Salt Life: The air here smells like sea and money
Salt Life: The air here smells like sea and money
Maumelle Planning Commission meets tonight; Hornets host Mills tonight in football; Blessing of the Animals is Oct. 8 plus sports and headlines
Note to subscribers: An annual or monthly subscription is billed to your debit or credit card as ARKANSAS.SUBSTACK.COM and if you have questions, please email arkansas@substack.com. Thanks for reading and subscribing!Pandemic deaths stay at 13,247
The state Department of Health, on its Covid dashboard, showed that in the past week, there were no new deaths reported and there were no new new deaths reported the previous week. The numbers were updated Tuesday, Sept. 26.
The total number of reported dead Arkansans remains at 13,247 or the state’s 31st largest city.
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The Headlines
Football note: Maumelle hosts Mills in a conference game that will be played tonight. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Meetings: The Maumelle Planning Commission meets tonight at City Hall. For more details, keep scrolling. A special call meeting of the School Board for the Pulaski County Special School District is also tonight. The Maumelle City Council meets next Monday night at City Hall.
Events: The city of North Little Rock will have a blood drive next Tuesday, Oct. 3. For more details, check out the flyer below.
The Blessing of the Animals is Oct. 8
St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, 2001 Club Manor, Suite N, Maumelle, will host the Saint Francis Blessing of the Animals service at Lake Willastein Park in Maumelle from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8.
All creatures, great and small, are welcome, and will receive a certificate of blessing, a St Francis medal, and a collapsible pet water bowl.
Maumelle Friends of the Animals will be there and Maumelle Animal Services has been invited to attend.
If it is raining, the event will be held at the church. (501) 420-4840.
Maumelle Planning Commission to meet
The Maumelle Planning Commission will have its regular, monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. tonight at City Hall.
For the agenda, click here.
The meeting should be a short one as there’s no old business and only two items of new business.
The first is a development plan modification for the FontainBleau Centre at 221 Country Club Parkway and the second is by the city for a Code Amendment on Preliminary Plat Approval.
The meeting is open to the public.
Fidelity Communications to open applications for its Charitable Giving Fund
Fidelity Communications will open Fall 2023 applications for the company’s Charitable Giving Fund, which annually awards $250,000 in grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, from Oct. 1-31.
Grants will be made available across communities served by Fidelity and will concentrate support in the following priority areas:
Education and Digital Literacy
Hunger Relief and Food Insecurity
Community Development
Last year the company awarded grants to nearly 60 nonprofits, including organizations serving the homeless, providing child advocacy, offering senior assistance and supplying food to those in need, to name a few.
“We are committed to helping strengthen the cities and towns where we live and work by giving back to the local nonprofits who do so much to support our communities,” said Julie Laulis, Cable One President and CEO.
For more information about the Fidelity Charitable Giving Fund, visit www.fidelitycommunications.com/charitablegiving.
Housing workshop to be held
A Fair Housing Workshop led by Leon Jones Jr. will be held at Bank OZK Headquarters, 18000 Cantrell Road, at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5.
The event is by the Commercial Real Estate Council of Metro Little Rock
Information on fair housing laws which will qualify for NAA hours will be offered at the Fair Housing Workshop. The event includes lunch and refreshments. Tickets are $25 for CREC members and $35 for guests and are available at www.crecmlr.org/events.
For sponsorship, ticket, or other information, contact info@crecmlr.org or 501-539-0582.
National Night Out is Tuesday
National Night Out will be Tuesday, Oct. 3 in North Little Rock and other cities around the state.
There’s no events scheduled for Maumelle though.
National Night Out is an annual event that is billed as a “ community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to help make our neighborhoods safer and improve the quality of life.”
Fourteen neighborhood associations in North Little Rock have committed to putting on or have put on events. Most are next Tuesday, Oct. 3, with the last being Saturday, Oct. 14.
Tuesday, Oct. 3
WARD 2
Young Community Advocates of Baring Cross, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., 1701 Pike Ave. (Dollar General parking lot). Activities include: A meet and greet beginning at 3 p.m. Refreshments will be served prior to cleanup, 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Dixie Addition CDC, 5 p.m.- 7 p.m. at 914 North “H” Street. Activities include: food, fun & fellowship. Contact: Earnest Franklin, 501-563-5400 or Margie Evans, 501-258-8167.
