absolutely - as tough and scary as it is to leave behind the comforts of the familiar and especially the support of your local cohort, it's freeing beyond belief. Getting away from the expectations (of others for me and about me, and in turn my expectations for and about myself - I never realized how constrained these were by each situation until I was away) especially, for me. What a beautiful place you're moving to!

Thanks so much for this,Jaq!

five days iirc!

I've spent time in Duck on multiple occasions and really enjoyed it! Kudos for making the change--it isn't easy but it is as exhilarating as it is exhausting.

Aerosmith do you by any chance hang with any judges in Raleigh?

http://www.avalonpier.com/wavecam.html

that fishing pier is one block from where i will be living for 6 months. i love the sound!