The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for May 19 - 23, 2008

A little Manteo light
Just got back from my Outer Banks bike ride and I thought you might like to see some of the places I visited.  (Basically it was a tour de lighthouse..)

This one is a cutie pie little fellow.  It sits right on the wharf and helps folks get into and out of the town, which is also a cutie pie kind of place.  I guess it all wouldn't be that cute in a storm and, actually, we left the town in a very blustery wind.  VERY blustery. 

Jeeps!  Right before I left Martha, in the kitchen, said, "It's pretty windy down there isn't it?"  Well, on this trip, it certainly was.


Currituck in Corolla
The afternoon of the trip's start I drove up to the top of the stretch of road and visited this gorgeous brick lighthouse.  See, you can travel the entire length of the Outer Banks, barrier islands is what they are, and just hop from one lighthouse to the next.  We did it on a bicycle which is a terrific way to go, in my tired opinion.


Bodie Island
At the end of the upper stretch of island, one can visit this beauty.  It sits in the middle of the marsh land but everything is so flat around there that it is visible for miles and miles.  We saw it long after we had pedaled away.

This time of year is the BEST out there.  The commercial strips are busy, to be sure, but the side roads are quiet and no one got in our way, nor did we disturb anyone.  Our little band of some 13 riders spread out and I mostly only saw the one person I rode with and one other rider, who zipped ahead, took pictures, allowed us to catch up, and then scooted off again.  We called her Speedy - and apt name, I thought.



Dinners to go for this week
Dinners, as you know, come with a freshly-made green salad, salad dressing of the day, and made-right-here bread of the day. We take reservations until noon or so. Please order by phone (252-1500), by FAX (252-02002) or stop in to speak to one of us in person.

As a reminder, every time you order a dinner to go you are eligible to enter our drawing. Just drop a card in our drawing jar (a business card works or fill out one of the cards that we have right here) and, at the end of the month, we'll pull one card which will be good for two free dinners-to-go.

Maybe you'll win next month.

Order a lot? Enter a lot!
Good luck!!

Here is this week's menu:
Monday    May 19    Brie and Almond Stuffed Chicken 10.25
Tuesday    May 20    Portabella Wellington 9.95
Wednesday    May 21    Beef Tenderloin Medallions with Spring Vegetables 12.50
Thursday    May 22    Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas 9.95
Friday        May 23    Roast Tilapia with New Potatoes 10.50


Our website


Special casserole of the week
We make a special casserole each week, usually on Wednesday. Order before noon and we'll have yours ready to pick up between 4:30 and 6:00 that very afternoon. (Yes, you can order in advance too.) Order a full for 9 portions or, if your gang is smaller, opt for the half-sized one, which serves 4 or so.

Say, we'll happily make a salad and provide bread for you if you like, just let us know when you call and we'll get you all set up.

Wednesday, May 21
Spinach and Artichoke Lasagna
Full: 29.50
Half: 14.75


Cape Hattaras
The bottom of the next island is home to this amazing lighthouse.  You may have heard that the beach was eroding and the whole thing was threatened by encroaching water and diminishing sands.  Some very smart engineers figured out how to move it, 5 feet at a stretch.  They started on June 17th and finished on July 9th, moving the jacks and platform some 570 times.  What a feat!

The day of our visit was WINDY, so much so that those of our group who climbed up, were not allowed to step out on the platform.  I poked around in the museum and waited for the stair climbers to leave.  The wind got stronger and stronger and, by the end of our day, there were times when I was pedaling almost as hard as I could, and was getting almost nowhere. 


Ocracoke
 And, at the lower part of the NEXT stretch of sand, we finally arrived at the town of Ocracoke.  Sweet and old and not-too-crowded yet, my buddies and I hauled our gear up to our rooms, snapped up a bite to eat, and headed off of a reconnaissance ride.  The next day was a rest day, no moving.  We wanted to scout so we'd know where we'd want to go. 

My day of rest started on the beach at sunrise watching birds with a real pro, one with a big scope that brought me amazingly close to the singer of the moment.  After breakfast, with birthday cake and birthday song, the day stretched into a day of kayaking on the marshes, eating shrimp on the deck of one of the dive restaurants, browsing through shops, and then showering and eating again. (Do try The Flying Melon if you're out that way.  It was my favorite meal, my favorite food of the whole trip.)
 


Cake for Breakfast
I recommend this.  Why wait until dinner, right?  Our guides found this spice loaf somewhere and hid it from me.  I got the birthday song at lunchtime and later on too, not to mention a number of raucous calls and sweet e-mail messages from here and there. 

