Thing is my sandbar has...several towns. So the Ace's...there is one Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, I think one or two down in Hatteras an one along the way, an then one up on the north end for Duck and Corolla. Seems like a lot but it's really not. They are small stores. Home depot an Lowes are the only huge chains far as fixemup goes.
Gotta remember, we get hurricanes just about every year, so the construction trade is always going. Either repairing, building new, etc.
I know the Midwest gets the tornadoes. Heh.
We have lots of remodel work always going on. Being on a sandbar is awesome, I love it. I don't think I'd enjoy it as much if I owned the house. The ocean, salt, wind, etc is always chipping away at things. Tons of HVAC an Lawn companies..I'm thinking cause not so much easy work, but easy to start up if you got the tools. Can't throw sand without hitting a lawn care company..kinda like a brick in dc an not hitting a lawyer or politician. lol.
After every storm, you see people replacing decks, removing sand from driveways(with bobcats!) along the ocean, roofs of course, etc etc. So there is a need for the fixemup places.
Always something needing fixed. We don't like big box stores, or chains. One walmart, one Kmart. We have 2 Mcdonalds, 1 wendys, 2, maybe 3 Burger Kings, I forget if the one up north is still open, 1 five guys, an one taco bell/kfc. Compared to..Va. Beach..they have about 10 times the amount of fast food chains, grocery stores, Home repair, etc. No big chains other then the ones above. No Dennys, or Ihop, or waffle house
Which makes me sad, cause I like getting breakfast at 2 am. Ha ha! Then again I'm glad we don't. Keeps my sandbar nice an relaxed.
As I like to tell folks...you come here to relax, fish, play in the sand, enjoy the outdoors, etc. You go to Va Beach, Myrtle Beach, Ocean City, etc..for the partying an night life. Come here for that kind of stuff you'll be one sad camper. We do have a few bars of course, but they are far from you guys see in the big cities. Most shut down come January till right about now in March. The biggest an most popular, the OBX Brewing Station(Was on Diner, drive in's an dive! wooho!) just reopened a week or so ago.
Yea we got a lot, but we make up for it by not having a lot.
It sounds like a lot but it's all spread out from one end to the other. An it's a rather long sandbar. 100 something miles if you go all the way south to the ferry to Ocracoke. Guess you could count south of Ocracoke also, but I don't go there, I stop there. One ferry is enough for me.
My town, Kill Devil Hills, only has a full time population of around 7k, as of the 2010 census. I think it's a total of 25k for the whole sandbar. Full time locals that is. We get around 200k visitors every summer tho. The vast majority of us are Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, an Nags Head. If you live south of Nags Head your pretty much screwed if the bridge, or roads are out due to storms. An it happens quite a bit after the big storms. I wish I could get the wife to move further south, but she likes being near her work when the storms hit.
Eh, anyhow..sorry for the travel log..lol. You can see photos of the sandbar with snow on the beach in the album on my profile, I need to add more that I took, an have a bunch more I need to put up, of just normal everyday life here.
Sirscrapalot - Full time sandbar resident an proud of it.
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