Washington the Magazine

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Rescued

A Washington man's story of survival on the Appalachian Trail

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 Washington, North Carolina

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IN THIS ISSUE

FEATURES & DEPARTMENTS 22

28

18

48 18

62

58

Shopping 14 Hot gifts:

RIVER LIFE

FoR YOUR HEALTH

28

58

GARDEN 18 Cool blossoms:

EXPLORE

Down the river

34

60

Job with a view: Safety comes first, with time to enjoy sunsets

62

River runway: Tom Saccio’s seaplane draws attention

Warm up with these unique items from local merchants

Winter gardening warms the soul

The perfect job: Sailing the world one charger at a time

Rescued: A Washington man's story of survival on the Appalachian Trail

AT HOME

FOOD

22

48

Looking past flaws: Peace and comfort found in an old tobacco barn

14

Jiggle it: Changing lives one dance at a time

One dish wonders: Quick meal casseroles hit the spot

ON T G N I H WAS T

ON THE COVER Steve Ainsworth is stranded on the Appalachian Trail See Steve Ainsworth, page 34.

(Photo by Steve Ainsworth) 4 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

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Publisher’s Note The Scene Cast a Line Word on Wine Calendar Advertiser Index Why I Love Washington

NOTE FROM ASHLEY

Stories captivate imagination

W

ashington is full of interesting people. They all have stories.

Once in a while, we run across someone with experiences so remarkable, they captivate not only our attention, but also our imagination.

These are the stories that leave us hanging on every word.

Washington hiker Steve Ainsworth is at the center of one such story. His is a tale of survival, of perseverance, of the endurance of the human spirit.

Stranded in the freezing wilderness along the Appalachian Trail, Ainsworth, hundreds of miles from home, wondered if he might ever return.

Follow Ainsworth on his fascinating journey, as chronicled in this issue by Vail Stewart Rumley.

• Catch the wind on a quest for adventure with Washington native Jackson McHorney.

The charter tour captain is putting skills he learned on the Pamlico River to use in some of the world’s most leisure-inspiring locales.

• Find your way across the river with the ferry crew dedicated to making the

30-minute voyage from Bayview to Aurora and back again. For this hard-working crew, it’s all about providing safe transportation — and enjoying the occasional stunning sunrise or sunset.

• See the smiling faces of your friends and neighbors in The Scene, out and about at events including the Police Activities League social, Salvation Army banquet, Artwalk, Pamlico-Tar River Foundation oyster roast and more.

• Take a peak inside two renovated tobacco barns transformed for peace and comfort on the Washington farm of Barr and Jean Coleman.

• And don’t miss this issue’s regular features, Cast a Line with Capt. Richard Andrews and Word on Wine with James “The Wine Guy” McKelvey and “Chef Yvonne” Sedgwick.

I hope that you enjoy our winter issue and that you make warm memories of your own in this colder weather.

Ashley Vansant Publisher

would love to hear what you think about Washington the Magazine. Email us at news@ Write We thewashingtondailynews.com or write to P.O. Box 1788, Washington, NC 27889. Letters chosen for publication to us may be edited for length and clarity. All submissions become the property of Washington the Magazine.

6 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

WASHINGTON T

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Publisher Ashley Vansant

Editorial Mona Moore Vail Stewart Rumley Mike Voss Margie Gardner Contributors Kevin Scott Cutler Meredith Loughlin Will Preslar Marketing & Sales Matt Tyree Dustin Dixon Ed Drew Linda Evans Distribution Sylvester Rogers Art Direction Ryan Webb Contact information Washington the Magazine P.O. Box 1788 Washington, NC 27889 Advertising inquiries 252-946-2144 Ext. 221 Subscriptions & change of address 252-946-2144 Washington the Magazine is published six times a year by Washington Newsmedia, LLC. Copyright 2013, Washington Newsmedia, LLC

OUT AND ABOUT

Police Activities League Dance

THE SCENE

Supporters of the new Police Activities League came out in force for a fundraiser to raise funds for league programs. The Nov. 9 gathering featured a DJ and dancing, a silent auction and plenty of representation from community leaders.

John Lampkins and Pamela Cobb

William Taylor, Leigh Stanley, Spencer Stanley and Susie Taylor

Larry Lang, First Bank, and Gary Robitaille, retired Army pilot

Trent Tetterton and Pam Anderson

Bill and Bev Walker

Reginald and Debbie Speight

Valerie Payne and Chief Stacy Drakeford

Elaine Briley and Dot Moate

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 9

THE SCENE

OUT AND ABOUT

Salvation Army Banquet Salvation Army donors, volunteers and employees celebrated 75 years of The Salvation Army in Washington with a special holiday dinner.

Lorraine Gordon, Jannie Harding, Hazel Banson, Elijah Norton and Kathelia Lee

Kimberly Grimes, Cynthia Bennett, Reatha Johnson, Emma Howard and Mary Brooks

Marian Tavak and Betty Edwards

Tony Watters and Denise Darley

Stan and Alma Friedman and City Councilman Richard Brooks

Heidi Smith, Art Reams and John Pack

10 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

John and Geneva Morgan

Gary Melchorre and Carlos Smith

THE SCENE

OUT AND ABOUT

ArtWalk Cold weather did not keep art-lovers from coming out for the final ArtWalk of the season. Those in attendance had a bonus. The award work of the Beaufort County Arts Council’s 48th Annual Fine Arts Show was included in the event.

Brenda Haslit, Jayne Wall and Leah Pyburn

Mi-Sook Hur, Sarah Hooper, Tim Lazure and Jennifer Wells

Karen and Doug Britton

Shelton McNair Jr. and Virginia Finnerty

Anne O’Neal and Charles Sevindhi

Cindy and William Cochran

Ja’Nya and Felicia O’Neal

Pat Nassef, Sara Daniels and Garleen Woolard

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 11

THE SCENE

OUT AND ABOUT

PTRF Oyster Roast On Nov. 10, the 27th annual Pamlico-Tar River Foundation oyster roast brought out the crowds for a night of shuckin’ under the stars.

PTRF is a grassroots organization that educates citizens about, and promotes the health of, the Pamlico-Tar River. The oyster roast is the organization’s main fundraiser each year.

Bill Sykes, Fred and Marlene Campbell, Scott Campbell

Allison, Chuck and McKenzie Hester, James and Brenda Phillips

Pat Mansfield and Eve Ide

Jean Thompson and Jane McCotter

Sarah, Henry and John Hinnant

Molly and Jim Emmanuel, Gina Cantrell

Sarah W. Anderson, Kate Anderson and Barbara Walker

12 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Amanda and Seth Laughlin

THE SCENE

OUT AND ABOUT

United Way The Beaufort County United Way celebrated its 50-year anniversary at the Washington Yacht and Country Club on Oct. 25. The party was held as a thank you to the many community partners that have worked with the organization over the years.

Frank Belote, Tom and Barbara Tansey, Jan and Mark Hamblin

Sally Love, Allan and Lori Feezor and Lillian Jones

Carolyne Everett, Ann Darkous and Nadine Gordon

Bonita and Henry Arvizu

Summer Woodard, Amy Ward and Bill Brent

Gayle Watson, Claudia Cox, Wendy Cooper, Les Robinson and Pat Lewis

Hasayn Godley, Jared Polk and Jay Martin

Sandra Buckman and Brad Davis

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 13

THE SCENE

OUT AND ABOUT

Spoon River Artworks & Market opening Hundreds attended the grand opening of downtown Belhaven’s Spoon River Artworks & Market, owned by Teresa and Mark Van Staalduinen.

Greg Satterthwaite, president of the Belhaven Community Chamber of Commerce. Also representing the Chamber, Karen Wahab and Deb Sparrow

Graham Boyd, Linda Medlin, Richard and Carol Montgomery and Carolyn Boyd

Doug Mitchell, Lou Roberts and Marlene Young

Lisa and TW Allen

Murphy and Rebecca Moore and Jimmie and Doug Southerland

Frances and Roy Armstrong and Attila Nemecz

14 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Selby and Cindy Daw and Cherry Rouse

Andrew Van Staalduinen and Jonathan Stotesbury

THE SCENE

OUT AND ABOUT

Toys for Tots Tea and Topics Book Club celebrated fellowship with and the generosity of Beaufort County book clubs as the women gathered for the annual Toys for Tots luncheon. Each attendee brings the gift of a toy for donation to the less-privileged of the county’s children.

May-I Taylor and Sarah Ninan

Carolyn Wetmore, Kay Sharp and Sandy Grady

Bev Walker and Barbara Hardee

Beth Wilder and Joy Stallings

Sarah Paszt and Brandy Walker

Rich Morin and Jackie Dean

Kim Woolard, Connie Hackney and Brenda Mitchell

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 15

HOT items

WHAT’S IN STORE

Crocheted critters Are you a fan of hand-crocheted crafts with just a bit of whimsy?

Then, you will appreciate the critters and squids. If squids aren’t your thing, try a cactus or a fortune cookie. All are available at Lone Leaf Gallery & Custom Framing, 101 West Main Street, Washington. $65.

Landlubbers Modern medicine Medicine has never looked so stylish. These little beauties feature colorful abstract floral designs. The pillboxes even include a mirror.

You’ll find the vast selection of pillboxes at The Foxy Flowers and Gifts, 292 East Main Street, Belhaven. $17.

16 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Become a Bath property owner for a couple of bucks. Get your piece of property, bottled as “the oldest dirt in the state,” from Pirate’s Treasure Gift Shop, 214 South Main Street, Bath. $2.

