[fredhead]

when I was that age, many, many years ago, my parents had a beach buggy and we would go down Bogue Banks, past Atlantic Beach, NC out on the beach and away from everyone. I loved it. Sand and surf. Sad that this is the only place left that’s not been commercialized. And with the salt water fishing license I can’t even go down to OBX from VA to fish when I want.

[jboot]

I remember the Banks from the old days before everybody discovered them. In the '80s there was next-to-nothing between Nag's Head and Cape Hatteras, and what there was was cozy and quaint. I fondly recall a day spent in the shadow of ancient ship timbers poking out of a dune, just fishing and lazing around with not a soul to be seen except for the flyboys out of Norfolk following the beach low and fast every hour or so. It was heaven, but that is all gone now.

The last places like that on the Banks are Ocracoke and the north end of Cape Lookout National Seashore. But Ocracoke has been growing and "maturing" since the late nineties. I wish it wouldn't. It hasn't been that long ago (2006) that there was no cell phone service on the island. Now all you see-even on the water-are people fiddling with their Dumbphones and Crackberries.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

There are still some beaches that the tourists never heard of but they are slowly finding them damnit.