Back to Day 27

7 PM

At Henry’s Steak and Seafood in Kitty Hawk. Today was our first 60 mile day, tomorrow will be another one. The difference is that tomorrow will probably be scenic ocean front, while today was another Highway from Hell day.

We started the day with a mediocre continental breakfast at our B&B. There were two guys eating with us, and they were watching a classic car auction on TV. One of them is very into monster trucks, specifically Grave Digger. He was very excited to hear where we were riding today, because supposedly we were going to pass The Digger Dungeon on rte. 158. Which we didn’t. Bummer.

So after a little food, no coffee, and the longest discussion I’ve ever had about monster trucks, we set off out of Elizabeth City. We ended up, almost immediately, on rte. 158, which is a major road. And to make it worse, they are doing construction on it. So we had to cross a bridge against traffic, and crawl back and forth across the road looking for the shoulder or any other place where we wouldn’t get ourselves killed.

We were not on the ACA route at that point, since it doesn’t go through Elizabeth City. We thought maybe we’d just stay on 158 all the way to Kitty Hawk and save some miles. But 158 just kept getting worse, more traffic, higher speed, and narrower shoulder. So we added 8 miles to our route and got off on rte. 34.

Route 34 was very nice – all 8 miles of it – but then it put us on 168, which was really no better than 158, so we figure we added the 8 miles for nothing. Meanwhile, there was nowhere to really stop, so we didn’t. Then 168 turned back into 158, with the fast traffic and narrow shoulder. When it went over a narrow bridge with jersey barriers and no shoulder, I almost lost it. To give Dana credit, he did not call me a wimp. (He almost did, but he controlled himself. Good boy!) This is what I look like terrified on a bridge:

Then we got on a side road that paralleled 158, which was better, but by that point my nerves were shot and our butts were killing us. Our first butt break was at around mile 30, when we got to a McDonald’s at the intersection of the nice side road and 158. About butt breaks… we need them. And we should take one every 10-15 miles. And we don’t, because we are dumb asses. Even if we can’t find a place with real chairs, even if we aren’t feeling sore yet, we need to take them. I figure by the time we get to Key West, we might have this figured out. Meanwhile, we will both get sore and hungry and cranky, like two toddlers who missed their naps.

We had a lovely butt break at McDonald’s – cheeseburgers, fries, soda and a shared mocha frappe. There were 2 little girls at the next table having Happy Meals, and I asked the older one about her toy – a How to Train Your Dragon 2 Frisbee. She told me she hadn’t seen the second movie yet, but she’d seen the first. I told her I hadn’t seen either, so she invited me to her house to watch it. I turned to Dana and said “Go on without me. I’m going to her house to watch movies.” It was a light moment. Today needed more light moments.

After our gourmet lunch, we took another side road which eventually dumped us back onto 158. The next 9 miles of 158 weren’t too bad – our butts were rested, and we had cheeseburger power in our muscles. But then we got to the 3 mile long Wright Memorial Bridge to Kitty Hawk, which has no shoulder. So we crossed to the northbound side, which has a wider shoulder, and started our 3 mile walk over the intracoastal waterway.

We saw what we think is an osprey’s nest:

And we saw some gulls:

[Note: As we learned from Bob of Birding with Bob fame, there is no such thing as a seagull. There are many kinds of gulls, but none are called seagulls. So I am smart enough to know this isn’t a seagull, but not smart enough to know what it actually is.]

Along the way, we saw lots of things that fell off of cars – mostly tools, lawn chairs, and pool noodles. And our headset batteries died, so we couldn’t talk, just push into the headwind, sand blowing in our faces, examining broken plastic and rusty nails. When we FINALLY got into Kitty Hawk, we again had to ride on 158. But first we sat on the grass and argued about whether we should spend any time tomorrow actually seeing Kitty Hawk.

It’s that biking vs. touring thing again. Dana thinks that, with 60 miles to cover tomorrow, we shouldn’t waste time. I think that if I’m in Kitty Hawk, I should at least see some of Wright Brothers stuff. But then we realized we were sitting in sand spurs, so after Dana pulled one out of my finger, we got up and kept riding another 5 miles, almost out of Kitty Hawk, to our hotel.

The road we were on – thankfully not 158 – looks a lot like Hampton Beach, but with pelicans. I like pelicans.

At the hotel we started looking at maps, and realized that the Wright Brothers Memorial is actually right here, on our route tomorrow, so I can see it, and it will add zero miles to our day. And there is a Duck Donuts here, too, so we’re very excited. We like ducks, we like donuts, and we are constantly starving. Sounds like a plan!

On to Day 29

Back to Day 26

2 PM

Waiting for a pizza at Morgan’s Corner Pizza and Subs. 13 miles to go until Elizabeth City. Other than our sore butts, it’s been a pretty good day.

We wanted to mail some stuff home this morning, so we killed some time having breakfast in Suffolk waiting for the post office to open. I wanted to go to The Plaid Turnip, but I got confused and we went to Simply Susan’s instead. I had a cookie called a Lu Lu, and a strawberry scone. Dana had a peach turnover. Then, about 5 minutes later, he had another peach turnover. The buttery, sugary awesomeness kept us going, fast and pain free, for the next 30 miles.