Written by MONA MOORE

Put a cork in it These wine bottle stoppers

by Grigio provide an airtight seal to keep wine fresh to the last drop. A set of three is available at Stewart’s Jewelry Store, 121 North Market Street, Washington. $39.99.

Spread the word Service ware has gone to the dogs. These spreader knives will be the talk of your next get-together. Find them at Stewart’s Jewelry Store, 121 North Market Street, Washington. $17.

Save that seat Enjoy a starry night on this iron bench.

Painted sails and blue waves make the bench and matching table a welcome addition to any porch patio. Available at Unique Gifts and Framing, 238 West Main Street, Washington. Prices start at $129.95.

Gift wraps Wrap your loved one in luxury. These handmade silk pieces are one-ofa-kind wearable art. Choose from scarves, blouses, wraps or stretched silks framed for display. Available from Jan Lamoreaux inside Inner Banks Artisans’ Center,158 West Main Street, Washington. Prices start at $40.

Friends forever Forget diamonds, pearls are a girl’s real best friend, especially when they are as one-of-a-kind as these.

The John Wind Maximal Art pearls featured on this monogram bracelet are made of cotton, that’s right, cotton! Pick out your new best friend at Russell’s Men's Shop, 118 West Main Street, Washington.

Prices range from $22 to $200.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 17

GARDEN

Cool blooms

Most bulbs can be grown indoors during cold winter months.

Some just take more effort than others. This narcissus paper white has started to sprout. Carl VanStaalduinen of Terra Ceia Farms recommended getting a narcissus paper white to start immediately and a hyacinth (also pictured) to replace the narcissus once it has bloomed. The hyacinth needs about a month in your refrigerator before it is ready to grow indoors.

18 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

These pansies at Petals and Produce (above and on next page) provide a splash of color throughout the winter months.

Winter gardening warms the soul

A

chill in the air no longer means you have to pack away your garden gloves.

Winter gardening is a growing trend that will add color to any landscape.

“As the exciting trend of cool season gardening grows, more and more winter hardy annuals are making their way into local nurseries,” said Master Gardener Charlotte Glen.

Petals and Produce owner Tom VanStaalduinen said there are a handful of flowers and flowering shrubs that work well in the winter gardens of eastern North Carolina.

The best options are pansies. They

Story and Photos by Mona Moore

come in a variety of colors and are extremely hardy.

“It’s one of the few flowers that will give you color through the winter,” VanStaalduinen said. “Even sometimes in snow, you can get a pansy to bloom.”

He also recommended camellia shrubs, poinsettias, orchids and Crown of Thorns. Some aloe plants can bloom in the winter, too.

Winter hardy plants that are planted in the fall can provide color through spring.

The silvery leaves of dusty miller or “Powis Castle” artemisia will stand out in a field of green. As a bonus, the

artemisia will produce yellow flowers in the spring.

Glen recommended using vegetables as well as flowers for a big winter impact. She said several varieties of cabbage have been used ornamentally in gardens. The green leaves are often trimmed in shades of pink, purple and white.

“They are gorgeous in fall and early winter, but can start to look ragged

by February,” she said. “If you’re looking for something a little more durable and taller, try ‘Red Russian’ or ‘Redbor’ kale.”

The two varieties of kale can grow up to three feet tall and two feet wide.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 19

Glen said Red Russian kale is delicious and beautiful with a reddish purple stem and feathery, jaggededged bluish leaves.

Redbor kale has dark purple, “frillyedged” leaves.

“Both of these varieties look good through April,” she said.

Don’t overlook greens as an ornamental option.

“The rich color of ‘Red Giant’ mustard intensifies with cool weather,” Glen said.

Glen also suggested Swiss chard.

The winter vegetable has stalks that can grow up to two feet tall.

“Traditionally, the stalks on this plant are white, but the relatively new ‘Bright Lights’ variety sports stalks in showy colors like yellow, orange, pink, red and violet,” Glen said. “They make quite a statement in the garden, mixed containers or salad bowl.”

Some winter flowers work great in the salad bowl, too. Glen said the flowers of pansies, violas, China pinks, English daisies and snapdragons are edible.

“Especially cute are the new miniflowered viola type pansies whose blossoms more than make up for their small size by being produced in generous amounts,” Glen said. “Look out for ‘Sorbet’ and ‘Penny’ strains, both available in shades and mixes of blue, purple, lavender, yellow, white and orange.”

Round out a garden or container full of blooms with winter hardy herbs.

Glen suggested curly leaf parsley and variegated or purple leaf sage.

Local nurseries like VanStaalduinen’s make winter gardening easy by offering containers filled with winter plants ready to enjoy.

In addition to the traditional poinsettias, VanStaalduinen said his containers usually include a combination of bulbs and perennials.

20 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

One favorite bulb of his is the potted narcissus paper white.

VanStaalduinen said they are fun to grow indoors because you can add a few rocks to a glass vase or bowl and watch the roots form.

Winter is the perfect time to stock up on bulbs, said Brenda Credle of Terra Ceia Farms. They can be grown in containers or planted outdoors for spring blooms.

“We don’t plant here until the ground cools off. So, after Thanksgiving is a perfect time,” Credle said.

Planting before the ground cools can harm the bulbs, Credle explained.

The bulb may sprout too early then die once the ground freezes.

“Everything here is easy to grow,” Credle said. “It’s what comes back and what doesn’t that’s hard to know ahead of time.”

Tulips, for instance, do not come back every year. Bulbs like daffodils

and lilies are perennial.

Credle said bulbs are a popular holiday gift because they can be grown indoors. Find a decorative container and plant a bulb or two in it. The blooms will show before winter ends.

“They have to be dormant,” she said. “It takes about four weeks to get them cooled down and then it takes about four weeks to grow.”

Some bulbs grow slower indoors than others because they need to be chilled in the refrigerator for about four weeks.

“For each variety, there’s a science and it’s a really exact science,” said Carl VanStaalduinen, owner of Terra Ceia Farms.

He said two of his most popular winter bulbs are the amaryllis and narcissus paper white because they do not require chilling.

“These are, by far, the easiest. Just put them out and let them go,” he said.

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AT HOME

A sign on the front door of the She-barn sets the mood for the fun and whimsy found within.

Jean filled the She-barn with flea market finds, family art and photos.

Looking past flaws “This place is a picture of God – not in the physical, of course, but in its availability, provision, and simplicity. It mirrors my weary soul’s transformation and reflects my conversion from dormancy to productivity.”

22 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Thanks to a wrap-around veranda that is about 14 feet wide, Jean has tons of outdoor living space.

When friends come over for a heart-to-heart, it is always at the She-Barn.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 23

Barr personalized his He-Barn with this quilt, a gift from a family friend. His barn is still a work in progress.

Peace and comfort found in an old tobacco barn Written by MONA MOORE | Photographs by MEREDITH LOUGHLIN

W

hen Jean and Barr Coleman bought an old tobacco farm 15 years ago, they had different ideas of what to do with two dilapidated barns that sat sideby-side on the property.

“My husband said we need to get these knocked down and I said, ‘No, I’ve got plans,’” Jean said as she stood under the wrap-around veranda she added to what she affectionately nicknamed the “She-barn.”

Like any traditional tobacco barn, the Coleman barns were 16 feet wide 24 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

by 16 feet deep and 16 feet tall. They had 4-foot-tall doors and no windows.

Without solid foundations, each had begun to lean to one side.

“They looked old and neglected,” Jean said.

Jean quickly got to work on her She-barn. She contracted help and did much of the renovations herself.

She added windows and a larger door.

She whitewashed the wooden walls and ceilings. A full bath was built and a heater added.

The barn got a second-floor bedroom, which Jean planned to use

as over-flow guest space. Over the years, it has become the preferred lodging for her grandkids and a refuge for friends.

Her granddaughters, Katherine, 4, and Poppy, 5, think of the space as a dollhouse. They’ll grab Jean’s hands and say, “Gee (their nickname for Jean), let’s go out and play house.”

Jean painted the floors of the bedroom with a blue-and-white checkerboard pattern. She printed some of her favorite family pictures on plain paper. In oversized white frames, few people can tell they

A friend made Jean’s throw pillows. The green ones were made from a soft, old set of sheets. Jean used to use green rain boots as one of the logos for her business venture. She was thrilled to stumble upon green rain boot coat hooks for her barn. Jean whitewashed the exposed beams of the ceiling.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 25

The upstairs of the She-barn are the preferred accommodations of the Coleman grandkids. The framed photos of family were printed from Jean’s computer onto plain old typing paper.

“I’m a total ad-libber,” she said.

26 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Barr and Jean Coleman renovated two tobacco barns on their Washington farm. Jean nicknamed them the She-barn (left) and the He-barn (right).

aren’t actual photographs.

Jean furnished the barn in flea market finds and discarded pieces from friends and family. She said having an open mind helped her repurpose found items.

“You don’t look at a thing for flaws.

You say, ‘I can do something with that,’” she said.

A Hungarian baby bathtub became a flowerpot for the veranda and a hutch stores books above a bedroom desk.

Jean’s grandsons, 7-year-old Ollie and 8-year-old Henry, now have a favorite “play house,” too. The second barn has been converted into the “Hebarn,” filled with Barr’s mementos.

A quilt given to him by someone dear hangs on the wall, another is on the bed. He has a computer with a flight simulating program and games for Henry and Ollie. A train set has a permanent home in one corner and an antique heater sits under the stairs.

Henry and Ollie were old enough to have a sleepover in the He-barn on their last visit.

“You would’ve thought they’d gone to New York. They were so excited,” Jean said.

For many years, Jean used two acres adjacent to the She-barn as a commercial garden. She turned the first floor of her barn into her flower shop. An old metal sink and countertop sat on one wall and a workbench sat in the middle of the room. Jean stained the concrete floors.

