A Tale of Two Museums

The Alligator River
N 35 49 W 076 02

We spent two days in Elizabeth City. As you know, The Hospitality City (River City it its other nickname) is the favorite stop for many cruisers. This is the first time though that it wasn't crowded with cruising boats. I think that most of the other cruisers are holding back to go to the Annapolis Boat Show.

We enjoyed southern cooking in Elizabeth City's restaurants. The Colonial Restaurant, and the Prime Sirloin Buffet Restaurant are among the best. We also went to a wine and cheese party at Fred Fearing's House. Fred is the first and foremost member of the Rose Buddies. Rose Buddies personally welcome cruisers to the city, and provide personal hospitality. Sam, the dock master, gives everyone detailed directions when docking. Fred, hosts a wine and cheese reception for the cruisers every day
at 16:30. Fred, who is 93 years old, has not been feeling well lately so there have not been parties for several months, but last night he had one. We wish Fred the best and hope that he's well enough to continue his parties for many years.

We also went to a scholarly lecture last night. Mr. Stephen B. Jareckie, gave a lecture and a slide show about the photo show "Ansel Adams In The East" Ansel Adams, the famous American photographer, is known for his pictures of Yosemite but he once made a trip on the ICW from Newark to Savannah that passed through the Great Dismal Swamp Canal and Elizabeth City. The photos of that trip are on tour and right now they are in Elizabeth City in the new Museum of the Abemarle.

The museum itself is the subject of a good story. It is an enormous and beautiful building, open only since last year. The first thing I noted about it was that at most times there were zero or only one car parked in the visitors parking lot, yet 15-20 cars parked in the employees parking lot. Nevertheless, Fred Fearing said that we should go and see the museum and we did.

Yesterday afternoon I went alone to the museum and I was shocked. Despite the millions of dollars worth of facilities, and the numerous friendly employees and guides around, there are almost no artifacts inside. They have a 1939 Coca Cola bottle, a 1916 Texaco gas pump, a 1950 school lunch box, and a cardboard box that once held plastic sandwich bags. They have a 12 foot moth sailing dinghy and a replica of a 20 foot fishing boat. Oh yes, they temporarily have the 50 5x5 Ansel Adams pictures
on loan. That's it. The overall impression is that this museum has an astronomically high budget for facilities, and for operating costs, but almost zero for exhibits.

Compare that to the museum we saw in Whitehall New York. That museum was jam packed with countless artifacts of all descriptions, many of them unique and interesting. Not only that, the museum was flooded a few years ago and they lost much of their inventory, so what we saw this year are newly collected antiques and artifacts. It is staffed by volunteers. It uses a donated second hand building. It appears to operate on a shoestring budget.

The contrast between these two museums could not be more drastic. If I were a taxpayer in Whitehall NY, I would be very proud and pleased and perhaps moved to volunteer myself, or to donate antiques. If I were a taxpayer in Elizabeth City, I would totally outraged and speechless over the pointless waste of my money.

Changing subjects. This morning it was windy and only 60 degrees. Brrrrrr. Too cold for us already. We're heading south. We got an announcement of a Seven Seas Cruising Association conference in Melbourne, FL on Nov 9-10-11. It sounds interesting and we think we might go for that. If we do, we would have to backtrack a little. We have reservations to fly from Jacksonville to Fairbanks on November 19. We would have to go north again from Melbourne to Jacksonville to do that. So be it.