A thousand miles down the coast from Hampton, New Hampshire, it's still the same ocean, but warmer. The birds are different. Very few seagulls of the ilk we see in New Hampshire but lots of majestic brown pelicans, who glide above the water, then suddenly drop out of the sky splashing below the surface only to pop up with a fish.
These are charming birds, but they are not the reason to envy life on Cape Fear.
There are also live oak trees with hanging moss, which are dramatic, although no more bewitching than New Hampshire's birches.
No, what Cape Fear has over Hampton is the bicycle. Not just any bicycle, the old fashioned Huffy, with pedal brakes, and stout frames and fat tires. You cannot hurdle along in a Lyra bicycle outfit looking like Lance Armstrong on one of these. They are the three toed sloths of bicycles, and they move and turn slowly, but they are good for baskets in which to haul things and you see the nicest people slowly sailing along the asphalt roads, waving to you as you lumber by on your own clumpy bike. You simply cannot hurry on these beasts. They enforce a certain civility because you cannot just rush by people; you see them coming from a long way off and you have to tell yourself, "Okay, I'm going to be in contact with this person for a long moment and I'd better behave myself, be pleasant, because that moment can drag on and on."
Nothing moves fast in the South (except the traffic on the interstates, but that's because most of the people on those are not from the South.) When you are forced to slow down, it can be wrenching, but, after a while, it's sort of soothing.
Maybe we could designate a road, say High Street from Rte 1 to the beach as a Huffy Only road, for slow moving bicycles. If people had to get around on these turtles, they might have to stop and converse. It would be like trying to make your way down the aisle at Hannaford's, just can't do it in a blind rush.
It might put the small town back in the small town.
Phantom,
ReplyDeleteYou are right, these cruisers may not be fast but they are a civilized way to travel. I would also add pleasant and fun-if people spent some part of their day or week riding one of these it would seem for certain their stress level would decrease and their happiness level rise.Well that's provided they weren't dodging cars and fearing for their lives.Which is where your idea of closing High St, except for bikers, would come in-and if that wouldn't fly perhaps a dedicated bike path. Why yes, that's the ticket-a dedicated bike path...
Maud
Ms. Maud,
ReplyDeletePerhaps you ought to contact your Hampton representative at Concord, the Hon, Fred Rice. I'm sure he'd be eager to designate a dedicated bicycle path where children and parents alike could ramble without fear of straying into the path of an oncoming ton of steel and rubber. Oh, but that would be the same path he wants to place along side a new asphalt speedway to Portsmouth. It has the added virtue of reducing smog in Hampton, a vexing problem.
Phantom