Jean said she experienced a transformation as real as the one she gave the barn. She was critically injured when she was thrown from a horse and spent months recuperating.

The fall from the horse ended Jean’s flower business. The twoacre garden became her husband’s putting green. And the flower shop became a cozy getaway for Jean. She added a comfortable couch and a

small dining set.

An old chair found new life in one corner. Jean had it recovered in pink and white ruffles and bows. Above it, Jean hung a painting of the barn painted by her sister.

Jean found peace in her little barn. She started writing a book about understanding and feeling closer to God through her passion for gardening.

In “I Met Him in my Overalls: Life Lessons from the Master Gardener,” Jean included a chapter about her She-barn. She reflected on how warm and safe she felt in the space and just how much she had in common with the renovated structure.

“This place is a picture of God – not in the physical, of course, but in its availability, provision, and simplicity,” Jean wrote. “It mirrors my weary soul’s transformation and reflects my conversion from dormancy to productivity.”

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 27

RIVER LIFE

28 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

The perfect job

The call of the wild: McHorney makes music with a conch shell.

Sailing the world, one charter at a time Written by VAIL STEWART RUMLEY | Photographs by MEREDITH LOUGHLIN

T

he day retirement rolls around, a whole new world opens up beyond the decades of the humdrum nine to five life. Maybe it’s a world of travel, a world of adventure on the horizon. But for Washington native Jackson McHorney, the day before he retired and the day after he retired looked surprisingly the same — another day of sailing.

McHorney will be the first to tell

you he’s a lucky man. As he explains it, he found a hobby that he loved (sailing), turned it into a career that he loved (captaining charter tours, sailing to beautiful spots around the world) and, now retired, gets to do the same.

“This is retirement for me. If I was sitting on the dock and somebody walked by, I’d say ‘Hey, want to go sailing?’” he laughs.

McHorney was, indeed, sitting

on a dock in Fort Lauderdale at the time, having just returned from a trip sailing through the Abacos, from Marsh Harbor, Bahamas.

A few minutes of conversation with McHorney reveals his basic philosophy: follow your bliss. He quotes philosopher Joseph Campbell as he explains how he went from learning to sail on the Pamlico to spending seasons sailing the Mediterranean.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 29

Peaches and Cream, the McHorneys' poodle, sails with the couple on all their trips, barring charters. Facing page: Capt. Jackson McHorney takes a sail up the Pamlico.

“I didn’t really have any plan,” he laughs. “I just fell into the charter industry because that’s where sailing led me. If you can make your hobby your livelihood, you’ll be a happy man.”

In 1980, McHorney attended his first charter boat show in Antigua and he’s been at it ever since. He’s summered in New England and wintered in the Caribbean, made 14 trans-Atlantic trips under sail on boats up to 134-feet and traversed the Panama Canal four separate times.

But he got his start right here, on the Pamlico. In 1969, McHorney became director of summer programs at then-Texas Gulf (now 30 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

PotashCorp-Aurora) and taught sailing for the City of Washington, an experience, he says, taught him just about everything he needed to know about sailing.

“If you want to really learn something, then teach it,” McHorney explains. “All the skills you learn to sail a little day-sailer transfer right on up to the big boats. I think it’s better to learn on a small boat. Being dunked out on the Pamlico River on a nice warm day beats tearing up a million-dollar boat in the cold Atlantic.”

“So many of the lessons of sailing are learned by making mistakes,” he laughs.

It was a genuine curiosity about

the rest of the world we live in that took McHorney away from the relatively placid waters of the Pamlico on to his high seas adventures.

“I always loved anything that had to do with geography and geopolitics. I always had an interest in travel,” he explains. “I love to go to the places the boats take me. I always make sure I go out (on land) and tour: rainforest, landforms. I try to put the big picture together.”

McHorney says he’s had a lifelong education exploring the world, though some trips stand out more than others. He mentions captaining a tour down the medieval towns of the Croatian coast —

his passengers: David Welch, former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs under President George W. Bush; former Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed; conservative author William F. Buckley Jr.; Evan Galbraith, Ambassador to France under Reagan; and British historian Alistair Horne.

“I thought I was on a regular charter … that was like going to graduate school,” he laughs.

McHorney continues to charter trips but at his own leisure, on his own boat, while his wife, Ann, operates a successful charter business in the Caribbean. She and their dog, Peaches and Cream, join McHorney when their schedules allow.

McHorney doesn’t know where the winds, and the freedom of retirement, will take him next, but he thinks it may be to the Pacific side of the world.

“I can’t think of anything that would be worse than if someone took my passport from me. If I didn’t have freedom of movement, I’d suffocate,” McHorney says seriously, then immediately lightens the moment with his next words. “I guess that’s part of my nature. I’m a Sagittarian — we’re always looking over the horizon,” he laughs.

One gets the feeling Jackson McHorney laughs a lot.

Jackson McHorney in the salon.

32 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

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EXPLORE

On the ground, Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Jeff Buchanan helps Ainsworth put on the “screamer suit” that would take him up to the helicopter by hoist.

34 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Rescued

A Washington man's story of survival on the Appalachian Trail

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 35

He stood in the opening of the shelter.

The mountain glistened around him, shards of light glancing off ice-slicked trees. Snow, a blinding blanket, covered the land. Beneath a deep blue bowl of sky, the powder was the stuff of skiers’ dreams — a place of breathtaking beauty, its silence broken only by the quiet thunder of ice dripping on deep snow and the tinkling sound of icicles breaking free from branches high above. He was alone in this rugged, ethereal world. And in it, he knew the decisions he made now would result in his life — or his death.

36 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Inside the Tricorner Knob shelter where Ainsworth was trapped by heavy snowfall for two days in below-freezing temperatures.

Monday, October 29 Steve Ainsworth left Hot Springs behind, yet another town in a string of towns dotting the length of the Appalachian Trail. For five months, he’d climbed mountains and forded streams, he’d slept beneath the stars and in basic shelters, going to bed and rising with the sun. Ainsworth was 10 days away from finishing a thru-hike of the entire trail, from Mt. Katahdin in Maine to the final destination of Springer Mountain, Georgia.

For those months, life had been whittled down to the basics of survival — food, water, shelter — barring the occasional weekend when he’d meet up with his wife, Debbie, in some town, in some state, along the AT. Hot Springs had been one of those weekends and now, well rested and well fed, he climbed Mount Cammerer, straddling the state border between Cocke County, Tennessee, and Haywood County, North Carolina, heading into the most remote part of the

Great Smoky Mountains.

There had been vague murmurings over the weekend of a storm barreling up the East Coast, but the coast was a whole state away from the mountains.

A storm, even a late-season hurricane, couldn’t touch him from so far away. He had seven days worth of food and a forecast of seven inches worth of snow to come.

He was prepared.

At 5:30 p.m., he made the Tricorner Knob shelter, 5,900 feet up the south side of the mountain. The snow — about a foot covered the trail — was deeper than he’d expected, but a metal roof, three stone walls and a tarp strung across the open fourth, was enough to keep the elements at bay.

He’d hiked uphill for 10 hours and now that he’d reached the day’s destination, the chill quickly set in. Soaked shoes were fast becoming a liability, and starting a fire outside the shelter in the frigid air would only make him colder. Instead, he wrapped his shoes in plastic and zipped them and himself into his mummy

Written by VAIL STEWART RUMLEY Photographs PROVIDED by STEVE AINSWORTH AND TN. HIGHWAY PATROL JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 37

bag. His shoes felt like a block of ice sharing the bag with him, but he settled and waited to warm up.

While he waited, he thought of the next day’s journey, just as he had nearly every night he’d been on the trail: mapping out the terrain, factoring in the weather, the steps that would take him to his next destination of Peck’s Corner. The issue of water was a mild concern. His at-this-point tattered trail book had pointed to a stream near the shelter as a source of water — the same stream he’d earlier noticed was frozen solid. For tonight, though, he had enough and tomorrow, it would warm up.

Night was falling, along with a steady snow.

Tuesday, October 30 He woke to a scratching sound.

The mice had arrived. They gathered around his food bag, attempting to gnaw their way into his store of dried fruit and protein bars. He shooed them away impatiently.

Outside, tiny flakes of snow poured from a low ceiling of clouds. It was 24 degrees, snowing hard. He quickly ran through his options. Until the weather warmed up, he’d be better off staying in the shelter protecting him from the wind, if not the cold.

The camp stove he carried wouldn’t work at temperatures below 28 to 30 degrees. With less than a liter of water in his pack, dehydration was a possibility — dehydration, which led to less blood volume, which led to an inefficiency of the body to warm itself, especially the extremities. The feet, furthest away from the heart, were always the first to go.

He’d been a doctor. He knew these things better than most. He would 38 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Self-portrait in the snow outside the Tricorner Knob shelter.

remain at the shelter, bundled into the mummy bag. Between body heat and the insulating properties of the bag, he’d be warm.

The day dragged on. The temperature never rose above 24 degrees and leaving the bag was not an option. His text message updates to Debbie went unsent — no service.

The mice came and went. He fought them off the best he could, voice and

abrupt movements his only weapons.

Reaching an arm out to wave them away meant a rush of frigid air into the bag and he couldn’t afford to get cold.

As the hours dragged on, he started to get to know them, to recognize their subtle differences in color, shape and size as they pounced over his immobilized body to make raids on the food. It was an epic, all

Ainsworth’s first foray into the snow at the Tricorner Knob shelter.

It took him 10 minutes to walk 30 yards.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 39

day battle: Steve Ainsworth, intrepid Appalachian Trail hiker, versus the mice.

