I get no kick from a plane

Orville, Wilbur, go outside this minute,/ And there continue with your silly playing!/ Take these plans and take those blueprints./ Take that funny looking thing,/ Take that wheel, take that wing,/ I can't hear a thing that Mrs. Johnson's saying.

Mother Necessity, School House Rock

Before I tell about my trips today, two notes from last night.

As I mentioned, I travel with a Droid. One of the the things the mobile Google page has is a "near me now" link. If you press it, you can find nearby restaurants, shops, entertainment, etc. Very useful. Since I got hungry after posting, I found out about the Outer Banks Brewing Station. (They make their own beer, and they're wind powered. I had the Captain's Porter.)

Also, the Outer Banks is much prettier in the day than at night. When I got here, it could have been any town. But in the daytime, I can see the ocean from outside my hotel, and the roads all go over scenic bridges.

On Dec. 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made history by making the flight. (Unless you count balloons, or birds, or pterodactyls. You know what I mean.) The spot where they made it is about a a mile from my hotel, so I checked it out.

I found it both awe inspiring and dinky.

The inspiring: I've been on planes that have flown to other continents, and it's amazing that several tons of steel can stay in the air for thousands of miles. And there's a sense of history. You can walk the same strip that Wilbur did as he guided his brother in the plane before it took off. Plus there's a majestic monument on a hill overlooking the site.

The dinky: The first flight went 120 feet. I think the planes I've been on are longer than that. And the ground around the markers commemorating the first flights are huge and barren. It's like the Wright brothers didn't want to try their experimental vehicle where there were any trees or buildings it could crash into.

Since you're reading this online, and they're probably two of the best known Americans in history, I won't go into most of the details. I will, however, share to things I learned and liked:

• Orville Wright was a newspaper publisher. Since I work at a paper, that interests me. What I really love is that he was perfectly happy to cram his paper with filler (stories that aren't timely or necessarily local). Look at this Library of Congress copy of the paper, which starts out with a story of a Frenchman who wears disguises. The big news story about a gas company demanding it be allowed to raise its rates is in the middle of page 2.
• I love the names of the towns in this area: Duck, Nag's Head, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills. They're so evocative. There was a quote at the monument site from Wilbur: "The practice ground at the Kill Devil Hills consists of a level plain of bare sand, from which rises a group of detached hills or mounds formed of sand heaped up by the winds. These hills are constantly changing in height and slope." So the place was named because of its devilish hills.

I also visited Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. Because that's abbreviated Fort Raleigh N.H.S. on the map, my Droid insists it is called "Fort Raleigh N High School." It's dedicated to the lost colony of Roanoke. I think my favorite part there (since the historic recreations are only done during the summer) was the nature trail. At that trail, they've constructed a narrative as to why the colony disappeared: the colonists had no idea how to live off the land, so they starved. They admit it's speculation, but it's interesting speculation. I also really loved how they reprinted notes from the would-be colonists with original spelling and punctuation intact. I liked it so much I picked up "A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia" written by Thomas Harriot in 1590. I believe in getting souvenirs for sites.

I did other stuff today too, but it was less interesting. Surely you don't want to hear about my quest for earphones. Actually, you might. I left mine at home, and realized during the nature walk that the plight of the lost colonists would be much more interesting with some They Might Be Giants playing. So I went looking for another set. I found a type I liked for a decent price at K-Mart. And this is the amazing part: I only had to wait in line for less two minutes before I was checked out. That never happens to me in New Jersey. There, I can be the only person in the store and it will still take them 10 minutes to ring up my order.

Tune in tomorrow for the saga of going down to Georgia. And now I have the Charlie Daniels Band stuck in my head.