Page 63 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 4 #2

I grew up in Charlotte, and I have lived since The Piedmont’s rolling hills flattened into
then in Southern Pines/Pinehurst and the Re- a giant pancake as one drove east towards the
search Triangle areas. During those years, I had coast. Small, rural towns dotted the landscape,
always seen the Outer Banks as a string of sandy but there seemed to be no “there” there, as one
jewels adorning our coast and offering delight- drove the seemingly endless roads. Especially
ful things to see and do. before I-40’s construction and improvements to
The land between the densely populated Pied- State Highways 64 and 264, if one looked up the
mont Crescent and the Outer Banks, was, in definition of “eternity,” one found, “the distance
some sense, a necessary evil. That land, which between Chapel Hill and Manteo.” (See photo
we often call “down east,” had to be there so above) Many of my fraternity brothers at the
something would link the Outer Banks with the University of North Carolina came from these
rest of the state. remote counties. They seldom went home for a

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