I don’t think I’m winning.

Wednesday, October 31 He pushed aside the tarp and stared out at a world transformed.

Grabbing his walking stick, a 45inch titanium pole that had helped him over many mountains along the trail, he sank it into the snow. It disappeared without hitting ground.

Later, he launched himself from the shelter platform to wade through the freezing depths, a foray that ended when he made it only 30 yards in 10 minutes.

Sunlight danced off the web of snow and ice hanging from the trees — sparkling, blinding, indifferent. He was trapped in a winter wonderland.

This is ludicrous.

The sun warmed the air enough to break out the camp stove and melt snow into water. Three liters later, he stopped and drank. Fuel burned faster at high altitudes and he needed to conserve everything he had — fuel, water, energy, body heat.

As he worked, he discovered stomping the powdery snow made it walkable.

But all day long, his thoughts circled. Inevitably they returned to the same conclusions. No one knew his location. His resources were dwindling: low fuel, little water.

The warming trend he’d expected showed no signs of arriving. Still no cell phone service, no way to get a message out and the only one who knew, roughly, where he was — Debbie — was not expecting to hear from him for another two days. In his mind, two days was too long in the scheme of survival. Not in this cold.

Not without water. He had to go.

40 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Self-portrait at Tricorner Knob shelter atop Mt. Cammerer. To keep warm, Ainsworth had to stay in his sleeping bag for most of two days he was stranded there.

Five miles separated Tricorner Knob from the next shelter over the mountain’s peak at Peck’s Corner.

If I can make it half a mile per hour, it should only take me 10 hours.

He knew it would be tough. He decided to make a break for it.

Thursday, November 1 The first part was downhill. He plowed through the snow, 30 pounds of gear strapped to his back. Long underwear, top and bottom, a heavy fleece jacket, rain pants and jacket and wool socks were thin protection against the cold and wet. He was already freezing.

Only once did he lose the trail, trekking a few yards in the wrong direction, but he quickly realized his mistake and retraced his steps.

Snowdrifts obscured the obvious trail signs.

He didn’t stop to eat or to

drink, only to check for cell phone reception. At the top of the mountain, the realization the snow was deeper on the other side didn’t stop him. He couldn’t afford to stop.

Eight hours later, he was a mile and a half from Tricorner Knob, barely a third of the way to the next shelter.

His outgoing text messages changed in tone, from “Here is where I am” to “Here is where I am and I need help.”

It didn’t matter, though. There was no service. No one would receive the message.

Pants, socks and shoes were soaked and icy. He could no longer feel his feet.

Again, he pressed the send button with no result. He dialed 911 just to see what would happen.

The phone’s screen went bright red and big yellow numbers read 911. The call connected. And ended. He tried again and got the same result. The third time, it stuck. A voice asked him the nature of his emergency.

Thursday, November 1, 4 p.m.

Tennessee District Ranger Steve Kloster took the call from the Cherokee Tribal dispatcher in North Carolina. The message wasn’t good: an injured hiker trapped in the snow in the northeastern section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They had no name, a general location between two shelters, the distress call’s bad reception had obliterated the details.

Rescues from the deepest part of the park weren’t uncommon: sometimes it was a lost hiker, usually it was a medical emergency, but, always, there was the urgency to get them out as soon as possible.

In Kloster’s 24 years with the park, it happened at least once a year.

He knew this one wouldn’t be easy. The lodge at Mt. Le Conte had reported 35 inches of snow; carrying someone from the mountaintop to the nearest road 15 miles away wasn’t a possibility in those conditions, no matter how many rangers he sent in. But getting his guys up there to assess the situation was. Within moments, Kloster had two rangers mobilizing to make a 10-mile hike up Bradley Fork Trail on the North Carolina side. His next call went to the Tennessee Highway Patrol to check on the availability of air support.

Thursday, November 1, 4 p.m.

The dispatcher told him to stop moving. To find a place to set up camp, in a clearing if he could find one. He did, but his hands were frozen and clumsy as he set up the tent on an open expanse of snow. Cold pierced the marrow of his bones. He should have felt the burning cold of his feet.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Steve Manning, hoist operator on the mission, perched in the opening of the Bell UH1H helicopter.

He didn’t.

He stood at the opening of his tent, knowing the next step could be the last he took on his own. He had a choice: warm his feet or warm his shoes. Within the insulation of his mummy bag, he couldn’t generate enough body heat to do both.

Warming his shoes meant there was still a chance he would walk out of this predicament, but he couldn’t gamble his feet on it.

He sat and peeled off icy shoes and socks, exposing feet blanched white, their skin waxy. His shoes steamed in the arctic air. They froze within minutes. Now, he was at the complete mercy of his rescuers when, and if, they came. He climbed into the mummy bag and waited, once again, to warm up.

Hours later, he dialed 911 again.

A search party had been initiated. At midnight, feeling stirred to life in his feet. It was an encouraging sign.

Friday, November 2, 3:45 a.m.

Kloster took the call from the search party. Under normal

circumstances the 10-mile hike up the mountain would’ve taken a strong hiker two and a half, maybe three hours. These weren’t normal circumstances: his guys, hiking in snowshoes and carrying 70-pound packs full of supplies, had encountered five-foot-deep snow and deeper drifts. Even having driven UTVs up the first few miles before the trail narrowed, the hike had taken them over seven hours. They needed to rest.

At 6 a.m., decision made, he put in another call to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, this time to request an air operation.

Friday, November 2, 7:30 a.m.

His head was messing with him.

Through the night, he’d woken, thinking he heard voices or footsteps approaching, only to realize he was still alone. Finally, he laid down the law with himself: until there was an actual person standing in front of him saying, “Mr. Ainsworth, is that you?” he would not fall for the tricks his mind was playing.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 41

I wonder if they know I’m starting to circle the drain?

He thought perhaps he’d been too calm on the phone. Maybe he should let them know that his body was weakening. It was warmer today than the previous days, but he was cold, much colder than he’d been before.

This time when the call connected, the dispatcher told him the search party was on the mountain, but the going had been tough. She asked if there was anyone he wanted her to call.

Debbie.

He couldn’t remember her cell phone number. The spotty connection wouldn’t give him enough time to find it in his phone. He gave the home phone instead and hoped his wife hadn’t yet left for work.

Friday, November 2, noon Dr. Debbie Ainsworth pulled into the driveway, on her lunch break from the busy practice where she treats the children of Beaufort County.

Today was the day she’d hear from Steve. When they’d parted ways in Hot Springs, he’d said cell phone service would be limited in the mountains, but they’d made a promise to talk on Friday. It was only with mild concern that she pressed the play button on the home answering machine.

Concern quickly escalated to fear as she listened to the first of several messages.

Friday, November 2, noon They could see the mountaintop from the runway in Sevierville, Tennessee. At Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport, it was 67 degrees and sunny. Up there, 17 miles away, they knew conditions were very different.

Earlier in the day, a park ranger 42 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

found the shelter at Tricorner Knob and Ainsworth’s path.

Friday, November 2, noon

Ainsworth in the rear of the Huey, wearing Sgt. Brad Lund’s borrowed gloves.

and pilot had attempted to fly an observation helicopter to the top.

They hadn’t made it — high winds and low cloud cover drove them back.

The next helicopter that would make the attempt was bigger, heavier — a Bell UH1H, an Army relic that had proven itself in Vietnam and was still running strong — its four crew members, Tennessee Highway Patrol Special Ops troopers who were no strangers to rescues under adverse conditions.

Kloster met the air rescue team from Nashville and laid out what the National Park Service knew: lone hiker, name Steve Ainsworth, spent several nights at the Tricorner Knob shelter. They figured Ainsworth was stationary at some point on the trail between that shelter and the next. To find him quickly meant following his tracks in the snow.

They waited and watched for a break in the clouds on the mountain.

When it came, the Huey and crew took off on its mission.

At 6,000 feet, the situation deteriorated. The temperature dropped to 28 degrees and 50 mile per hour winds blowing snow from the peak of Mount Chapman created whiteout conditions. Despite it, they

He thought he’d heard a helicopter go overhead, but refused to connect the sound to any attempt to rescue him. This time, when he called 911, he leveled with the dispatcher.

“I’m finding it really hard to keep warm,” he said. “I’m really quite sure I can make it through the night, but I really don’t think I’ll make it through tomorrow night.”

His declaration was met with silence. In the background, he heard another voice.

“Hey, his wife is on the phone.”

Friday, November 2, 1 p.m.

Sergeant Brad Lund’s hands were steady on the controls. It was a continuous call and response: Lund’s hands putting into action the direction from Sergeant Aussie Thaxter, Lund’s eyes in the rear of the aircraft. The only way to keep the Huey stabilized was to keep the nose down, into the high wind. They slid to the side, slid backwards, as they tracked Ainsworth’s path through the snow.

Several times, the tracks disappeared into the dense cover of evergreens. They picked up his trail again by retracing the flight path. Sometimes they’d pick it up again by sheer determination. For 45 minutes, the awkward, airborne dance continued over a mile and a half of mountainous terrain, land concealed by the endless blanket of snow, broken only by one man’s footsteps.

Then a clearing, a tent, a face staring up. The man lifted his hand, waving.

We’ve got him.

Friday, November 2, 1:30 p.m.

He was shaking so hard he could hardly stand. The cold was relentless. In one moment, he could see the faces of his rescuers; the next, they were gone. But he’d seen them, flying so low the helicopter nearly brushed the treetops. And he knew they’d seen him, but he crawled back into his bag, trying to find a little warmth.

Moments later, he heard the helicopter’s return. This time, the door was open, an officer perched in the opening. They were coming for him. For the first time, he allowed himself to believe he might get out. He would pack his things. He’d be ready when they were.

