Unconquerable Faith

We rented a car to drive to Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers National Memorial, located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.  Along the way we stopped at ‪Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe‬‪‬ on the waterfront where we shared French toast filled with cream cheese! OMG. Time for a juice cleanse.‬

 

We arrived at the memorial to learn about the first successful, sustained, powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine. From 1900 to 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright came here from Dayton, Ohio, because of the area's steady winds to generate more lift and sandy ground to soften their test landings.  The Memorial commemorates two ingenious brothers who conducted a series of experiments that three years later resulted in the world’s first heavier than air, powered controlled flight. Their story embodies the American ideal of hard work overcoming all obstacles. Wilbur and Orville Wright were not just lucky bicycle mechanics. They succeeded because of study and scientific experimentation. Their story is the realization of a dream that had existed for centuries.  Their story is not simply about building the first plane, but rather about how they scientifically solved the problems of powered flight. In order to be successful they needed to address two issues:  Creating the optimal wing shape to generate life and developing flight controls that could control pitch, yaw and roll.  Today's aircraft still rely on the flight controls of elevators, a rudder and ailerons that the Wright Brothers developed to control flight. 

Later, we rented bikes to ride through Kitty Hawk which took us along a pretty forested bike path, and narrow golden sand beach with sea grasses, lined with neighborhoods of houses on stilts. We took a mini nature walk in the midst of the bike ride on a board walk just above the salt marsh. Several species of turtles were sunning on logs (that looked like alligators) and as we took the scenery in leaning over the bridge what seemed like hundreds of turtles poked their heads up from all edges of the cove and started swimming our way. We realized they must’ve been expecting some treats!