Hang Gliding

Well we are one day away from jumping on the bikes and pedaling our way across the US one mile at a time. As pumped as we are for the trip to start, it almost came to a grinding halt before it even started. We were at Kitty Hawk Kites this afternoon trying our hand at a little hang gliding and don't think I will be getting my pilots license any time soon (watch the video below). We took the beginning hang gliding class, which takes us to the top of the giant sand dunes at the Outer Banks and fly at low heights WITH the help of an instructor. As you will see from the video, flight #1 goes just fine, but flight #2 comes to a very unexpected sudden halt. The only casualty turned out to be the shin, but fortunately I made the executive decision the day before to do something that I will only do one time in my life because of the trip and will make any kind of road rash much easier to deal with. I shaved the legs… A video of that fortunately does not exist and Lee now can't stop staring at my legs, maybe not.

In addition to having a good time hang gliding, we had good company on the dunes. We met George Simmons, who is now a retired US Park Ranger from Alaska on vacation with his family. They just finished a three-week white water down the Grand Canyon and are now finishing their vacation in the Outer Banks. They were on the waiting list for two years to go down the Grand Canyon, which from everything I had heard is a very short wait. The stories George told us made us both want to change the course of the trip up to Alaska, hey what is an extra 2000 miles?

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