Kitty Hawk

North Carolina license plates proclaim them as "First in Flight." Which seems a little like cheating the first people to fly were boys from New York, living in Ohio, who happened to chose Kitty Hawk, North Carolina as the place for their flight. None the less, we wanted to see the place where that first flight happened.

There is now a National Monument at the site of the first flight. It also includes a rail like the one the Wright Brothers used to take off, and other rocks marking how long each flight they took was.

Because it was once sand dunes the hill that they flew off of has migrated back about 500 feet. But grass has been planted on the hill so it now stays in place, complete with another monument on it.

Inside the visitor center they have a recreation of the first plane (the original is in DC at the Air and Space Museum) as well as lots of information about the state of knowledge at the time when the brothers flew.

It was a pretty fascinating museum with some cool information. Not a ton here, but a very interesting way to spend the afternoon.

We wanted to spend more time on the Outer Banks, including checking out the a light house and wildlife preserve further north on the island. Unfortunately, the area was not very RV friendly and we couldn't find anywhere to stay. We decided that Kitty Hawk was really what we had come to see, and moved on.