Saturday, August 8, 2009

Body Island or Bodie Island Lighthouse

Body Island Light House was built in 1872. It was the second attempt. The first was not sturdy enough to last through the hurricanes. It is called Body Island Light House, however it is not on an island. There is no Body Island in North Carolina. The first light house workers last name was Body. Thus the name of the light house. At some point someone began spelling it with an IE and it stuck. Hence taking Body to Bodie. No official change, no official reasoning just changed and stuck.
This is the staircase in the light house. It is not possible to climb it anymore because the rigging to the wall are not safe. It will be going under construction later this year, the end of Spetember I believe, and it will be finished sometime next year. The lady ranger that was inside the light house said that it will cost approximately 3.2 million to redo the staircase.
When they originally made the lighthouse there was a huge machine in this hole that actually turned the light around and helped to lift the huge cannisters of karosene up to the top.


The beautiful staircase again.


Just playing but the copper effect on the picture is aweomse! It makes it all creepy haunted like. This place wasnt haunted but it looks cool.

This is the room where the watchers would stay in at night or during their shift to make sure the light was full at all times and running.

This is the house that the lighthouse keeper and their assistants would stay in. The keeper had their family stay with them as much as possible. The only thing being is that if they had children there is no school near the island so they would have to go to Ocracoke or another near by Island to get their schooling.

Just playing, sorry they are sideways


This is the copper coloring with me :D and the lighthouse


Black and white with the beautiful North Carolina sky in the background.

This is a ranger. They switch between the lighthouse and the house to talk with visitors and to tell their story.
These are pictures of the lighthouse from the early 1900's. The kid in the bottom left hand corner is the lighthouse keepers son. He was wearing his dad's uniform and would later become a navy man himself. As you can see in the picture on the far right of the board.

This is him some 80 years later. He is in his nineties now and works every tuesday and thursday telling his story and educating people on the ways of life then. He told us a lot of stories. There was one that was really funny. His dad had some guys come out and build a shed. The guys that were building the shed didnt brace the shed or build it up the way they should have. His dad kept telling them it would blow away with the first big wind. When they had their first good blowing (his words) the shed flew away. Never to be seen again. A more solemn story would be when the hurricane threatened to take the lighthouse. The water from the ocean came all the way up to the stairs of the lighthouse. Luckily it didnt get any closer but the evacuation left many animals and people fending for themselves.

Well that is all from Body, but I will be bringing more to you from the other light houses and beaches in NC. Stay tuned.

Trip to the Outer Banks

We flew from KC to Norfolk. The flight was pretty uneventful despite the turbulence. Then we got to Norfolk. Our flight was late getting in so we missed our reservation for our rental car. Not happy, then we went out to go to the hotel and the shuttle's had stopped for the night. Ha, yeah. So we just went to the hotel and decided to start fresh the next morning.
Our first stop we made was to the Wright Brother's Field Museum. We lucked out because we also were there on the day that the kite festival was happening. It was really cool to be there where history took place. We walked the flight path and even saw the places where the first and other flights ended. To even have the idea of putting paper and wood together just makes you really wonder what was in their heads that made it possible. It was amazing.
We were there early but this is the beginning of the flight festival.
YAY ZOOM! This is looking up the hill.
This is my friend Anne, she went with me. She really made the trip happen.
Above all else from this trip I learned that faith no matter how small is enough. The greater your faith the greater the surprises and blessing God puts in your life.
This was my side of the monument. My faith although dashed at times has been an everlasting part of my life. Thank you God for making at least that one thing in my life so unfailing.
How beautiful is this. The Congress made this monument and carved wings into each side. The other side is hit hard by the sand and wind off the ocean so it harder to see.
Our next stop is Jockey Ridge, it is beautiful. It is the tallest sand dune on the east coast. This picture is from the top looking out over Nags Head to see the ocean.
This is us starting to climb back down. That family you see is about half way up the first hump of the dune. There were four on the way up.

Me and Anne


The beautiful grass that grows out of sand.


Me being extremely happy I am still alive. It is a lot harder than you would think to climb up sand.