So after a quick stop at the post office, we headed back on route, and met Peter. He’s from Germany, riding Miami to Bar Harbor, solo. He was a bit confused by the road names around Suffolk – too many of them with Lake and Shore in them – so we stopped and discussed the ACA maps for a while, and he found his way back on route.

We crossed into North Carolina around mile 12 today:

I never took a Virginia state crossing picture when we left DC, so here’s one now:

A few other things I forgot along the way:

We met a waitress in Richmond who asked where we’re from, and she said her mother lives in Lowell. So I put on my best mom voice, and told her to go visit her mother, go to the Folk Festival, and go to Simply Khmer. The latter really excited her, as it turns out she’s Cambodian.

And we saw this sign somewhere along the way, somewhat reminiscent of home:

and this one, just north of Suffolk, which totally cracked me up at the time:

Back to today … we wanted to take a butt break in Sunbury, around mile 30. We saw a sign for peaches, so we figured we’d stop at a farm stand. But it was really a general store. The guy only sells peaches by the bushel, but he gave us 6 of them, plus we had some sodas, and we talked to his friend about fishing. I was expecting Andy and Opie to walk in any minute. Most of the stuff in the store was farm supplies and home-made jam. I would have loved to buy some jam, but – well – not gonna happen. The guy didn’t charge us for the peaches, but we paid him extra for the sodas, the opportunity to sit down, and the bag of ice that he gave us.

About a mile up the road we stopped at the Family Food Market for lunch. We sat in the shade behind the propane tanks, and watched the aftermath of a fender bender in the parking lot.

Lunch consisted of 2 candy bars, a bag of cashews, and a little boxed cherry pie. We put some of our ice into our water bottles, then I rested the ice bag on my knees for a while, then Dana rested it on his neck for a while. We got a lot of mileage out of that ice! Then we rode along the Great Dismal Swamp. I must admit I was a little nervous when I saw that name, but it was absolutely beautiful.

Somewhere between lunch and here, a Pasquotank Sheriff’s car pulled up next to us. Dana thought we were in trouble, until the guy put down his window and offered us 2 bottles of cold water. People are very nice around here! Then we saw this mismatched couple, which we thought were cute:

5 PM

At the B&B in Elizabeth City, getting ready to walk downtown for dinner. I must say, it was a nice touch when we got to the B&B, and our name was on the front steps:

Dana is lying in bed right now, resting his back. Other than that, and general butt pain, we both felt great today. 58 miles, and we didn’t use our granny gears even once! I have started stretching, and I bought a knee support which I am wearing, on alternating knees, when I am off the bike. Plus we are both icing our various parts whenever we get a chance. And it probably doesn’t hurt that the terrain here is basically flat. I love flat!

On to Day 28

Back to Day 25

7 PM

Today was a much needed rest day, so this is going to be a short, boring post.
To kick off the rest properly, we slept until 10:30, and breakfast was coffee from the hotel room Keurig.

Then we walked down the street to Riddick’s Folly, a historic Greek revival house built in 1837. It was called a folly in its time because no one really appreciated Greek revival houses around here. The tour was almost 2 hours long, and every room of the house is beautifully preserved. Much of the furniture is original to the house, as are the books, pottery, portraits, etc. The curator is a really nice man who obviously loves the house and the family.

This is a very comfortable paw-foot chair that Dana liked, he’s thinking maybe we can build one at home. But ours will be a claw-foot, since we have a case of claw-feet in our shop.

After the tour we walked down the street to Old Bay Seafood, where we had, among other things, hush puppies and crab cakes. I thought it was related to Old Bay seasoning, but it isn’t.

Then we walked about a quarter mile to downtown Suffolk, at which point we were very hot and surprisingly exhausted, so we turned around. On our way back we stopped at the Suffolk Seaboard Airline Station Railroad Museum. It is in an old passenger station that was closed in 1965, and it is filled train memorabilia. There’s an H-O model train running through it, with a miniature of Suffolk, including Riddick’s Folly. I took a picture because a model train is sort of a diorama with a train running through it, right?

After the railroad museum, we saw a massage therapist’s office, so we went in. It looked nice, but they were booked solid, so we kept walking. Dana went back to the hotel and I stopped at Rite Aid for Dramamine, Gatorade, and flip flops. We spent the rest of the afternoon in air conditioned hotel room comfort.

We just booked our rooms for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, because the Outer Banks are busy. We are waiting to hear from a B&B in Elizabeth City for tomorrow night, but we aren’t terribly worried about it. Yet. We are now going to eat dinner in the hotel bar, wearing tomorrow’s bike clothes, while doing laundry in the hotel laundry room.

This morning I tried some stretches, and they felt great. And Dana figured out that the bladder of the CamelBak makes a great ice pack. I told him to lie on it for his back, but he’s afraid it will pop.

On to Day 27