As 2018 comes to a close, it's time to look back over the year and some of the stories that we covered in our Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates blog. There were some tough choices that we had to make about which story to highlight for each month, but here it is—our 2018 recap.
January-Two Winter Snowstorms
Generally speaking the Outer Banks experiences one snowfall every winter. Two within two weeks of each other in the same month? Unheard of...until 2018.
February-Pea Island Bridge Named for Lifesaving Service Hero
Naming the bridge for Richard Etheridge is appropriate.
Etheridge was the captain of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station from the 1880s through the 1890s.
The Pea Island Lifesaving Station was the only all African American crew in the Lifesaving Service and was consistently rated as one of the best on the Outer Banks.
March-Nor'Easters Create Perfect Winter Surf
Maybe it was the back to back nor'easters that created the perfect conditions for the waves that rolled in on Wednesday. Maybe it was the wind shifting just enough to the west to stack those massive waves, so they were no longer an unreadable swirl of currents.
Whatever it was, something happened yesterday to create an almost perfect winter surfing day.
April-Record Breaking Bluefin Tuna
Caught on the last day of 2018 of the North Carolina bluefin tuna trophy season, there is a new state record for the largest of the tuna family.
Weighing in at 877 pounds the tuna was landed on March 17—that's St. Patrick 's Day. It does take a while for the weight to become official, but here it is a little less than one month later and there is a new record in the books.
May-Permit Needed for Carova Beach Parking
Heading to the Carova area of the Currituck Banks? If so, be sure to get a permit before parking on the beach.
Beginning this weekend—Memorial Day—a permit is required for anyone who is parking on the Carova beach. The very important word in that sentence is parking. In other words, if a family is planning on driving to the 4WD area, and stopping to go swimming or fishing, a permit will be needed.
(The jury is still out on how successful Currituck County's permitting experiment has been.)
June-Fourth Outer Banks Microbrew Opens
And now we are four—four locally owned microbreweries on the Outer Banks, that is.
The Northern Outer Banks Brewing Company in Corolla just joined the mix this spring, and that brings the number of microbreweries on the Outer Banks to four. Or maybe five if 1718 Brewing down in Ocracoke is included...although we think that's a bit of a long way to go for a beer.
July-New Book on the Lost Colony
There is a new book out on the Lost Colony and it may be the most comprehensive study of the fate of the 115 colonists that has been published.
Andrew Lawler's The Secret Token, Myth, Obsession and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, is an amazing book that manages to incorporate elements of a a mystery or spy novel into a book filled with a detailed study of the history of the Lost Colony and why—and how—it has to hold such a dominant place in the American psyche.
August-Village Table and Tavern Opens in Duck
It seems like Village Table and Tavern in Duck has been under construction forever—but at long last it's open!
For visitors who have been driving up to Corolla, that's the building that's been under construction at the Nor'Banks Sailing Center since February.
Was it worth the wait?
A soft opening visit this past weekend would say that yes it was—most emphatically.
September-Outer Banks Icon Glenn Eure Passes Away
We meet very few truly memorable people in our lives. Glenn Eure was one of them.
Anyone meeting him felt immediately as though he would be a friend for life. Glenn was funny, outgoing, irreverent and a remarkably complex man.
He passed away this past week, and for the Outer Banks and hundreds if not thousands of visitors that met him there is a void that will be hard to fill.
October-Mustang Fall Mustang Music Returns to Corolla
The first day of the Mustang Rock & Roast is now in the bag and whatever the expectations were, they were exceeded.
It helped that the weather was perfect, but the sunshine and autumn temperatures, just made an amazing day or music that much better.
The headliner, Big Something, didn't disappoint...at all.
November-Kitty Hawk Winks Closes
Change is inevitable but somehow it seemed the Kitty Hawk Winks was immune to that. Through 65 years it remained at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and the Beach Road, the perfect beach town convenience store, dispensing food, sandwiches, teeshirts and cheap souvenirs in equal measure.
Change, evidently has finally caught up with the icon to beach living and Thanksgiving Weekend will be the store's last hurrah.
The ribbon cutting for the new Bonner Bridge has been moved back to sometime in January or February next year. NCDOT had hoped to get the replacement span for the aging bridge opened by the end of this year, but a series of storm event have delayed the final touches for completing the bridge.
Structurally the new span is completed. However, there is ongoing work to finish guardrails, remove construction equipment and minor work that goes into finishing any major project.
