Catch-up: Day 6
Ok, I know there’s quite a backlog of days to write about. I’m writing now on Day 27 of this trip and I’ve only written about days 1-5. I’ll admit that blogging isn’t at the top of my list of priorities and most days leave us too tired to do anything except pitch the tent and sit down for a while. so here it goes:
Day 6 started after our first night’s sleep in a motel. it was nice to have the a/c and beds. But we weren’t looking forward to that bridge again. Fortunately for us, it wasn’t as bad the second time. We also got our first taste of rain that morning. We stopped after the first few drops to put on our rain covers for the bags. We just rode on through the rain because it wasn’t coming down too hard. The next sight along the way was the Bodie Island Lighthouse. We stopped off to see it and get a break from the rain. Even theough it wasn’t too bad we did get soaked all the way. Our shirts were dripping and our shoes were sloshing but, thankfully, it wasn’t cold so it actually felt pretty good. The lighthouse is a classic, postcard lighthouse but we could only look at it and not go up to the top. We continued on in the rain and crossed the Oregon Inlet via another long, large bridge. On Pea Island we started getting into the worst conditions so far. This was the part of the day that made us remember it as “the day of suck.” We had a nasty headwind that knocked our average speed down to between 9 and 10 miles an hour and we rode an endless number of farsees* along what seemed to me like a slope up the whole time. It was hell. We passed through a couple of small-nothing towns named Waves and Salvo that only served as brief respites from the chore of riding. After hours and miles of this we arrived in Avon after the rain stopped. Our total mileage for the day was about 52 miles. In Avon we picked up some groceries, found the campground, set up the tents, showered, and cooked egg and noodle fry-ups** for dinner. As I was doing the dishes I felt a few new drops of rain. I stayed out too long and couldn’t get back to the tent before getting soaked yet again. A fine ending to a fine day.
* farsee: n. Unit of measurement. Down the road as far as you can see.
** egg and noodle fry-up: meal. Ramen noodles boiled, drained and fried with an egg. Add tobasco if desired. I desired.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
You said “pitch the tent.”