Thursday, September 22, 2005

Having a (sand) blast


Parts of North Carolina’s Outer Banks reminded me of the landscape of another planet – barren, harsh, foreboding. During the week my wife and I spent there, Hurricane Ophelia sat off the coast of Florida, while a large high pressure system hovered around Bermuda. The combination of these two systems funneled 15-25 mph winds directly at the North Carolina coast for several days, adding to the otherworldly aspect.

The strong winds continuously whipped salt spray and stinging particles of sand, making a walk on the beach a pretty miserable experience. But hey, we came 1,500 miles to see this and bring back photos, so to the beach we did go.

One photo I particularly like is of the footprints of my wife and me, taken at dawn after we had endured a sandblasting while crossing the dunes to get to the beach. We’ve been married 27 years, and together have endured our share of sandblasting from life’s twists and turns over the years. Our footprints are co-mingled to the extent that you cannot tell which ones belong to whom. Pretty good picture of a marriage, if you ask me. (Note: Blogger is not having a good day uploading photos. See the photo at the top of the Flickr box to the right. Click on it for a larger view.)

Click on pictures to enlarge. Photographs © 2005, James Jordan. Posted by Picasa

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello illinoian!

From another illinoian

James said...

Native Illinoian? I'm originally a Michiganian.

Jackie Bolen said...

Cool pic! And also a great description to go along with it.