Day 2:  My Trip Continues

Friday, April 27, 2012, Kill Devil Hills, NC

Today does not start off well.  I’m sleeping on a strange floor that smells funny and I’m rousted from my semi-slumber by this annoying buzzing sound.  It is 6:30AM and about 2 hours before I usually get up.  Apparently we are sleeping on the top floor of a building that is burning down! My parents have no sense of urgency and tell me to relax and lay down!  Finally they hear the fire trucks and start moving. I see fire trucks and people standing outside!  I’M FREAKING OUT! 

We go downstairs and I seek comfort in the arms of children. 

I get to meet a few fire people and we go for a run on the beach.  That is more like it!  Just when I’m starting to relax, I almost get arrested!  The Nags Head police department tells me I have to be on a leash on the beach.  I respond by running around the police truck twice and bark at the lady, before succumbing to restraint.  We continue MY walk and I find a dead thing on the beach.  I decide that if that thing came out of the water, then I’m never going in the water again. 

I’m pretty damned hungry at this point because I haven’t eaten yet and I got paraded all over the streets of Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head, North Carolina while my addict parents seek a Dunkin’ Donuts.  They get coffee and I take a drink out of a pond.  I feel like there is a very good chance I’m going to get ill, dehydrated, and starved.  I’ve already met the police and fire people this morning and suspect I’ll soon be meeting paramedics which would complete my Outer Banks First Responder trifecta.  Fortunately, I make it back to the hotel and I get to eat.  Shortly after, my dad says, “OK, Cooper, let’s go!” I had to go for a run on a full stomach, 2 whole miles.  It was actually kind of fun.  After that, I rode in the backseat of a Kia Optima for 413 miles.  We are in Marion, NC and I’m being tortured by the smell of woodchucks and a Sonic outside our window.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring.