Back to Day 30

5:30 PM

In Clawson’s 1905 Pub in Beaufort, NC. Beaufort is not on the ACA route but we are here anyway – we are such bad-asses!

We began our day at 6 AM so that we could be at the 7:30 ferry at 7:00. It was a beautiful morning, a cool breeze hinting at a warmer day ahead, but a wonderful time of day to sit and wait for a ferry. So that’s what we did, and while we sat there we met Cathy.

Cathy asked us about our trip, and we asked her where we could get breakfast after the ferry ride, on Cedar Island. She said the best place is in Beaufort, which is 40 miles from Cedar Island. But she offered us a ride to there in her truck.

So we spent most of the ride talking to Cathy, and her dogs, Remington and Lily.

And we looked at miles and miles of water, for two and a half hours.

Cathy gave me some chocolate mint from her garden, which she says is really good in black coffee. Then she gave me some coffee. And some smoked tuna, which her friends smoke at their home on Ocracoke. Meanwhile, Dana asked some passengers and crew about where we should ride next.

The ACA route turns north right before Beaufort, and makes a 60 mile loop which bypasses Beaufort and the other Crystal Islands. There is one motel on the entire loop. Conversely, Beauford is a lovely historic beach town – it’s where Blackbeard ran his ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, ashore in 1718. And Beauford is the first of a series of islands – flat and scenic and not boring – with B&Bs and restaurants and interesting things to look at.

So, obviously, everyone on the ferry told us to come to Beaufort. Most of the ride here was on the ACA route, not that it mattered, since we just stayed on rte. 70 the entire way. Along the way we stopped for ice cream (of course) and subs. And we saw some beautiful birds – white herons, egrets, ibises, and rose-breasted grosbeaks. Of course, you can’t take pictures of them, but they were nice to see.

However, you can take pictures of…

Beautiful views from a bridge:

Spanish moss:

Blackbeard at Downeast Marine:

and this, which totally cracked us up:

So, after all that, we thought traffic would get bad on rte. 70 when we went off route, but it didn’t. We got into Beaufort around 4, after stopping in a CVS for more Ibuprofen.

Dana isn’t feeling great, but I am absolutely spent. My butt is extremely sore – I think I will move my seat tomorrow morning – and it feels like I have a knife in my left quad. So after our showers we took turns with the ice pack, and then we dragged ourselves the distance of one city block for drinks and dinner.

Tomorrow we will ride the Crystal Islands to Swansboro, where Cheryl will meet us and drive us to Wilmington. We are totally looking forward to our first cheat.

On to Day 32

Back to Day 29

3 PM

Sitting in Howard’s Bar drinking beer. This is just decadent. Today was a short day – 13 miles to the ferry in Hatteras, then an hour long ferry ride, then 13 miles to Ocracoke.

When we did our laundry last night, the socks didn’t get completely dry. The socks never get completely dry. But check out our awesome portable sock-drying racks.

And here’s a cool (get it? cool?) way to dry our biking gloves in a motel room.

Before we left Cape Hatteras, we took a picture of the lighthouse. We had to ride into the wind to take this picture, so I hope you appreciate it.

The ferry ride was very peaceful. Cool breeze, beautiful water breaking over the shoals. Here’s a ferry going in the other direction:

On the ride from the ferry to Ocracoke, we stopped at the Ocracoke Pony Pasture. Many of the barrier islands have native pony populations. On some islands, the ponies still live wild. On Ocracoke, the ponies pretty much live on a horse farm.

We checked into our hotel and dropped off the panniers. Then we took the bikes out to explore the town. It’s amazing how nice the bikes feel without the packs on them. It’s also amazing that, on our day off, we are riding our bikes.

First we went to a cemetery. A British warship was sunk off the coast by a German U-Boat in World War II. Four of the bodies were recovered, and are buried here. That section of the cemetery is officially British soil.

Then we went to the ferry office and found out that we have to be there at 7:00 tomorrow morning. Tonight will be an early night. Considering we started the drinking hour(s) at 2:30, that should be fine. After we checked the ferry schedule, we stopped for a quick lunch. In case you were wondering if gulls like bread…

Since Ocracoke is the place where Blackbeard was killed in 1719, there’s a lot of pirate themed stuff here. I wanted to go to Blackbeard’s Experience, which, unfortunately, closes early on Sundays. However, since it’s listed as “Gift Shop and Exhibit”, it’s probably just as well that we missed it. I Googled Blackbeard and learned what I need to know. I have no need to buy a pirate hat.

They have a wooden pirate with the face cut out, and I really wanted to take picture of Dana in it. He refused. I asked what those things are called. He said “stupid”.

After I finish my beer we will explore the rest of the town. It’s tiny. It’s also the first place on the outer banks where we’ve actually seen other people on bikes. Granted, we’ve seen a plethora of bikes, but most of them have been strapped onto the backs of cars. But it seems that, in Ocracoke, biking is a popular mode of transportation. Not as popular, however, as golf carts.

6 PM

Having dinner at the Topless Oyster. I just ate 6 topless oysters. They were amazing.

After beer #1, we rode around the rest of the town. Here is the Ocracoke Lighthouse. Built in 1823, it is the oldest lighthouse still in service.