Overhead, Trooper Steve Manning’s voice gave constant direction over the radio as Manning operated the hoist lowering Trooper Trooper Buck Buchanan to the ground. Lund made Manning’s corrections — move forward, 10, 5, 3; slide right, 5, 2, 1; hold — hands in constant motion on cyclic and collective, maneuvering the Huey into a hover in the wind. His eyes darted between the instrument panel and the outside environment, searching for a visual reference while he maintained the aircraft’s power and position.

Buchanan swayed in the wind, veering toward the surrounding trees. He came down quickly, landing on his knees in the snow.

Just as quickly, he reached up, detaching himself from the hoist cable. But the moment Buchanan started up the slope towards Ainsworth, the snow gave way beneath him.

He sank. And sank deeper, immobilized by the chest-high drift. He latched onto a nearby branch, kicking and pulling from the frigid depths. Only 10 yards to go — an uphill battle and a fight for momentum as the snow crumbled beneath his weight.

Buchanan topped the rise, 10 strenuous minutes at a high altitude later. Numb fingers couldn’t find the clasp of his helmet so he went for his survival knife instead, slicing through the chinstrap. On his back, balanced on the snow’s surface, he gasped, “I need some air!”It wasn’t quite, “Mr. Ainsworth, is that you?” but for Steve Ainsworth, it was close enough.

In the days following the rescue, Steve Ainsworth found out just how much a lateseason hurricane could affect his trek on the Appalachian Trail. The story of his rescue

by National Park Service rangers and the Special Operations officers of the Tennessee Highway Patrol received national attention — one of the few success stories in the wake of the death and destruction caused by “Superstorm Sandy.”

It also received criticism from those who questioned Ainsworth’s actions during his ordeal.

But District Ranger Steve Kloster had this to say after the fact: “I think it’s very easy for you and me to sit at a desk and say, ‘Why would he leave the confines of the shelter?’

He did what he thought was best for his survival. I don’t think anybody should be questioning that.”

Sergeant Brad Lund, the pilot of the helicopter, whose life and those of his crew members were risked in the rescue said, “It was a fluke thing, really, for the weather

to come up on him like that.

It definitely wasn’t for a lack of skill or knowledge. I knew he was prepared — he was good at what he was doing to cover that kind of distance.”

Ainsworth said had he known at 7 a.m., on Monday, Oct. 29, that the forecast for snow would double by noon and double again by 4 p.m., he never would have left Hot Springs.

Days later, he would describe the slow 360-degree spin as he was hoisted into the Huey as unforgettable — how beautiful the mountains were; how he could see where he’d been. At the time, he didn’t know if he’d ever be back.

But he did return. On Nov. 14, he retraced his route, starting a little over five miles north of the place he was rescued. The hike that took him eight hours in the snow took him 45 minutes. On Nov. 30, the solo part of his southbound Appalachian Trail journey that had started on June 19, ended one mile short of its 2,184-mile length.

For the last mile, Debbie walked with him.

CAST A LINE

Winter fishing worth the risk Written by CAPT. RICHARD ANDREWS

W

inter fishing on the Pamlico River can be a high-risk but high-reward proposition and only for the most dedicated anglers.

Following a mild winter last year (giving the speckled trout population a chance to resurge after two previous cold winters) and an excellent young crop of yearand-a-half old puppy drum, anglers this winter might encounter excellent numbers of speckled trout and puppy drum in addition to our resident striped bass. Winter fishing is more inconsistent than during warmer months because the fish don't feed as frequently; however, careful timing during the most-favorable feeding conditions and persistence will likely yield impressive results.

For the speckled trout, look for baitfish concentrations in the backs of the deeper creeks and on adjacent mud/muck flats near those areas.

Most of the visible baitfish will consist of finger mullet with menhaden, bay anchovies and other minnow species in the mix. Soft plastics such as paddle tails and jerk baits fished slowly on light jig heads should get a bite. Any suspending/ sinking twitchbait such as a Mirrolure worked slowly will also be effective for the trout.

Our resident striped-bass population seems to be abundant and healthy. An excellent indicator of a fish stock's overall health is a mixed-age class. For the past few years, striped-bass anglers have been encountering juvenile fish in the 6- to 12-inch range, 25- to 30-inchers and every size between, often catching small, medium and large fish on consecutive casts. Although topwater fishing is my personal favorite, winter water

44 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

temps do not facilitate a consistent topwater bite, so subsurface tactics such as casting shallow-diving crankbaits along bank structure, jigging soft plastics on the deeper ledges and breaks in the river channel or trolling deepdiving crankbaits or spoons out in the open water around baitfish concentrations and deeper structure should produce most consistently.

The big news for 2013 is the amazingly abundant crop of puppy drum in the estuary.

Anglers are encountering them everywhere.

Mostly all of these fish were born during the spawn in August and September 2012, which must have been productive. In late fall of 2012, a small percentage of these fish had already reached the lower slot (18 to 20 inches) with the majority of them still falling in the 14 to 17 inch range; however, these juvenile red drum grow very rapidly and as they feed over winter, more and more of them will be reaching slot size (18 to 27 inches). By late winter and early spring, we should start seeing mostly mid- and upper-slot fish. For those avid "redfish" anglers, get ready for some exciting drag-screaming action on light tackle and fly.

Capt. Richard Andrews is a resident of Washington and the owner of a local year-round guide service offering fishing excursions on the Pamlico and nearby rivers. He can be reached at 252945-9715 or richard@ tarpamguide.com

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WORD ON WINE

Prize-winning North Carolina cheeses

W

Written by James McKelvey and Yvonne Sedgwick

hen we hear the term “American cheese” we usually think of a yellow, oblong block of “pasteurized processed cheese food,” a substance that, by law, can’t even be called cheese.

That’s not what the American Cheese Society had in mind at its founding in 1983. Rather, the mission statement of ACS states: “From humble beginnings and guided by a vision that American Cheese could mean more than sliced singles and that a community of cheese could be created, hundreds of dedicated and passionate individuals have united to create a vibrant and flourishing Society.” That vision came to Raleigh this past summer as the ACS held its 29th-annual conference and competition there in August. The choice of venue was recognition that artisanal cheesemakers in North Carolina are making their mark. In fact, though most of the awards at this prestigious annual competition went to the usual suspects — Vermont, Wisconsin, California — two North Carolina cheesemakers took prizes.

Looking Glass Creamery of Fairview (near Asheville) took second place in the open category for goat’s milk cheeses with its elegant Ellington Pyramid. Looking Glass Creamery is a small family farm and licensed cheesemaking facility that was started by Jennifer and Andy Perkins in January 2009 for the purpose of using fresh, hormone-free milk from local farmers to make world class cheeses.

Another winner at ACS was the Goat Lady Dairy of Randolph County, between Greensboro and Asheboro. Its smoked round, a hand-formed goat cheese that is lightly smoked over apple wood, won first placed in a mixed category. The owners of GLD

(founded in 1995) state their philosophy as: “When you know your food, your farmer and your cheesemaker you make choices that care for the land and change the world for the better.” To further this philosophy, the Goat Lady Dairy has monthly farm dinners in the spring and fall and sends Community Supported Agriculture baskets to 164 member families throughout the region.

And at last fall’s N.C. State Fair, the Calvander Asiago from Chapel Hill Creamery (Orange County) beat 95 cheeses from around the state and beyond to take home best-from-North Carolina and best-in-show awards. Chapel Hill’s herd of 50 or so Jersey cows are fed on open pasture and treated lovingly by the farm’s two female owners. We met those cows when we went on last spring’s Piedmont Farm Tour.

The N.C. Department of Agriculture’s website lists 41 cheesemakers. These range from coastal Pender County’s tiny three-acre Nature’s Way Farm (whose goats “are unstressed happy animals well cared for in a clean open barn with toys and roaming room. They are treated like pets and respond much like dogs to their master. Line up, girls!”) to the Ashe County Cheese operation in the Blue Ridge Mountains that distributes its signature cheddars all over the world.

These cheeses are available at farmers’ markets, natural-foods markets and local specialty shops. So when you next think of “American cheese,” think local ... think North Carolina.

James “The Wine Guy” McKelvey and “Chef Yvonne” Sedgwick are proprietors of Wine & Words ... & Gourmet in downtown Washington.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 47

LET’S EAT

Cutline

48 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Broccoli and Ham Casserole

One dish wonders JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 49

Rice and Sausage Casserole in progress

Quick meal casseroles hit the spot

A

glance at a dictionary will tell you that a casserole is "a one pot meal cooked in the oven consisting of rice, potato or noodles, combined with vegetables and meat or fish served in some type of sauce."

Beaufort County residents will tell you a casserole is a delicious, quick and easy meal ... and possibly a little taste of heaven.

Such a dish can usually be prepared ahead of time and frozen, perfect for folks on the go who want a home-

50 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Written by KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER Photographs By MEREDITH LOUGHLIN Food PREPARATION By VAIL STEWART RUMLEY

cooked meal at the ready. Casseroles are a staple of church potluck dinners, with tables heaped with a tempting array to please any palate.

And during the winter months, as chilly winds blow off the waters of the Pamlico, a casserole makes for the ultimate comfort food.

Why not try one of these tasty recipes? They come from the kitchens of some of our area's best cooks and were selected from the pages of the Washington Daily News' Pamlico Pantry cookbook collection.

Breakfast Casserole Jean Lilley Ware's Chapel United Methodist Church 1 pound sausage; 6 eggs; 6 slices bread, edges removed and cubed; 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded; 2 cups milk.

