Wright Place Wrong Time

The starting point of those first flights.

Saturday we tried to go to the Wright Brothers National Memorial.  We left Williamsburg, VA at 9:30am thinking that would be enough time to make the 1.5-hour drive*, leisurely enjoy the park, and learn something too.  I was really looking forward to it.  We knew the park closed at 5pm and thought we had included sufficient travel time in our plan.

Markers indicating the distances flown.

If you didn't know (like us), the Wright Brothers National Memorial is on an island called "The Outer Banks" in North Carolina.  It is a very popular vacation destination and there is only one road on to the island and one road off.  It is all governed by a single traffic signal on the island.  Consequently, long streams of traffic get backed up on the island, across the only bridge to the island, and back 30 miles on the mainland.  We sat in traffic for 5+ hours, considered turning back several times, and eventually pulled in to the parking lot at 4:45pm.  We were so late that there was no Park Ranger at the gate to collect our fee.

We used the restroom and took a half dozen pictures in those few minutes before we felt obliged to leave.  I would have loved to learn more about the Wright brothers and their experience but the timing wasn't right.  Saturday afternoon is not the time for a quick trip to the Outer Banks.  It was definitely the Wright place but the wrong time.

*We learned that Google estimates the impact of traffic on your route and time to travel based on real-time data meaning that the estimate you get now is based on current traffic conditions and may not be accurate for the day or time you intend to travel.