Rose City Neighborhood Association and NLR Police Athletic League, 5 p.m. - 7 p.m., Rose City Ball Park, 400 Rose Lane. Activities include: live DJ, free food and events for children and residents. Contact: Martha Capps, 501-580-1079.
Stone Links Neighborhood Association, 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., Stone Links Club House, 110 AR 391. Activities include: health screenings, food, bounce house, games, face painting and fun. Contact: Marie Hollowell, 404-259-2957.
WARD 3
Amboy Neighborhood Association, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at Amboy UMC Parking lot, 311 E. Military Dr. Activities food, fun and fellowship. Contact: Angelica Barnard, 501-297-8720 or Paula Lively, 501-350-7649.
Scenic Hill Neighborhood Association, 5 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., at the corner of East Scenic and Valley View. Activities include: snacks, drinks and meet and greet. Contact: Randy Naylor, 501-350-8775.
WARD 4
Cobblestone Crime Watch Group, 4 p.m - 7 p.m., 913 Cobblestone Circle. Activities include: Burgers, hot dogs, meet and greet first responders and members of crime watch group. Contact: Suni McClelland, 501-920-5330.
Windsor Valley Neighborhood, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. at the south end of Coleridge at Covington. Activities include: two food trucks, police & fire officials and kids craft table. Contact: Brandi Legate, 501-951-0778.
Saturday, Oct. 14
WARD 2
Melrose Community Outreach, 3 p.m. -5 p.m., 807 Willow St. Activities: drive through block party. Contact: Tammy Small, 501-541-3703.
Salt Life: The air here smells like sea and money
Sunrise
KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. – Getting here isn’t easy, and once you do arrive, you won’t want to leave, but such is the salt life of the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
The air here smells like the sea and money, as the Outer Banks is a destination for retirees and those with second, or even third, homes. There are also loads and loads of tourists. The local chamber of commerce said the barrier islands get more than 5 million visitors annually.
The Outer Banks start at the Virginia state line and continue south for roughly 120 miles to the end of Ocracoke Island, only accessible by ferry.
On our recent trip we went to the end of the road, both north and south, to get the full experience of the Outer Banks.
It is a place like no other, at least in the United States. The west side of the barrier islands are bound by the sounds of Pamlico, Croatan, and Albemarle. The brackish waters of the sound are as smooth as glass, and shallow, with most being waist deep, if you’re tall enough, at around four feet.
On the east is the Atlantic Ocean, wild and unpredictable and, on our trip, churned up by Hurricane Lee.
It means, for those so inclined, you can see the sun rise as it comes up on the eastern horizon over the ocean, then wait 12 hours, and see the sun set on the western horizon over the sound.
Both give you spectacular, memorable color.
It makes you want to live there. Then you Google, out of curiosity, and the $400,000 modest starter home that’s neither by the ocean or the sound brings you crashing back home.
Ocean front? If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
There’s always the lottery.
Our trip
We flew, then drove, to the Outer Banks. Getting there, even then, wasn’t easy. The closest airport was in Norfolk, Virginia. Then a two-hour drive to Nags Head, where we stayed the first part of the week.
You could drive from here. But it would be 17 hours, or about the same amount of drive time to Mount Rushmore, which, when we went there a couple of years ago, took two days.
The first four days, our accommodations had the advantages of being oceanside and serving a surprisingly tasty free breakfast. Our fourth floor room had a patio that looked out on the Atlantic, which cost extra but was worth it.
It also meant a short walk just over the dunes to the beach, which was also nice. The first part of the week was summer hot, and the beach, which didn’t have a lifeguard, was already under the yellow flag.
Quick primer. No flag equals good, yellow flag means hazardous ocean conditions and red flag means no swimming, too dangerous.
There was also the ever-looming threat of fatal rip tides.
The last half of the week we headed north to Corolla and to the Corolla Village Inn, above, a lovely, 12-room boutique inn that was more like staying at a wealthy friend’s place, and it also featured complimentary and tasty breakfast fare.