Brown sausage and drain. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a lightly greased 9 x 9 baking dish. Refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve hot.

Breakfast Casserole

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 51

Broccoli and Ham Casserole

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First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Cook broccoli according to directions on box and cut into one-inch pieces. Place in a buttered casserole. Combine other ingredients and pour over broccoli. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.

Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Serves five to six.

Wild Rice and Sausage Casserole Charles Bateman Beaufort County Arts Council 1 pound bulk pork sausage; 1 cup chopped celery; 1 large onion, chopped; 1 green pepper, chopped; 1 clove garlic, minced; 3 cups chicken broth; 1 can cream of mushroom soup; 1 can cream of chicken soup; 1 (8 ounce) can sliced water chestnuts, drained; 2 (4 ounce) cans sliced mushrooms, drained; 1 (6 ounce) package long grain and wild rice, cooked according to directions; dash of dried thyme; 1 (2 ounce) package slivered almonds.

Combine first five ingredients in large skillet.

Cook over medium heat until sausage is browned and vegetables are tender. Stir to crumble. Drain. Stir in remaining ingredients, except almonds. Mix well. Spoon into lightly greased three-quart casserole and sprinkle with almonds. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

Do not double recipe; if more is needed, make two separate batches. Yield: 12 servings.

52 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Lind Graves Saint Peter's Episcopal Church

Ann Parker

1 package frozen broccoli; 1 cup cooked ham, chopped; 1 tablespoon parsley; 2 tablespoons green pepper, chopped; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; 1/4 cup cheese, grated; 2 teaspoons onion, minced; 4 teaspoons lemon juice; 1 1/2 cups mushroom soup (one can plus milk to make 1 1/2 cups); 1 cup buttered bread crumbs; additional crumbs for topping.

Sue's Crab Casserole 1 stick butter, melted; 1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk; 1 teaspoon prepared mustard; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; red pepper, Worcestershire sauce and salt to taste; 1 1/4 cups crushed butter-flavored crackers; 1 pound backfin or lump crab meat, thoroughly picked.

Hot Diggity Dog Casserole Alice Thompson Tri-Community Ruritan Club 1 cup uncooked macaroni; 1 package beef hot dogs; 1 cup shredded carrots; 1/2 cup chopped onion; 1/4 cup chopped green pepper; 1 (8 ounce) can cream of celery soup, no water; 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream; 1/2 teaspoon dill weed.

Combine all ingredients except cracker crumbs and crab meat. Add 3/4 cup of cracker crumbs.

Stir until well mixed. Add crab meat, stirring just until mixed. Pour into greased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Top with remaining cracker crumbs.

This could also be baked in individual ramekins.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

Yield: four to six servings.

Meat and Potatoes Casserole Eleanor Edwards

Cook macaroni according to directions. Drain.

Cut hot dogs into one-inch pieces. Combine cooked macaroni, hot dogs and all remaining ingredients in casserole baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

Corned Beef Casserole Carolyn Drexler Grace Lutheran Church 1 (12 ounce) can corned beef, cut into eight slices; 1 (8 ounce) can sauerkraut, rinsed and drained; 1/4 cup Thousand Island dressing; 4 ounces Swiss cheese, shredded (about 1 cup); 2 cups dark rye bread cubes; 2 tablespoons butter, melted.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a two-quart baking dish, layer corned beef, sauerkraut, dressing and cheese. Top with bread cubes.

Drizzle bread cubes with butter. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer. Yield: four servings.

Beaufort County Grange #1233 1 pound hamburger; 3 small red potatoes, sliced; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded; 1 small onion, sliced; 2 tomatoes, sliced; 1 teaspoon pepper.

Press uncooked hamburger into bottom of casserole dish. Top with layers of onions, potatoes and tomato slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper on top. Bake, covered, in preheated 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and cover with cheese and bake covered another 10 minutes. Serves six.

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OUT AND ABOUT

conjunction with Riverwalk Gallery & Arts Center. Select a handmade pottery soup bowl made by artisans of Riverwalk Gallery and choose a soup. Hearty homemade soup, crackers or bread, beverage, and a cookie. $20.

Eat in or take out. No deliveries.

Raffle for a wonderful Gallery prize. Silent Auction The Gift Shoppe will also be open selling unique handcrafted items and the ReSale Shop also open. Live music provided by Beaufort County Traditional Music Association.

E-mail theblindcenter@aol.com or call 252-946-6208.

Opens January 15 Irene Glover Forbes retrospective exhibit • Washington Civic Center • Open Tues-Fri, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. through March 14. Call 252-9462504 for more info.

January 25 Ernie Haase & Signature Sound in Concert • Tar Heel Variety Theater • Starts at 7:30 p.m.

Call 252-975-2117 for tickets and information.

February 8-9 Chuck May Decoy Memorabilia Display

January 25-27 The Annual Friends of Brown Library Book Sale • Washington Civic Center • The entire building is filled with books. From rare to children’s, coffee table to best sellers, you can find it at this annual sale. Call 252-946-4300 for information.

January 26 National Natural Landmark (NNL) • Goose Creek State Park • Starts at 2 p.m.

Did you know Goose Creek State Park is designated as a National Natural Landmark? There will be a brief discussion followed by a 1-mile hike to take a first-hand look at the unique natural features of the area. Meet at the swim beach parking lot. Call 252-923-2191 for more information or directions.

February 2 Lecture Thomas Day • Historic Bath Visitor Center • Starts at 10 a.m.

Cabinet Maker: Man in the Middle. Laurel C. Sneed, filmmaker, educator, and researcher, will lecture about

Wildlife carvings like this owl are part of the appeal of the annual East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival in Washington from Feb. 8-10.

Thomas Day, African-American artisan and businessman, (18011861) who had the largest furniture business in the state during the height of slavery. She will examine how he stood at the center of competing forces in nineteenthcentury America between black and white, slave and free, North and South, Africa and American, and art and craft. Call 252-9233971 for more information.

February 3 North Carolina’s Naval Stores • Palmetto Parking Lot • Starts at 2 p.m. Meet at the Palmetto Parking lot to hike to a relic from the past, a tar kiln. Learn about eastern North Carolina’s naval stores industry. Call 252923-2191 for more information or directions.

54 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

February 9 Goose Creek State Park Wildfires and Longleaf Pines • Goose Creek State Park • Starts at 2 p.m. Come discover the wonders, importance and dangers of fire in Eastern North Carolina.

Learn about the amazing longleaf pine and why it’s dependent on fire for its survival. Please meet at the Group Campsite Parking Lot. Call 252923-2191 for more information or directions.

February 9 Soup-A-Thon Lunch Fund Raiser • The Blind Center • Held from 11-3. 2nd annual soup lunch fundraiser in

• N.C. Estuarium • There is a special display of renowned waterfowl carver Chuck May’s decoy memorabilia that was donated to the Estuarium.

This exhibit will be on display for the weekend East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival and NC Decoy Carving Championships.

Call 252.948.0000 for info.

February 8-10 Wildlife Arts Festival & NC Decoy Carving Championship • Downtown Washington • Exhibitors from throughout the United States will present artistic works including carvers, flat art such as oil and watercolor paintings, pottery, antique sporting memorabilia, taxidermy, photography, jewelry and more.

In addition, nearly 500 original carvings are submitted for 13 different competition divisions.

DockDogs will return as part of the annual festival. www. eastcarolinawildfowlguild.com, 1-800-546-0162 ext. 3.

OUT AND ABOUT

February 9 Wildlife Arts Festival Dinner & Auction

CALENDAR stories that went along with some of our constellations. Please meet at the parks visitor center. Dress appropriately for the weather and you are welcome to bring chairs, blankets and flashlights. Call 252923-2191 for more information.

• Washington Yacht & Country Club • Starts at 6 p.m. This auction features works of art and award winning decoy carvings featured at the Wildlife Arts Festival. The auction is free and open to the public. Reservations and tickets required for the dinner. Call 252948-9415 ext. 2 for tickets or reservations.

February 21 Taste the Good Life • Washington Civic Center • Held from 6-9 p.m. Honoring George Washington’s Birthday.

George Washington would never guess what his namesake has become. Help us celebrate all that Washington, N.C. is...The best of local restaurants, N.C. brews, fine wines and other life amenities.

Call 252-946-9168 or 252-9463969 for more information.

February 9 Children’s Decoy Painting Workshop • N.C. Estuarium • This activity is free but preregistration is required. There are two classes: 9-10 and 10:3011:30. Children must be between 4 and 12 years of age. This annual event is co-sponsored by the East Carolina Wildfowl Guild in conjunction with the Wildlife Arts Festival. Call 252-948-0000.

February 9 John Michael Montgomery in Concert • Tar Heel Variety Theater • Starts at 7:30 p.m.

Call 252-975-2117 for tickets and information.

February 11 Children’s Jr. Duck Stamp Program • N.C. Estuarium • Held from 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Sherrie Jager is the NC Jr. Duck Stamp Coordinator and will be instructing the children on the basics of the Duck Stamp program with sketching supplies and art instruction. Suitable for school age children grades K-12. Call for reservations at 252-948-000.

February 21 Historical Film Series ‘Red Tails’ A couple takes in some of the artwork featured in a recent ArtWalk in downtown Washington. The next ArtWalk is set for Feb. 14.

February 14 ArtWalk • Downtown Washington • This free-to-the-public showcase of local visual art runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Main, Water and Gladden streets on the second Thursday of Feb., May, Aug., and Nov. and features art in galleries open to browsers, collectors or the plain curious, with refreshments and live entertainment thrown in for good measure. Call 252-9463969 for more information.

