My Southern Summer

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Only one month until we leave for our big trip!! And only a few days left in North Carolina! In light of the upcoming departure, I just thought I'd give an update on what we've been up to here in Corolla, NC all summer!

Tim and I have been working for a 4-wheel adventure tour that takes tourists up the beach toward the VA state line. We lead tours to find wild horses on the beach and in the sand dunes. The job has definitely been eventful with "vintage" trucks (read: old trucks) and well over 50-hour work weeks all summer. But, some of the most interesting moments of Summer 09 have come from the gas station parking lot!

Let me set the scene. There is a little strip mall here at 1150 Ocean Trail where I spend most of the day answering phone calls and walk-up inquiries. Sometimes I lead tours, but only about 3 per week. Our "booth" sits right next to the last gas station on the paved road before the 4x4 beach, in the corner of the strip mall. It's the southern most "building" next to Big Mama's, Corolla Pizza, Wink's Store, and the Corolla Post Office.

Imagine if you can: ginormous trucks lifted sooooo high that the little drivers have to use step stools to get in and out. Confederate and a myriad of other kinds of flags flying above the heads of loaded pick-up truck beds. New Jersey people yelling over customers parking in the gas spots for too long. Smoking cars coming in off the beach with transmissions on fire. This parking lot is precisely the site of the most entertaining moments and most quintessentially Southern pictures and characters I could have ever imagined!!

For starters, there is Larry the tow truck driver. All the tow truck drivers here have a certain vulture-esq quality to them since they make their millions off of the tourists' bad decisions to drive on the four-wheel beach in their slug bugs, mercedes, and brand new mustang convertibles. The only story I can think of right now to sum up Larry is this: About three days ago, he parked in the gas station lot. Later he returned to his car with someone who he wanted to take to lunch. He drives his tow truck everywhere as one would assume a tow truck driver would so him and his passenger were in the truck, ready to go and low and behold, the truck wouldn't start. I would have expected after trying to start it two or three times that anyone, and especially a tow truck driver would maybe pop the hood, have a look at things, call a tow truck driver (ha ha) but not Larry. He sat there. And tried to start his truck. Over. And over. And over. And over. For seriously about 10 minutes before popping the hood. Eventually he got it started but this was a perfect example of the parking lot happenings!!

Larry and Dan, the owner of the competition business, ABC towing, constantly eye each other in the parking lot here. When one puts a sticker up somewhere, the other quickly rushes over to remove the magnet or sticker and place their own immediately next to it. Loyalty is huge among the people of this little town. Those who give business to Larry have a certain loyalty and therefore, friendship of sorts with him. Same with Dan. Those of us that don't really care tread lightly somewhere in the middle trying to be nice to both- or trying to stay out of the sticker war!

Then there are the companies or, just nice people, who just try to help people that take their minivans out on the beach. There are a few ways to help. (This is where all of the car stuff I've learned this summer comes in!) The easiest and most common way to help is to advise the drivers to take air out of their tires. It takes a few minutes, but running any vehicle on 10 PSI will likely lead them out of the sand. (Tim and James proved that this summer...they took James' yellow "vintage" Cadillac out on the beach!) There are all sorts of other methods to move a stuck vehicle ranging from old-fashioned pushing to tow straps, etc. etc. Anyway, if one of us tour companies or a fellow driver decides to help a "touron" who is stuck on the beach...the tow truck owners are quick to anger!! They might take all sorts of measures from donning evil eyes to yelling or plain, not talking to you ever again. In their eyes, this is ruining their nest egg.

