Around noon today I loaded the Rebounder, brought the dogs to the Pet Parlor in Oriental for boarding, and headed off to Norfolk. It was a long drive. Stopped at this burger joint for lunch and had an incredible burger and fries. I'm parked about 30-40 miles from the airport just outside the city. The sun is just about to go down at 8:00 p.m. The weather here is perfect. I will be able to sleep with just the windows open tonight. It's like a completely different weather experience here. I can see now that the outer banks of the Carolinas are holding the bad weather in - maybe its the arctic water and the gulf stream converging off the coast that creates the weather we have been experiencing in Oriental, but whatever, it is much more dry, sunny, and pleasant up north here, at least this time of year. Sometimes you just have to push through the present circumstances - give up the good to go for the great, so to speak. I have to admit I was really depressed today leaving Oriental without the dogs, but I have no choice. Traveling completely alone is not what I had in mind. Leaving the dogs in a kennal was not in the plan. But I have already learned that cruising on a sailboat means giving up set plans and living day by day or week by week and making decisions as needed even if the decisions are hard ones. I bought a few $5 DVDs at the Walmart and will watch one tonight on the surround sound home theater. Tomorow late morning I will head to the airport to park in the long-term oversized vehicle parking. Late tomorrow I will be back in Tucson. As long as I'm in populated areas, I have good internet from the Verizon card (which they finally replaced via Fed Ex to Deatons). So for now I can keep posting, but there won't be much of interest to cruisers or arm-chair cruisers, except the reality that you sometimes get called back home and you've got to deal with that with as good an attitude as possible.