February 14 - May 4 Paintings of Eastern North Carolina by Anthony Ulinski • Lone Leaf Gallery & Custom Framing • An exhibition depicting Rocky Mount, Wilson, Kinston and the

places in between. This will mark Ulinski's second exhibition at Lone Leaf Gallery. His work has been featured in arts magazines, book covers, and won several awards over his brilliant artistic career.

February 14 Senior Dance • Washington Civic Center • Starts at 7 p.m. Singles and Couples over 50 are welcome to come and dance the night away.

Admission is $7. 50/50 drawing.

Door prizes.

February 15 Native American Astronomy

• Historic Bath Visitor Center • (2012 PG-13 125 minutes).

Starts at 7 p.m. The 332nd Fighter Group -- an all-black World War II unit made up of the best U.S. escort pilots and known as the Red Tails -- fights racism at home while fighting the Nazis abroad in this drama based on the true story of the Tuskegee Airmen. Free, refreshments served.

February 23 Winter Tree ID • Goose Creek State Park • Starts at 2 p.m. No leaves? No problem! Learn how to ID trees without the leaves on them. Use other clues that the tree has to offer to identify them during the winter.

There will be a classroom portion and an outdoor portion. Please meet at the Visitor Center. Call 252-923-2191 for more info.

• Goose Creek State Park • Starts at 6:30 p.m. Come hang out under the stars while we discuss some of the Native American JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 55

OUT AND ABOUT

CALENDAR

January - February Drawing and Painting from Nature

January – April Dress-A-Doll Fundraiser

March 9 Legends, Stories & Smores

March 15 6th Annual Shaggin’ for a Cause

• N.C. Estuarium • Two Separate Classes- January 15-March 5: This is a Tuesday afternoon class and meets from 1-3 p.m. January 16-March 6: This is a Wednesday morning class and meets from 10-12.

Linda Boyer is the instructor. There is a $25 fee for the eight weekly classes. These classes explore drawing and watercolor painting basics and emphasize a natural theme. Reservations are required and a materials list is available.

Please call 252-948-0000.

• The Blind Center • Held from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. The Blind Center will give you a plain, stuffed muslin cloth doll. You furnish the materials (fabric, knit, paint, stamped, etc.) and dress the doll in the fashion of your choice.

E-mail theblindcenter@aol.com or call 252-946-6208.

• Goose Creek State Park • Starts at 6 p.m. Enjoy an evening around a campfire while listening to a ranger tell about local legends and stories. There will be items available to make smores. There will be some seating, but feel free to bring your chairs. Meet at the Group Campsite. Call 252-9232191 for more information.

• Washington Civic Center • With Jim Quick and the Coastline Band. from 6:30-11 p.m. Annual fundraising event for the Shepard Cancer Foundation, which supports the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center.

For tickets and information call 252975-4308.

January - February 'Awaken' by Lisa Beth Robinson • Lone Leaf Gallery & Custom Framing • Robinson is the proprietor of Somnambulist Tango Press where she makes artists books and is an instructor at East Carolina University. Her works visualize the relationship between language and experience, making connections between disassociated objects and concerns.

March 2 Inaugural Pamlico Writers Conference • Washington Civic Center • Starts at 9 a.m. Includes panel discussion, workshops, and keynote speaker. Contest Awards Presentation & Reception, 6:30 p.m. Call 252-946-2504 for more info.

March 10 HeART of the City Concert • Washington Civic Center • Eastern Youth Orchestra performs at 3 p.m. Presented by the Beaufort County Arts Council with support from the City of Washington. For information call 252-946-2504.

March 14 Mike Wiley’s The Parchman Hour * Washington High School Performing Arts Center * Starts at 7:30 p.m. Full-length acclaimed theater production about the Freedom Riders of the 1960’s. Call 252-946-2504 for more information.

March 14 Senior Dance • Washington Civic Center • Starts at 7 p.m. Singles and Couples over 50 are welcome to come and dance the night away.

Admission is $7. 50/50 drawing.

Door prizes.

March 16 Indoor Yard Sale for Crafters • The Blind Center • Starts at 9 a.m. Call or e-mail for an application to reserve your space. This is a crafters’ supply exchange.

ReSale Shop and Food Court also open. E-mail theblindcenter@aol.com or call 252-946-6208.

March 19-21 Little Art Exhibit Fundraiser • Washington Civic Center • Starts at 9 a.m.

Closing reception, March 21 at 5:30 p.m.

Call the Arts Council at 252-9462504 for more information.

ADVERTISER INDEX

Bear Creek Auto Sales, 56

Peacock Chocolates, 57

Beaufort County Community College, 67

Potash, 45

Bloom Women's Apperal, 57

Scott Campbell, 57

Blythe House, 57

Select Bank, 8

Charisma , 56

SilverCare, 46

Coastal Carolina Regional Airport, 65

South Market Antiques, 57

Edward Jones, 8

Stewarts Jewelry, 7

Executive Personnel Group, 53

Tayloe's Hospital Pharmacy, 53

Eye Care Center, 21

The Telephone Connection, 3

Feyer Ford, 2

Thin and Healthy Solutions, 46

Flanders Corporation, 46

Vidant Health, Back Cover

Gail Kenefick, 57

Washington Eye Center, 5

Gas Solutions, 57

Washington Harbor District Alliance, 65

Gerri Mckinley, 56

Washington Montessori Public Charter School, 45

Gregory Poole Equipment, 33

Washington The Magazine, 45

Lone Leaf Gallery, 46

Wells Fargo Advisors, 53

On the Waterfront, 21

Wine and Words…& Gourmet, 8

W o m e n ’ s A p pA r e l

FOR YOUR HEALTH

Jiggle it

Tiana Payne, one of Fitness Unlimited’s Zumba instructors, leads an evening class in the new fitness craze: a combination of salsa, merengue, hip hop, reggaeton and cha-cha dance moves that will make you sweat.

58 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Changing lives one dance at a time

I

Written by VAIL STEWART RUMLEY | Photographs by MEREDITH LOUGHLIN

t’s Friday. The thumping beat of the latest hip hop song drives constant movement on the floor: hands in the air, feet stomping, hips grinding. The dancers sweat, turn, pump fists in unison, giving their bodies over to the rhythm.

It could be any laser-lit, CO2smoke-drenched dance club, filled with your average 20-somethings out looking for a good time. But it’s not — it’s Fitness Unlimited’s Friday night Zumba class, where teenagers and retirees alike hit the floor to shake their thing — and shake it hard.

Zumba is the latest craze in fitness, following on the heels of classes like step, kickboxing, even yoga. Zumba is, simply, dancing; its moves are drawn from a pool of styles: latin, hip hop, reggae. But its draw and staying power, according to instructor Tiana Payne, are because the class is so much fun.

“It’s a full-body workout, but you don’t realize you’re working out because you’re having so much fun,” Payne says. “I think the thing about Zumba is that it’s for everybody. It’s just not for smaller people, or people with rhythm, or people of a certain ethnic background. You make it your own workout.”

Payne leads and her class follows to their ability — salsa, merengue, Cha-Cha, hip hop and reggaeton.

Some may be unsure of the steps and do their best to keep up; others have the moves down pat and are popping, twisting and kicking like pros. But everyone’s moving, whether they’re taking a breather, stepping in place,

or jiggling their hearts out to Young Leek’s “Jiggle It.” The music and dance don’t stop, which ultimately means an hour-long cardio workout.

“We’re moving the whole time.

Your whole body is engaged,” Payne says. “With latin dance, it’s a lot of twisting, a lot of hips and shaking, swerving — that’s all core (workout).”

Two years ago, Payne danced her way into an instructor’s position at the gym. A Fitness Unlimited member, she loved the Zumba classes so much she was offered the position when the previous instructor left. A one-day intensive class later, she was teaching, infusing her own style into the Zumba framework.

“My kids will come in here and I’ll be dancing and they’ll try to learn the routine,” Payne laughs.

In the same vein, during her classes, Payne keeps her Ipod on shuffle so even she doesn’t know what’s coming next as one song segues into another. At first, she was concerned the hip hop music would be a little hard to handle for the older, white participants, but they

quickly set her straight.

“I kind of apologized to one woman after a class and she said, ‘You know what? I don’t ever get to listen to music like this. It’s a release. I can just come out here and shake. So please don’t stop.’

That was surprising to me,” Payne says.

More surprising, she says, has been a more subtle change in the people doing Zumba on a regular basis. Payne talks about her students’ weight loss, but it’s the increase in their confidence that she finds more impressive — people who not so long ago wouldn’t have been caught dead dancing sharing their stories of hitting the dance floor in public, surprising friends and family with their well-practiced dance moves.

Payne explains that while their newfound confidence is aided by the strength and stamina built by a regular hour-long work out, the underlying factor is that, courtesy of Zumba, they’ve learned to dance.

“It’s so rewarding what we do,” she says. “We’re changing people’s lives.”

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 59

DOWN THE RIVER

Job with a view 60 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Safety comes first,with time to enjoy sunsets Written by MIKE VOSS Photographs by WILL PRESLAR

W

hile many passengers on the Bayview-Aurora ferry route enjoy the vistas associated with 30-minute voyages across the Pamlico River, ferry crews focus on their No. 1 priority — safety.

“Getting these passengers safely across the river,” said Gary Mason, one of the ferry captains, when asked about crewmembers’ priorities.

The six-man ferry crews are schooled in safety from their first day on the job until their last day on the job. In the wake of 9/11, security has become the No. 2 priority.

“We do drills weekly,” said Mason, who has 16 years on ferries, starting as a deckhand.

Melvin Woolard, able-bodied seaman, is in charge of the deck.