Splitting the trip into two meant that the first half was for seeing the southern end of the Outer Banks and for visits to the Wright Brothers National Memorial and Roanoke Island, along with a jaunt down the Hatteras National Seashore and then a ferry ride to Ocracoke.
We also went crabbing, which didn’t need a license and was as simple as throwing a baited net into the water and waiting. Crabbing, like fishing, takes patience.
It also meant lighthouses. We wanted to visit five stretching along the Outer Banks, and we made all five.
The worst part of the trip was the nearly three-hour wait for a ferry to get from Hatteras to Ocracoke.
Locals advised we were lucky, since Labor Day weekend saw waits of four hours or more.
Getting a ferry back was much easier, and the timing worked out, as we were out on the water for sunset. That meant the drive back up the Hatteras National Seashore was at night, which, again, worked out. The National Park Service said it has one of the “darkest night skies … east of the Mississippi River” and is renowned for its stargazing opportunities. Can confirm.
The back half of the week was up in Corolla and more laid back by nature.
One big highlight was seeing the wild horses, above, that the Outer Banks are famous for.
As the legend goes, specially bred horses were brought to the Outer Banks by Spanish explorers nearly 500 years ago. Some swam to shore after shipwrecks, while others got left behind as conquistadors went elsewhere or didn’t survive themselves.
Now, about 120 wild horses live north of Corolla and around the unincorporated beach community of Carova, only accessible by boat or by driving on the hard-packed sand on the beach.
You can do that – air down first – with a special permit. If you don’t take air out of your four-wheel drive vehicles, they’ll get stuck in the sand, or, even worse, set your transmission on fire, which is why the community has a volunteer fire department.
In both halves of the trip, there was lots of walking the beaches and splashing around in the Atlantic or sound. The walking often turned into shelling, which is just simply looking down and picking up anything that looks interesting.
About six pounds of shells and fulgurites, which are created when sand gets struck by lightning and fuses together in what looks like blobs of concrete, made the flight back. We didn’t find any sea glass, bits of broken bottles tumbled smooth by the sea. Hadley Twiddy, the owner and manager at the Corolla Village Inn, said the surf was too rough.
We also didn’t find any shark teeth.
If you went to the Outer Banks back in the 1980s or earlier, Corolla might be a little confusing. It was once a tiny community of maybe 20 until state Hwy. 12 was extended past Duck. Since that project was completed in 1995, more than 5,000 homes have been constructed, and the population, mostly seasonal, has swelled.
Twiddy is one of the few who has been there since before all that happened. Her family has a vast real estate empire stretching across the Outer Banks, and they’ve also been responsible for the restoration of many historic buildings in Corolla Village, namely the two-room schoolhouse and community church.
Corolla is also home to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, which was our fifth and final lighthouse of the trip, and the Whalehead, a restored duck hunting lodge from the 1920s.
Waterfowl is a thing there.
“Currituck” is an Indian word for the Land of the Wild Geese and was settled by Europeans in 1668. As the dynamics of the coast changed, the freshwater inlets closed early in the 20th century, and the land became ideal resting spots for migratory birds like geese and ducks.
It became a hunter’s paradise. The rich came to shoot birds from the sky, and the locals developed a thriving industry as guides and boat builders.
What we didn’t do
When you go to a tourist hot spot, sometimes it can feel that costs are just a little bit inflated with what one could call “rip-off” prices. That wasn’t the case in the Outer Banks.
Meals out, mostly lunches and dinners thanks to all those free breakfasts, were competitive with or less than Little Rock prices. We also hit the grocery stores a couple of times. Food Lions, the local version of Kroger, were everywhere and handy for snacks and drinks. They weren’t any more pricey than buying here at home.
Maybe it was because of the abundance of local seafood, or maybe it was due to going after Labor Day, and past peak tourist season, but there was no sticker shock that came with the tabs.
One of the best meals was a Swordfish Schnitzel, above, and it was all of $17 as an entrée that was big enough to split.
Being past Labor Day meant some attractions had already closed for the season. It also meant, in theory, that crowds would be smaller, but it seemed like all of Ohio had driven down for a few days.
We also didn’t rent a beach house. Weeklong rentals are popular, but it wasn’t necessary.
