Thursday, May 9, 2013 – Oriental, North Carolina (River Dunes) Mile 173):

            I woke up at 6:30 a.m. this morning for some unknown reason, but when I remembered that we were going to stay here for the day, I promptly rolled over and went back to sleep till almost 8:00 a.m.!  We are having our mail delivered here, and hopefully, it will definitely come today, and we can be on our way tomorrow.  “The sun was shining on the sea and shining with all his might” (you all know that is from The Walrus and the Carpenter, don’t you?) and it was just a beautiful, warm, sunny morning!

            I made a wonderful breakfast, and we lingered over our coffee while trying to decide what to do today.  Usually, of course, we rush around and get the bed made as quickly as possible so Miss Tickly Whiskers can hide under the covers while we get underway, but this morning I just looked at her and said, “No, we are staying here today, and I don’t feel the need to rush to make up your room.”  Well, Kitty Cat cried piteously for awhile until she finally got the idea that I wasn’t going to succumb to her meowing.  And then she strolled outside on the deck and stretched out to luxuriate in the sunshine as though she had wanted to do that all along!

One last meow!

Lounging in the sun!

            We made a plan for the day, and unexpectedly got our mail before 10:00 a.m.  I was thinking that if we had known the mail would come so early, we could have made plans to get going, but I think we needed and enjoyed our “lay day.”  But we did fill it up with chores. 

            Once we sorted out the mail, I paid bills while Bob planned our itinerary all the way home – and if the weather cooperates we might be able to get home by next Thursday!

            While I was doing the bill-paying thing, I also probably washed our last load of clothes in a marina Laundromat.  But this laundry room was really nice!  They only have two washers and dryers, but they were like new and there was a very nice folding space to use next to the dryers, and it only cost $1.00 !!  The people here are very nice – one of my towels wasn’t completely dry, and I wasn’t about to spend another dollar to dry one towel, but there was an employee in the laundry room doing marina laundry, and she offered to let me dry the towel for free!  I thanked her  profusely and said that I would just put it out in the sun, but the whole staff here is just like that – as nice as can be.

The laundry/shower area

            After we finished with the itinerary planning, bill paying, and laundry washing, we borrowed the courtesy car and headed into Oriental to go out to lunch and then the grocery store.  We wound up at the same restaurant we went to on our way down here, The Food Emporium, which has wonderful salads and sandwiches in an eclectic little setting that used to be a residential cottage (I guess).  It’s painted in bright colors and has interesting little knick-knacks for sale in addition to the usual assortment of teas, and other such items you can purchase.

            After we returned from Oriental, we had a few minutes left on the car, so we rode around the community.  It is so well planned – the entrance looks like a stable and there are ponies in the adjoining paddocks.  The roads are bordered by either woods or ponds, and you can see the Neuse River from many directions.  I suppose most of this area is eventually going to be built up someday, but right now there are only a few houses here and there most of them being clustered around the marina.  But they are well-designed – even Bob likes them!  This would be a great place to live.

The Clubhouse

A view of a few of the residential houses and the marina

            After we returned the car and put the groceries away – we only needed a few things for lunches and, surprisingly, we didn’t come home with any pastries – we decided the boat was desperate for a cleaning so Bob cleaned the outside and I cleaned the inside.  We swore we would only spend an hour, but once you get started, you just have to do it right.  But that worked out ok because I really needed to take a shower in that wonderful shower here.  Oh well, I guess that will be my last shower like that for who knows when.  I told Bob we really needed to put one of those steam showers in our bathroom at home, but you wouldn’t believe all the reasons he came up with as to why we would be unable to do it!  Oh well, I’m not through working on him yet!!

            It is now 7:00 p.m., and honestly, I don’t know where the day went!  We had a busy last day at River Dunes, and as much as I am looking forward to getting home, I will be sad to leave here!

            We had so much to eat at lunch, I don’t think we are going to eat dinner!