Nice.


A Note From Laurey
What a fine week I had this past week.  I had, as I mentioned last week, signed up to take a bike trip on the Outer Banks of our state.  I’ve never been there before, funny as that may seem.  I’m not a huge beach fan, and I’d never felt drawn to drive so far to be at the type of place that is not at the top of my list. But I wanted a change of pace, a reason to be on my bike again, a chance to meet some new people, a time to just do things differently.

It all worked out very very well.

Most days were easy rides.  It is, after all, just about flat out there.  We rode over a bridge or two, but really, there was no significant hill to master.  It was never too hot, and, being billed as a beginner level ride, had fairly short mileage.  I mean, those rides I used to do had multiple days of mileage in the high 90s.  That’s a lot of miles.  30 or 50 is quite doable.

But no one expected this much wind.  We had some wind!  Yup we sure did.  And, contrary to a place with tides that are affected by the lunar cycles, the Outer Banks’ tides are affected by, you guessed it, wind!  Basically, if the wind blows from the west, all the water in the sound blows out of the sound.  It would LIKE to go to the ocean but that tricky spit of land in between means that the water mostly just goes onto the land.  And what that really means that it goes over the road.

One day we stopped for lunch at a day use area in Salvo.  We’d ridden through a very windy Rodanthe and the even windier town called Waves.  Surfers were out in full force, enjoying the huge swells.  Birders were grumpy because all the birds in the reserves were blown away too.  I was happy to get to the parking lot of our lunch spot and settled in for a nap, waiting for the other riders and our guides who had stopped to tend to some flat tires.  On our way into the lunch spot, a little bit of water was puddling up on the road. 

But after lunch, as we rode off, the whole entrance road was covered by water.  My buddies and I did not want to get wet so we climbed overland, jumping a ditch and handing our bikes to each other to reach the road.  We phoned the rest of the group, warning them of the water, and prepared to pedal. 

Just as we climbed on our bikes, a car stopped in the middle of the road. 

“Where you going?” the driver called.

“Buxton,” we yelled back, over the wind.

“There’s high water in Avon,” she said, “you’re going to hit it. And high tide is not until 2:30.”  It was about 1:30.

We set off anyway, figuring it couldn’t be too bad.  The wind blew stronger and stronger as we rode, sometimes so hard that we were nearly blown over  And then, around a corner, we saw a line of cars moving very slowly, through some very deep water.  Speedy, our spunky lead rider, was stopped at the edge of the water, trying to decide what to do.  I, not thinking very clearly, pedaled right in.  Heck, how bad could it be?

It was bad.

The water got deeper and deeper, the west wind driving water through any available channel, covering the road, making it harder and harder to ride.  And we were not the only road warriors.  Cars and trucks were plowing through too, creating real current, real waves.  And the water kept getting deeper until it was about halfway up my tire.  My feet were completely covered with water at the bottom of each pedal stroke.  It was deep.  I kept my eye on the white line at the side of the road, some 12" below the surface of the water, knowing that there was a ditch not too far away.  I did not want to be in the ditch.  I DID want the water to get shallower.  But it didn’t appear to be doing so.

At one point I looked up to see a line of cars with people standing up, poking out of the sun roofs taking pictures their cell phone – of us!  Swell.  I pedaled on.  By then I was too far in to stop.  But when a driver yelled that it went on for a few more miles I began to wonder what I could possibly have been thinking by taking off so cavalierly. 

Finally, finally, FINALLY I came to a bit of higher ground and pulled over, climbed up on a porch, and, thankfully, got picked out of the water by our guides who drove quickly south, racing the water.  I found out later that the water had come up so quickly while they were still at lunch, that what had been a dry picnic area, was completely flooded in moments.

Later on, once we got to the Hatteras light, some of us got back on our bikes for a final 5 mile pedal, but by then the wind was so strong that there were many moments of complete motionless.  NOT so much fun.

But memorable.

I had a great trip and I’m also glad to be home.  And I’m especially thankful that the shop was busy and that the gang did such a fine job making and serving delicious food for all of you.  Come say hi this week.  I’d love to see you.

Cheers,

Laurey

 

 


Beach labyrinth
It is, as I said, my golden year, the year that my age matches the year of my birth.  I've loved labyrinths for some time and doodle them when I feel in a tight spot.  I recently learned a new way to draw them and scrawled one into the Ocracoke beach on my actual birthday.  This one was my third attempt, as the first two got washed away.

All in all, it was a great start to my new, golden year.
I wonder where the path will lead.

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