Final thoughts
If you’re looking for something different, and don’t mind a flight, the Outer Banks should be at the top of your list to visit, if you haven’t been.
It really is like no place else and worth a week or more.
Would we go back? Yes, just not next year. There are more places to go and more out there to see before we become repeat customers of any locale.
But, truly, if we won the lottery, the Outer Banks would be a hard place to pass up.
Gwen Green contributed to this story.
Sunset
High school roundup
Maumelle loses to Pine Bluff
The Maumelle Hornets will have to regroup quickly after a 41-25 loss to Pine Bluff last Friday with a game tonight as they host Mills.
After the loss, Maumelle is now 2-2 on the season while Mills is 5-0 and ranked the No. 4 team in 5A by hootens.com.
The game tonight will kickoff at 7 p.m.
Last week, Maumelle took the early lead on Pine Bluff with a Jaiden Worsham run, only to see the Zebras roll for three consecutive touchdowns before quarterback Andrew Bjork went in from three yards to make the score 21-13 at the half.
The second half again saw Pine Bluff score three touchdowns in the third quarter before Johnathan Frost returned an interception 50 yards for the touchdown.
Maumelle wasn't done, as Bjork hit Alan Timmons for a 57-yard catch and run in the fourth quarter to set the final margin.
Timmons has scored a touchdown in every game this season and also had two interceptions on defense.
Across North of the River, North Little Rock got its first win of the season by beating Little Rock Central, 41-6, in a game that was played at the JA Fair football field.
The 'Cats will be tested on Friday as No. 1 Conway will be in town. Conway is led by former Bryant coach Buck James as he looks to replicate his Saline County magic in Faulkner County.
Central Arkansas Christian beat Little Rock Hall, 40-27, last week in a 4A-4 conference game, and travel to Mayflower on Friday.
With the win, CAC improved to 4-1 on the year and are No. 10 in its classification by hootens.com. Mayflower is 3-1 and ranked No. 25 in the same poll.
Friday night lights
Maumelle Hornets
Aug. 25 ... Maumelle 20, Sylvan Hills 0
Sept. 1 ... Maumelle 41, Batesville 27
Sept. 8 … White Hall 42, Maumelle 21
Sept. 22 ... Pine Bluff 41, Maumelle 25
Thursday, Sep 28 ... Mills ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 6 ... at Robinson ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 13 ... Morrilton ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 20 ... at Watson Chapel ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 27 ... Vilonia ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 3 ... Beebe ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 10 ... First round of playoffs
BOLD indicates home game
For the roster, please click here.
CAC Mustangs
Aug. 25 ... CAC 52, Lonoke 16
Sept. 1 ... CAC 40, Perryville 6
Sept. 8 ... CAC, 50 Bauxite 45
Sept. 15 ... Harmony Grove 43, CAC 42
Sept. 22 ... CAC 40, Little Rock Hall 27
Friday, Sept. 29 ... at Mayflower ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 6 ... at Pottsville ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 13 ... Clinton ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 20 ... at Dover ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 3 ... at Lamar ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 10 ... First round of playoffs
BOLD indicates home game
For the roster, please click here.
North Little Rock 'Cats
Aug. 25 ... Catholic 17, North Little Rock 7
Sept. 1 ... Fayetteville 58, North Little Rock 20
Sept. 15 ... Parkview 52, North Little Rock 14
Sept. 22 ... North Little Rock 41, Little Rock Central 6
Friday, Sept. 29 ... Conway ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 6 ... at Little Rock Southwest ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 13 ... Jonesboro ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 20 ... Fort Smith Northside ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 27 ... at Bryant ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 3 ... at Cabot ... 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 10 ... First round of playoffs
BOLD indicates home game
For the roster, please click here.
Sports
Travs lose decisive Game 3
The Travelers bid for a Texas League Championship came to a 9-1 end at Amarillo in Game 3 of the three-game series.
The Sod Poodles were powered by a second inning grand slam while the Travs had trouble connecting and were to held five hits.
The Travs haven't won the Texas League championship since 2008 and get another chance next season.
It will start Friday, April 5 at North Little Rock's Dickey-Stephens Park.