The History: Orville writes his sister Katharine a long letter from Kitty Hawk. He provides a few instructions regarding business at the bicycle shop. Orville expects he and Wilbur will begin their journey home on Monday, October 22 and anticipates their arrival in Dayton towards the end of the week.

Orville wonders if Katharine has received his letter from the previous week. He tells her that mail is transported from Kitty Hawk via a small sailboat. Due to heavy winds the small boat was unable to sail. The winds were so heavy [36 miles/hour] Kitty Hawk residents ventured out to see if the Wrights' camp tent was still standing! Miraculously, it was.

Orville relates to Katharine that the brothers have tested the machine several times this week for 2 to 4 hours at a time. Flying the machine like a kite, they manipulated the long lines [ropes] to control and stabilize the glider's movement. At this early stage of testing they were concerned about injuring themselves. Instead of flying the glider themselves, they added chains to increase the weight to see how to control the glider with extra weight. They took measurements of the "drift" [air resistance, drag] of the glider.

Wilbur Cleaning A Pan At The Wright Camp - October, 1900

After one of the practice runs, the brothers decided to make some adjustments to the ropes. While lying on the sand, the wind caught the glider and pushed it 20 feet away. The glider was badly damaged in the incident. The brothers had been very satisfied by the glider's performance to this point and considered ending their experiments and leaving Kitty Hawk to return home to Dayton.

The next morning they changed their minds and decided to repair the glider. They spent the next three days [October 11-13] repairing the glider.

They also did some hunting and fishing for food. Orville explained to Katharine that Kitty Hawk was a fishing community. Tons of fish are shipped to northern cities, yet you can not buy fish in Kitty Hawk. You have to catch it yourself.

"But the sand! The sand is the greatest thing in Kitty Hawk, and soon will be the only thing. ... The sea has washed and the wind blown millions and millions of loads of sand up in heaps along the coast, completely covering houses and forest ... ", says Orville. He tells Katharine it is impossible to get dirty, because there is no dirt - only sand. They use the sand to even clean their cooking pans.

Orville has observed many types of birds soar and fly in the area and tells Katharine that the sunsets and moonlight are beautiful. The moon lights up the sand. Even on moonless nights the stars are so bright Orville can still read his watch.

Mr. Bill Tate is fascinated by the Wrights - not just their experiments, but their camping equipment, gas lamps and gasoline stove. "... Tate will be dead before Christmas from excitement if we don't get out. Tate can't afford to shirk his work to fool around with us, so he attempts to do a day's work in two or three hours so that he can spend the balance with us and the machine."

Everyone in Kitty Hawk knows of the Wright brothers. However, there is really no store in Kitty Hawk. The Kitty Hawk "store" looks like an empty pantry. They eat biscuits, eggs, tomatoes and coffee. Right now they are low on supplies and Will [Wilbur] is whining about it.