Oriental High

Oriental Public Dock
N 35 01.49 W 76 41.74

What's not to like about Oriental? We meet more new people per hour here at the Oriental Public Dock than anyplace else.

We made new friends, Dave and Karen on board Summer Salt.

I found a new Oriental Museum with artifacts from local history. One of the artifacts, who once looked like Rita Hayworth, is now the curator. She doesn't look like Rita any more but she does look good.

Last night we went to the amateur theater and saw a play. It was great fun. The play was written by a local author and played by local actors and actresses. We recognized some of them from a play we saw here two years ago. So it was like the home troup for us. The play was called Life Goes On, and the theme was somewhat like the movie "Weekend at Bernies." We laughed a lot.

After the play we sat up talking with Dave and Karen until midnight. For people like us who go to bed at sunset, that was unusual.

This morning, I had breakfast coffee at "The Bean" across the street, and I got my ear filled with all the dirt about local politics. (It sounds like local politics anywhere.)

Today, we went to the Oriental community yard sale. It was fun and the local people are fun to watch. This is a retirement community and it seems like all the retired folks here are ex sailors.

In the afternoon we played scrabble with Dave and Karen. They are good players. Very good. Too good for us. The first game they trounced us, but on the second game they beat us by only a point or two, so we felt better.

We decided to leave tonight. There is a gale forecast for tomorrow. We used up our 48 hours here at the public dock. Therefore we're headed for Broak Creek, only 8 miles from here. We'll hole up there for 24 or more hours until the gale subsides. Today, the winds are <10 and it's nice. Tomorrow morning it will be raining and 20-25 knot head winds; much less pleasant. Hence the decision to leave now.