Back to Day 33

2 PM

Sitting in our hotel room, watching the rain. The thunder was so loud just now, it woke Dana from his nap. I feel bad about not riding tomorrow, but we absolutely could not have ridden today.

Our bluetooth keyboard, which we use for blogging, is dying. I can’t type numbers, and Bs are difficult. So we went out this morning, before the storm, in search of a new one. But there are no office supply stores around here, so we gave up on that search, and started searching for Nehi soda.

I found Nehi in the fish market yesterday, but I didn’t buy it, which was silly. Neither Dana nor I have had Nehi in years, and, unfortunately, I can’t find it in the little stores near the hotel. So tomorrow, when we ride our bikes to the historic district to take pictures of historic markers, we will go back to Ronnie’s Crab Shack and buy Nehi soda.

After we gave up on keyboards and Nehi soda, we had ice cream for breakfast. Kilwin’s is the place around here with the big lines, like Kimball’s at home. Luckily, there was no line there at 10 AM.

We walked down to the waterfront to eat our ice cream, and we saw Penny and her dog, Rudy. We met them yesterday, so when she saw us she stopped to chat. We chatted until it started raining, then we headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the minute it started raining, it started pouring, so by the time we got back here we were drenched.

So I did the laundry, and I am starting to watch Scrubs. Dana is catching up on some much-needed sleep. All this trip, on the bikes all day, he feels great and I feel like crap. The minute we get off the bikes, I feel fine and he feels like crap. We’ve arranged massages for tomorrow morning, before our historic tour. Hopefully the massages will help with all of our crappy feelings

8 PM

Since I really have nothing more to share, I thought maybe we could take some pictures pf our tan lines, but Dana thinks that’s silly. Here is one of Dana’s hand, just to give you some idea. 

We had made reservations for dinner tonight, on a balcony overlooking the river. We walked to the restaurant, and the meal was delicious, but we did not sit on the balcony because of the rain. Everything is deserted downtown, except the bars, which are packed with people. Millions and millions of really young people. So after dinner we just walked back to our hotel, during a particularly nasty weather moment:

On to Day 35

Back to Day 32

9 PM

First day of a three-day butt break in Wilmington, NC. Cheryl picked us up in Swansboro last night, and we got into Wilmington around 9:00.

Today we slept late – aaahhh – and then we went to a coffee shop for breakfast. It felt so, so nice to just sit and relax and actually finish a good cup of coffee. Most of my morning coffee in the past month has been mediocre motel coffee, dumped in the trash while still half-full because Dana’s standing over me, clipping on his helmet, saying “Let’s go. We have to get going.”

After my wonderful cup of coffee, we walked along the waterfront on Water St..

Then found a ferry to take us the the battleship USS North Carolina. Cheryl went there with her kids when they were young, but wanted to see it again from an adult perspective.

We watched the informative 10 minute film about the ship, then did a self-guided walking tour. We saw the entire ship, including how they loaded the ammunition up to the guns, which I believe is something my father did in WWII.

It turns out Dana is very knowledgeable about WWII battleships. Cheryl and I had our own expertly guided tour of the ship. Here’s a picture which can best be titled “Dana Explains It All”.

After our return ferry ride, we started walking to a Turkish restaurant on Front St., and then Cheryl realized that she had never checked out of her hotel room. So we walked back to the hotel, checked her out, picked up her car, and drove back to the restaurant. The hotel was very nice about it. Whew.

The restaurant was delicious – kofte and falafel and grape leaves – and then we drove with Cheryl to a fish market. They had a spice mix called Slap Yo’ Mama, which I’ve seen in recipes but I can’t find at home. Cheryl will mail it to me.

This is Claude. He lives on a perch in front of a store near the hotel.

After Cheryl left, we sat in our awesomely air-conditioned hotel room for a while (Dana took a nap), then we went on a dinner cruise on the Cape Fear River. We were afraid it was going to be hokey, but we also figured Why Not? It’s totally different than anything we’ve done in the past month. And it turned out to be wonderful – good food, then a very informative narrative about the history of the city and the river. We learned about shipping, and about the Civil War. Boy, have we learned a lot about the Civil War in the past few weeks!

Anyway, driving back from the fish market, we passed through the historic district, which has a plethora of historic markers that I am just dying to photograph and share with you. And that is what I will do on Friday.

Friday??? But it’s only Wednesday!!!  Well, it seems we’ve gotten ourselves into a bit of a mess. Hurricane Arthur is coming through tomorrow, so we can’t ride. And Friday is July 4th. And the town where we plan to stop in next – Shalotte – is just outside of Southport, where I guess they have the biggest and best 4th of July celebration anywhere. So we can’t get a room Friday night, so we’ll be here in Wilmington for a while.

We are somewhat frustrated about losing 2 biking days, but we need the rest. At least I do. Hopefully my butt will have a chance to un-bruise, and the next week of riding will be more pleasant. Then we will be in Charleston, where we will rent a car to Savannah. There’s a lot of cheating going on here, about which my body is VERY happy. If any vacation ever needed a vacation, this is the one. Tomorrow we will watch movies, do laundry, and maybe get a massage. Doesn’t that sound like heaven?

On to Day 34

Back to Day 31

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.

On to Day 33