4:30
In Swansboro, NC. Having a drink, watching the World Cup, talking to strangers about the dangers of biking in Florida. And blogging. All in glorious air conditioning.
Today was a short 32 mile day. We started by crossing a short bridge from Beaufort to Morehead City. We stopped for breakfast at Pete’s Diner. And in honor of my Westford Recreation biking group, we had skillets!
Then we rode over a big bridge to Atlantic Beach. I am proud to say that I rode the entire bridge, and I was only a little bit terrified. We crossed Bogue Sound.
In Atlantic Beach we rode along the water – the entire town is one block wide, water on both sides, so that’s sort of a no-brainer. When we got to Pine Knoll Shores, we saw this marker – I guess we are still on the Civil War Battlefields route.
Right at the turn to the North Carolina Aquarium, we saw this marker:
At the aquarium, we saw fish, and turtles, and frogs, and otters, and more fish, and… land shark!
We splurged on the Behind-the-Scenes tour, and it was worth it. We saw the shark tank, and the area where they nurture injured sea turtles. This is a one-year-old loggerhead.
And this is a baby alligator:
They had a snack bar outside the aquarium, so we had Orange Julius.
Then we continued on that island until we were tired, and stopped in at Ben & Jerry’s. I’m sensing a theme here.
Then we crossed another big bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. I’m proud to say I rode again, no wimp walking for me. (At least not today).
We rejoined the ACA route 3 miles out of Swansboro, on rte. 24. It was the first time all day that we were on busy, ugly roads. When we got to Swansboro, we saw this statue of Otway Burns…
And, in case you care who he was…
and more Civil War history…
Now we are waiting for Cheryl to show up. I just suggested to Dana that we ride further and meet her closer to Wilmington. He gave me a dirty look.
Dana and Carolyn's 57 Ride 
Your trip sounds fabulous! I’ve been following daily. In spite of the sore seats, etc which I can relate to from our bike trips, you sure have bragging rites. We just spent a week in Cancun with 2 of our kids and 5 of our grandkids, not quite as strenuous as biking but marathon days of sailing, wind surfing, water skiing (I can still do it!), kayaking, swimming and best of all doing it all together.
Enjoy and stay safe,
Alice
We enjoyed catching up on your blog. Finished our ride to Bar Harbor on June 19th. Boy, you weren’t kidding about the hills we would face when we got to Connecticut! They were awful! But it was great to finish our ride and get off the bike. Now we are following how you are doing. Thank goodness you are past all the hills! I’m loving your humor. Hang in there you are doing great. I wish we had been home to host you when you came through Williamsburg, you were a half mile from our home. Good luck with the next section of the ride and I’ll be keeping an eye on that hurricane brewing off the coast of Florida. Good luck and remember to keep the rubber side down!
Sounds like fun! Glad you’ll have a long butt break. Enjoy the fireworks this week! Massages too. Dan’s eyes got really big when we saw the picture of Ben and Jerry’s shakes!
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