Dedicated to MaryAnne Ysabella Brave and Friends

Greetings:

This photograph is more recent than the rest featured on the site. It was taken during my annual birthday celebration on 17 SEP 10, while on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. My profile photograph for this site was also taken on the island. It is from my 1998 celebration. Ocracoke Island is one of the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, referred to as "The Outer Banks." It is situated just south of Cape Hatteras, and is accessible only by sea.

The Back Porch Restaurant is the finest on the island. I treat my vacation friends to dinner and force them to listen to me read poems by Ogden Nash, the master of the forced rhyme, every year on my birthday. I have enjoyed a unique permanent dispensation from the previous and current owners of the restaurant to be seated and dine shoeless.

The War Department and I discovered Ocracoke in 1974, when we stumbled upon it on our way to the mainland from Hatteras. It is fourteen miles long and is all National Seashore, except the village of Ocracoke, an unincorporated town in Hyde County. The village has a permanent population of 675. During the summer that will swell to 2,500 or 3,000. We vacation there in September because it is not quite as crowded then.

The island is never truly crowded. Driving is permitted on the beaches. On the most crowded day, the nearest vehicle on the beach will usually be no closer than 100 yards (or meters, as the difference is negligible). The beaches are covered in beautiful, very fine, brilliant white sand.

Ocracoke is situated some twenty-five miles off the mainland in the finest ocean on the planet -- that being the Atlantic Ocean. The surf fishing here is very popular, although I am the world's worst fisherman. I used to be the second worst, but my friend from the Raleigh - Durham area finally learned how to do it, so I now hold the title.

There is little to do on Ocracoke other than fish and loll about on the beach. I generally engage in the latter. Doing nothing suits me just fine. On the rare occasion when I am feeling industrious, I might take the War Department up to the north point of the island where shelling is usually quite good. For years the island was outside of cellular telephone and pager range. This made it attractive to a guy who is on call the rest of the year.

Being a born and bred New Jersey boy, I spent my younger years at the Jersey Shore. Even then it was crowded and noisy. Most municipalities in the northern part of the state charge admission to the beaches in the summer. As a result, The War Department and I visit the Jersey Shore only in January, February, and March, when the beaches are empty.

Ocracoke is not for everyone. Mosquitoes, blackflies, and greenflies can be a nuisance if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction. The prevailing winds clash here, making weather completely unpredictable. We tent camped at a Department of the Interior campground four miles north of the village, from 1981 until 1993, when we purchased a used trailer. In 2001 we purchased a new trailer and now camp at a campground in the village.

Over the years we have made friends with campers from all over the US and Canada. We have also become friends with many of the islanders as well. We usually meet up with a dozen or so friends every year, so there is plenty of social activity to keep us entertained, my birthday celebration being but one example.

Your pal,

Clamchucker

Note: If you navigate your browser to http://camping.about.com/library/triprpts/bl980917.htm, you may read a brief travelogue describing the 1998 Birthday Bash, photographed and written by David Sweet, former Camping Guide for about.com. David is not pictured because he is operating the camera. It will give you an idea of the crowd I fed and entertained that evening. Good friends are worth every penny and much more.