On that subject of Loyalty, I have to address the pizza place-feud, as I will call it! Corolla Pizza at the North end of the "strip" and Big Mama's at the northern-most end are embroiled in a battle here in our little lot. Ever since Big Mama's opened, the feud has existed between the two. See, Corolla Pizza sells Pizza and subs and various lunch/dinner foods. Big Mama was supposed to sell only ice cream, but slowly ventured into the breakfast business and then *gasp* seafood, burgers, and other fried, fat, and greasy southern "lunch" foods. Big Mama knows ALL the town gossip. One day Larry's dog, Mud (that always rode on the back of his tow truck), jumped off and got hit by a car. The news was around the whole town in about 2 minutes because of people filtering in and out of Big Mama's! Anyway, I don't believe the owners ever speak, but if us "frequent visitors" ever so much as peek inside the other's place of business...the neglected one might reserve the right to serve us for all future purposes! I don't think it's actually that bad, but Max, the youngest member of our staff here at COA chooses his meals and timings accordingly so as not to anger either. Same with Norris.

Quick note on Max...Max just graduated from HS and guides for us. He has been here for a few years and lived on the OBX all his life so he has tons of info for tours and for us newbies. Max taught us how to fish with a net in the ocean and has been slowly but surely teaching me how to master my surfing skills (key word, slowly!). But Max is ALWAYS hungry. He runs one 2-hour tour and needs to quickly down one of Big Mama's fried breakfast sandwhich things and about 2 sips of crush soda. Throughout the summer I've resorted to leading him to the truck where his tour is waiting with food! Max has been a fun roommate and his bottle and food habits are definitely daily entertainment!

Back to Norris. Norris Austin is a 5th-generation native to the area. His family has lived here keeping the lighthouse lite pretty much since its beginning. He owns the whole strip and knows all the history of the area- as well as all the gossip! He is well-liked by pretty much everyone though and is also 90% deaf. He has been one of Tim and I's good friends here all summer. He lives above the strip (of which he is the landlord) and with barely any family close by and a long-distance girlfriend in Florida, he spends a lot of his time just sitting at the booth talking with us. He is literally one of the nicest guys. It has been really interesting hearing his stories of the past 70 years here in Corolla...from hurricanes to German uboats! He taught us pretty much everything we use for our tours, as well as the best ways to avoid getting into any of the local feuds!! It has been such a treat learning about his life here and just sitting and watching the parking lot!

Often times Norris and I passed our time watching or talking with Corolla's celebrity, Crazy Dave. Dave was quite the guy! He got on the scene sometime in early June and he had all sorts of crazy stories and ideas. He was maybe 26 or so? And he often dressed in duct tape and carried a Mary-Poppins type bag with umbrella and all! He sat with us talking for hours some days and played concerts in the gazebo right next to the booth for hours on Sunday afternoons. He lived up the street somewhere but he mostly just wandered through Corolla working on his songs and poetry and smoking tons of Norris's cigarettes! He met a girl and got "married" at some point in the summer but she had to go back to her home country. Dave was another really nice, but very interesting person we met out here. Our boss at COA has many strange sayings, (most of the time he mumbles them and we all have no idea what he's talking about) but one of the more-coherent ones that he repeated throughout the summer was "It takes all kinds of clowns to make a circus" and I just think that that phrase really sums up the summer!

This circus has been such a culture-shock of sorts for me into the South! It is truly a different world from Colorado! We are leaving for Southeast Asia in October, but for all intensive purposes, this summer has been just as much part of the adventure! We have been working, saving, and planning to leave but all along we have been learning about traveling, cultures and people right here in Corolla!!

Beyond these characters I've introduced, there have been so many other great people and so many other interesting ones! Corolla is truly a crazy place and a very interesting beginning to our adventures!! While some parts of the summer have been for sure stressful, homesick, and trying, I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to see another part of the world here, gain an unbelievable education in customer service and the tourist culture, learn how to slow down and do only one thing at a time- or even how to just sit and do nothing at all (weird for me I know!), and, oh yea, how to fix cars...or at least rattle off some parts and possible problems!

Now, with less than a month until we leave, we are both heading back to Colorado for some good Mountain time! I can't wait to spend a few weeks with my friends and fam back home and I'm so looking forward to the official start of the adventure!

27 days!!!!

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