MST Trek Day 75

I am currently in Nags Head, camping on the beach.  Woke up this morning to wind and rain.  We started hiking about 6:30.  By the time we got to the Lighthouse, the rain was coming down pretty well.  Jef did a great interview with us in front of the Lighthouse, with the rain coming down; after that, Tennille and I headed back to the beach, or as I like to call it: "Adventures in the Sand Part 3."  We thought we had learned from the 2 previous days, and had a new strategy.  Luckily, our plans are fluid, because we weren't anticipating how the high winds, blowing sand, and rain would impact our beach hike.  I couldn't hear anything, and poor Tennille couldn't see anything.  It felt like standing in front of a moist sandblaster.  We trudged along for 2 or 3 miles, found the boardwalk to get back to Highway 12, and started hiking on the road again.  The sand wasn't as bad, but we were still getting pelted by wind and rain.  We lucked out, because Jef was at a coffee shop-- Tennille got to dry out a bit and I got a cappuccino.  We also ran into another problem: with the rain and salt air, I was unable to scroll the screen on my iPhone to hear the directions. I thank God I had read ahead and memorized them.  Before we left the coffee shop, a Baptist minister blessed us, and we then set out on I-12 to play "chicken" with cars.  Jef says that we won.  By mid day, the rain had stopped, but the wind would not quit.  All day long, we walked into a 15-20 mph headwind, which made for tiring hiking.  We still managed to complete 18.5 miles today, which leaves us with 40 to go. During the latter part of the day, several cars honked their horns and drivers yelled out their windows for us to keep going because we were almost there.  One of them even called me by my given trail name, Zero.  We are still on track to finish around mid-day on Saturday as long as the weather holds and we don't run into any unexpected problems.  In the scheme of things, we are very close, but a lot can happen in 40 miles.  We are excited to be nearly finished with this adventure, but are sad to see it end.  Every day has been wonderful and special in its own way-- I will miss the experiences.