And here are some historic markers:

Spoiler alert: In the past few days we’ve met two ACA riders coming from Florida, both of whom told us less than nice things about the roads in South Carolina and Georgia. Bottom line: busy roads, logging trucks, no shoulders, small towns with no services. So I suggested to Dana that we somehow skip that part, and he said we should check the ACA maps and see what they say about those areas. Like what interesting stuff is out there on the route that we will miss if we cheat. So I looked, and the ACA raves about Charleston and Savannah. Unfortunately, the main ACA route does not actually go through Charleston and Savannah.

So here’s the current plan: we ride the ACA route until their alternative route branches into Charleston, see Charleston, then rent a car and drive to Savannah. It’s like 120 miles by car, and over 200 by bike. After we see Savannah, we drive towards the ACA route, return the car, and get back on route in southern Georgia. We will still get to ride on some narrow Georgia roads with logging trucks – wouldn’t want to miss that – and we will be on route when we get to the Okefenokee Swamp.

And to make things even better, we were planning to be in Jacksonville, NC Tuesday night, but my cousin, Cheryl, wants to meet us in Wilmington, and spend Wednesday there with us. Since she does not want to hang out in Jacksonville, she is going to pick us up in Jacksonville and drive us to Wilmington. Cheryl is the BEST COUSIN EVER!

With the miles we save on our cheat(s), we can ride all the way from St. Augustine to Key West without any time stress. I’ve been muttering for months now about how Dana snuck those extra 500 miles into the ride. I will stop muttering now.

On to Day 31

Back to Day 28

2 PM

In the visitor’s center on Pea Island. We got here by walking across a 2.5 mile long bridge over the Oregon Inlet. The view was spectacular, but bridges terrify me.

Correction from yesterday: The first bridge that terrified me yesterday was crossing the intracoastal waterway. The 3 mile long bridge, which was more boring and tiring than terrifying, was over Currrituck Sound. So many bridges. So many waterways. So many opportunities for terror. In fact, as we sit here, the park rangers are talking about bridges in Mississippi and Louisiana that are 50-60 miles long. Note to self: do not bike in Mississippi or Louisiana.

We started the day, as promised, at the Wright Brothers Memorial National Park. We saw their cabin

and the official plaque

and replicas of their first planes:

and the monument (from a distance, it’s on a hill, not going there)

and where they took off for their first 4 flights:

Some people enjoyed running the flight route, but we decided not to. If I had tried, I’m sure this kid would have beat me.

Then we went to Duck Donuts, which is a ridiculously popular (translation: crowded) place. We got to watch them fry the donuts

and glaze the donuts while we waited.

Here are our donuts:

One of them even has bacon on it!  And here’s the correct placement of donuts on a bicycle – we planned to eat one at every butt break. So far we’re on schedule.

At around mile 13 I got a flat. My rear tire again. I tried to fix it myself, and I proud to say my patch held.

Unfortunately, the tube got a huge snake bite puncture when we pumped it back up [this happens when the tube gets caught between the rim and the tire and usually results in two holes in the tube]. So we tried patching that, but the patch failed. Now I have a brand new tube in my (new since DC) rear tire. I will try re-patching the old tube later, when we are not sitting in the parking lot of a Comfort Inn.

So in-between the flat tire and the bridge, we rode along the beaches, and the water, and miles of scenic beauty – all on a fairly big road with a fairly small shoulder. So I spent a lot of time staring intently at the white line protecting me from cars and vans and boat trailers – all loaded with beach chairs and pool noodles and other crap that will probably get lost on a bridge later. Along the way we also saw this historic marker:

and this lighthouse:

8:30 PM

Just finished dinner at the seafood restaurant next door to the motel in Cape Hatteras. The fish was delicious, but the noise level was deafening. Noise doesn’t usually bother me, but there was a family with a herd of children that I found annoying. Dana’s tinnitus went crazy, he could barely think. We were trying to plan the miles between here and Wilmington, NC, but we couldn’t even talk to each other.

Meanwhile, when we were back at the Pea Island Visitor’s Center, we saw lots of wildlife pictures. Then one of the park rangers told me about her knee replacements, about which I was depressingly interested. From there we rode through the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge, which is beautiful. After Pea Island we took a butt break at an ice cream parlor – we’re getting better about the whole butt break thing – then we continued on towards our motel in Cape Hatteras.

The 17 miles between Chicamacomico and Avon were beautiful, in a flat, monotonous sort of way. At first we were saying “wow, look at that!”.  After 17 miles we were saying “enough already, where’s the town?”. But we had a glorious tailwind the entire time, and averaged about 15 MPH for the rest of our day. I’ve decided that boring and flat with a tailwind is better than interesting and hilly with a headwind.

Just as we got near our motel we saw more historic markers:

We also saw a lighthouse, but we didn’t take a picture because we too excited about getting off of our bikes. The good news is that we did 61 miles today. The bad news is that our butts did 61 miles today.

This motel has a laundry room, so I’m sitting in my bathing suit waiting for the washer to be done. On the plus side, I’m not sitting on a bicycle seat.

On to Day 30