- Joined
- Mar 13, 2018
- Messages
- 313
Why? Because the world is full of people like me. 
We are spending the week on the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina. We drove down Friday afternoon and drove out on the beach at Oregon Inlet yesterday. The Park Service has a little over 2 miles of beach open to driving if you have a $120/year permit. The permit is good on Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island as well. It wasn't crowded, but still rutted up below the high tide line. I'll get back to this pic in a minute.
I have small lock box with a built-in combination lock cabled to the back of the front seat track that I use to hold my keys, billfold and phone while I'm fishing or hunting seashells. As best I can figure, when we left after 4 hours I pulled my keys out of the box and her ring came with them. Oops.
We drove 18 miles north back to the cottage in Kill Devil Hills and the ring wasn't there when I took my billfold and phone out of the box. WTHeck.
I cut back the carpet, looked in the vents under the seat, and pretty much stood on my head for 20 minutes looking under the seat. Grr.
Did I mention the ring had arrived from Whiteflash on 4/10? A nice 1.51 carat F VVS2 ACA in a platinum U-113.
On with the story. The nervous breakdown continues. I told her I'd get her the cheaper of the two 2 carat stones from the Collection Series whether she wanted one that big or not. She wanted her ring and her diamond, of course. She picked them.
We got back in the 4Runner and drove the 18 miles back to the beach. It was 4 pm or so and high tide was due just after 7.
I remembered that we'd been parked next to a doughnut somebody had cut into sand by driving in a circle with 4 wheels spinning.
I've been visiting the Outer Banks since the early '70s and have a little sense of direction.
When we left I had made u-turn through the doughnut - the doughnut being the tire track ruts running left-right in this pic. Our tracks run from the right edge off into the distance.
It took me 10 minutes to find where I'd backed up hours and hours ago, but that gave me the precise spot we'd parked parallel to the surf. I figured where the back door would have been on the driver's side and started scraping the surface with my antique folding shovel. I'd do 4 scrapes and quickly scatter the piles and she'd follow behind breaking the little clods of damp sand with her fingertips. (Notice in the lower right corner the sand is wet. That was from a wave. The tide was beginning to move and was nearly up to us.)
I had just done the 3rd set of scrapes when she found it.
I'll have it checked when we get home, but it appears to be completely undamaged.
I think we both aged a little, but she still doesn't look 63.
I don't know if I need ring insurance, but I really should buy a lottery ticket.
Whew.
We are spending the week on the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina. We drove down Friday afternoon and drove out on the beach at Oregon Inlet yesterday. The Park Service has a little over 2 miles of beach open to driving if you have a $120/year permit. The permit is good on Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island as well. It wasn't crowded, but still rutted up below the high tide line. I'll get back to this pic in a minute.
I have small lock box with a built-in combination lock cabled to the back of the front seat track that I use to hold my keys, billfold and phone while I'm fishing or hunting seashells. As best I can figure, when we left after 4 hours I pulled my keys out of the box and her ring came with them. Oops.
We drove 18 miles north back to the cottage in Kill Devil Hills and the ring wasn't there when I took my billfold and phone out of the box. WTHeck.
I cut back the carpet, looked in the vents under the seat, and pretty much stood on my head for 20 minutes looking under the seat. Grr.
Did I mention the ring had arrived from Whiteflash on 4/10? A nice 1.51 carat F VVS2 ACA in a platinum U-113.
On with the story. The nervous breakdown continues. I told her I'd get her the cheaper of the two 2 carat stones from the Collection Series whether she wanted one that big or not. She wanted her ring and her diamond, of course. She picked them.
We got back in the 4Runner and drove the 18 miles back to the beach. It was 4 pm or so and high tide was due just after 7.
I remembered that we'd been parked next to a doughnut somebody had cut into sand by driving in a circle with 4 wheels spinning.
I've been visiting the Outer Banks since the early '70s and have a little sense of direction.
When we left I had made u-turn through the doughnut - the doughnut being the tire track ruts running left-right in this pic. Our tracks run from the right edge off into the distance.
It took me 10 minutes to find where I'd backed up hours and hours ago, but that gave me the precise spot we'd parked parallel to the surf. I figured where the back door would have been on the driver's side and started scraping the surface with my antique folding shovel. I'd do 4 scrapes and quickly scatter the piles and she'd follow behind breaking the little clods of damp sand with her fingertips. (Notice in the lower right corner the sand is wet. That was from a wave. The tide was beginning to move and was nearly up to us.)
I had just done the 3rd set of scrapes when she found it.
I'll have it checked when we get home, but it appears to be completely undamaged.
I think we both aged a little, but she still doesn't look 63.
I don't know if I need ring insurance, but I really should buy a lottery ticket.
Whew.
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