Earlier this week, I covered a story in Corolla, NC of someone shooting one of the wild horses that roam the beach there. It's the 8th horse killed there in recent years. While I made the trip for disturbing circumstances, I have to admit I enjoyed the natural beauty of the area. It was in fact my first visit to the Northern portion of the Outer Banks. I've gone to Kitty Hawk and Southern Shores numerous times, but never further north to Corolla. I enjoyed driving through the village of Duck. It's really a beautiful area.

At the end of my live report, my photographer Andrew Tawes, and Satellite Truck operator Bryan Tulwits were breaking down all our equipment and preparing for the long drive back to the station in Downtown Norfolk. Tulwits pointed out to me, that my home on the Virginia Beach oceanfront was really just a few miles North of where we stood. I looked at the map and he was right. I could probably drive north, and be home in no time. But there are no roads.

We literally had to drive south, all the way back down, to Southern Shores, cross the Wright bridge and then drive all the way back north parallel to where we started. The process took more than an hour. Then continue on for another hour to get back through North Carolina and Chesapeake to the station. Then another 30 minutes to my home.

So, of course being the man with the vice for wanting it now. I pouted and asked why someone doesn't build a road to connect the two spots. I could be home having dinner. It's silly! In my business of Television news we work quickly on tight deadlines. We want it and we want it now, right now. It spills over into your private life sometimes. So not having a road connecting the Outer Banks to Southern Virginia Beach seems so silly to me.

I mean a 45 minute trip shouldn't have to become a 3 hour trip. Well, then someone reminded me that the area where I wanted my road to make my trip easier would plow right through the land where those beautiful wild horses roam free. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I wanted a road to make my life simpler that one night, the first time I had been to Corolla in the 4 years I've lived in Hampton Roads, and it would have destroyed that natural habitat. I then appreciated all the natural beauty of the outer banks as we drove back. I was realized, that's why the area is so appealing. Suddenly, that connecting road seemed so unimportant.

But I will say this... Can I get a Ferry? Something to cut down the trip time a bit, I mean really!

;-)

Wayne