He’s assisted by several deck hands, including some who aspire to become a ferry captain or engineer. Woolard also serves as a vessel security officer.

“I take care of all the records, screening cars, taking over for the captain when he needs a break,” said Woolard, who aspires to getting his mate’s license, then going for his captain’s license.

“Everything about the Ferry Division has changed because of

9/11 — all those security schools and classes we have to go to and keep up with and doing screenings of vehicles and passengers,” Woolard said.

Why work on a ferry?

“It’s fun working outside and on the water. You get to meet a lot of interesting people and stuff. Our work schedule is great,” Woolard said.

Ferry crews work 12-hour shifts for seven days. They’re off for seven days before returning to work. One week, they work from 5:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.

Another week, they work from 5:15 p.m. to 5:15 a.m. Unless a ferry has six crew members aboard, it cannot leave the ferry terminal, according to Jeff Credle, a supervisor based at the Bayview terminal.

Despite their attention to safety and security, ferry crews do get to enjoy their trips on occasion.

“This fall, particularly, we’ve seen a lot of pretty sunsets. Haven’t we, Melvin,” Mason said.

“Sunrises also,” replied Woolard.

Mason can’t recall any major problems during his tenure on ferries — no car fires, but an occasional fender-bender.

Mason’s brother, Phil, serves as a ferry engineer. While brother Gary is in the pilothouse with a panoramic

view, Phil Mason spends most of his working hours in the engine room below the main deck. It’s a noisy environment with two big engines roaring as they provide power to the ferry.

As on deck or in the pilothouse, safety is the top concern in the engine room, Phil Mason noted.

“My main job is to make sure everything is working — the engines — keeping the oil changed and performing maintenance whenever something goes wrong,” said Mason, a five-year ferry worker. “We do all the maintenance on the boat, from light bulbs to bathrooms, whatever.”

“We have a daily checklist — weekly, monthly,” he said. “We take an hour reading. We take three-hour readings.”

Asked about the appeal of working in the engine room, Mason said, “I don’t know. I just like it.”

Some of the crewmembers had never been on a Bayview-Aurora ferry until they began working on one. Crewmembers said their jobs are “pretty much routine” — until something unexpected happens, which is not often. Usually, it’s rough water and severely inclement weather that has crews exercising more caution than normal.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 61

DOWN THE RIVER

River runway Tom Saccio’s seaplane draws attention Written by MIKE VOSS Photographs PROVIDED by TOM SACCIO

62 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

T

hink you’ve seen a plane take off from or land in the Pamlico River near Maules Point? Your eyes are not playing tricks on

you.

Every now and then, Tom Saccio’s Seawind — a seaplane built from kit — uses the river as a runway. Saccio lives at Maules Point, his home just several yards from the river.

The Seawind (its engine above and behind the cockpit) has a futuristic look, but it also reminds one of the Consolidated PBY

Catalinas of the 1930s and 1940s.

Saccio, who was a property master in the film industry (mostly in New York), became interested in flying early in his life. That interest eventually resulted in him buying a Seawind kit and putting the seaplane together.

Saccio said that in the early 1990s, his son gave him three flying lessons as a Christmas present.

“I took those three lesson, and I just didn’t stop. I just kept right on going. … Then somewhere along the line I came up with the idea

of building an airplane,” Saccio said. “Right around the time I got the airplane, the kit, I decided after working 40 years in the film industry that I was never going to get this plane built if I kept working. So, I just retired.”

Saccio began building the plane in Connecticut, but lack of space and other limitations there resulted in him moving. At first, Saccio considered buying a house at an airpark, where people live and keep their planes at their homes.

Eventually, Saccio located to Maules

Tom Saccio’s Seawind in flight over the Pamlico River at last year’s Seawind fly-in at his home on Maules Point.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 | WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE • 63

Tom Saccio leans against the fuselage of his four-passenger Seawind, which cruises at about 160 mph.

Point, where his home and the hangar for the Seawind are about 100 yards apart.

The freedom of being able to take off and land from the waters next to his home is greatly satisfying, Saccio said. Before he built his home, he built a hangar for the Seawind.

“This house is situated in such a spot so the Seawind can get around it, down into the water,” he said.

“Then I brought the plane down here and started really building it here. Ninety percent of it, I think, I 64 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

built here in the hangar.”

Saccio didn’t finish building the Seawind until 2007.

“So, I was living here for five years. It took me eight years to build it — eight years and about 5,000 hours of work to build it,” Saccio said.

Landing on the river presents some challenges, he noted.

“With water, and especially with my plane because it’s a low-wing airplane, when you pick up speed on the water, if your wing just dips a little bit and just sort of touches

the water, it could just flip your plane right over,” Saccio said. “And then you come up on plane, just like you do on a boat because mine is an amphibian. It’s not a float plane. Those wings have to be really steady. … There’s a lot more control you’ve got to have on the water than you do on an airstrip.”

Take-off speed on the water for the Seawind is about 70 mph, Saccio said. So when there are whitecaps on the river, it’s unlikely the Seawind is going anywhere, he said.

J O I N U S T O O B S E RV E G E O R G E WA S H I N G T O N ’ S B I RT H DAY

George would never guess what his namesake has become...

HOSTED BY: Washington/B.C. Chamber of Commerce & Washington Harbor District Alliance

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Help us celebrate all that is Washington, NC.

Come for delicious samples of local restaurants’ best cuisine, beer & wine tastings, preview fashion trends & more!

The best of local restaurants, NC brews, fine wines & other life amenities.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2013 Washington Civic Center 6:00 to 8:30PM SAVE THE DATE! More information to follow at www.WHDA.org

Tickets Available at the Washington Chamber of Commerce on Stewart Pkwy , at participating Restaurants and online at www.

WHDA.org No one under 21 admitted

Y’ALL COME BACK

Why I love Washington

All things past, present and future

I

Written by WAYLAND J. SERMONS JR. PHOTOGRAPHY by MEREDITH LOUGHLIN

love Washington because it is home. It is all things past, present and future that lure our new residents here, and after a very short time they too love Washington because now it is their home.

It is from growing up here, actually in the Honey Pod Farm home that Penny and I raised Aaron and Wayland III. It is from attending kindergarten in the ditch-bank school, eating Miss Carver’s chili dogs with mustard, buying Cub Scout uniforms and later Gant shirts from Togo’s, going to the Turnage on Saturday mornings and playing basketball in Macswoods with Steve Walker, Bob MacKenzie, Stan Deatherage, Charles Phillips and many others.(Only Bob managed to get hung up in Birmingham.)

I love Washington because of the natural resources and climate. Where else can you shoot a limit of wood ducks in the morning, play 18 holes of golf, and catch keeper rockfish as the sun sets?

Growing up, I was blessed with a rich variety of outdoor activities such as rockfishing with Big Ray Moore and quail hunting with Ox Langley.

It is being able to come home to practice law, and now to be on the bench. It is seeing more and more young couples settle here because of the river, their friends and expanding job opportunities in recreation, environment and tourism. It is the arts, whether at a special event at the Beaufort County Arts Council, or the wildlife festival, or Music in the Streets, or just a normal Saturday at Saturday Market.

Washington will always be Little Washington to me, and that name is a source of pride, knowing that we will never be confused with that other Washington. But there is nothing little about the people of Washington and Beaufort County. In every town and community, our people remain resolved to better their community in business, education,

66 • WASHINGTON THE MAGAZINE |JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

Wayland J. Sermons Jr.

health services, recreation and community support.

One only need to volunteer with Sally Love at Eagle’s Wings on a Tuesday to see that commitment, or try to keep up with Catherine Glover during the Summer Festival or Beth Byrd during anything going on downtown.

I love Washington because of its location. I can be in Raleigh in less than two hours, at the beach in 90 minutes and on Ocracoke in less than three hours by boat. But with all my hometown has to offer, you seldom need to travel far.

If you are visiting, I suggest you browse our art galleries and shops downtown, and throughout the city. Go eat a Bill’s hot dog, or enjoy lunch or dinner at several delicious restaurants. Take the walking tour of older homes in the Historic District. Drive down River Road to the country club, proceed down U.S. Highway 264 to Belhaven, take in Historic Bath, ride the Pamlico River ferry to visit the Fossil Museum in Aurora, and return in time to relax at one of our fine bed-and-breakfast inns.

And if you are visiting and considering relocating, welcome home!

Help fund scholarships for deserving students at Beaufort County Community College by joining the BCCC Foundation in 2013 at one of these exciting fund-raising events!

10th Annual Cutthroat Croquet Tournament Saturday, May 18

“Priscilla Queen of the Desert” at DPAC Saturday, May 4

20th Annual Golf Tournament Coming in the Fall

For more information, contact

Judy Meier Jennette, Director Beaufort County Community College Foundation P.O. Box 1069, Washington, N.C. 27889 By telephone at 252-940-6326, by email at judyj@beaufortccc.edu or visit us at www.beaufortccc.edu

The BCCC Foundation

Support education in our community!

VidantHealth.com

Are we committed to improving the health of eastern North Carolina?

Yes. University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina is now Vidant Health – a system of ten hospitals, specialty clinics and hundreds of physicians bringing advanced medicine to the 1.4 million people in eastern North Carolina. We’re committed to improving the lives and health of families and communities in this part of the state.

To see how our system of care is working for you, visit VidantHealth.com/system. Or call 800-472-8500 to find a physician near you.

Vidant Medical Center • Vidant Beaufort Hospital • Vidant Bertie Hospital • Vidant Chowan Hospital • Vidant Duplin Hospital Vidant Edgecombe Hospital • Vidant Pungo Hospital • Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital • Vidant Medical Group The Outer Banks Hospital • Albemarle Health