Carolinas-Florida Bicycle Tour

I don’t know if anyone out there is still reading this (and I don’t blame you if you’re not) but I do fully intend to write about each day that we lived on this bicycle tour. If only as a diary for myself. Maybe I’ll make a scrapbook about it. With photos and personal notes and other special things in it. Until then. I have Flickr and this here blog.

Here are the 9 photos on Flickr that I took that day: photos

Here is the 1 photo on Flickr that Kiki took that day: photo

So, Day 8, July 25, 2006 (as I remember it today, September 19, 2006):

We left camp in the morning and started hearing low-flying jets and helicopters pretty much right away. It was pretty loud but it didn’t prepare us for the one flyby that we got immediately after leaving a convenience store to get some water for the camelbaks. It came from over the trees and took us so much by surprise that we ducked to avoid being hit. It was nowhere near but it felt like it. It was a FA-18 I think that was doing laps, basically, above our heads. We continued on and found ourselves in a vast, open, nature preserve, the Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge. This, apparently was a favorite flight training area for the local Marine Corps base and we saw over the course of the next couple of hours at least 3 or 4 jets taking laps around the area. I thought it was pretty cool but I don’t think Kiki and Hillary shared my enthusiasm. It was a fairly easy ride through the refuge and, all in all, a pretty normal day until we pulled into Davis. As we stopped at the gas station to get some rest and gatorade, it immediately started raining. So immediately that my ass go soaked as I shimmied my bike up under the cover of the overhang. It was perfect timing though, and as chance had it, our three biking buddies were there as well. We all hung out and waited out the downpour, which didn’t last long. I had a BBQ pork sandwich as a pre-lunch and we had a nice photo shoot with a giant beetle. After the rain stopped we got on our way and proceeded through many small towns and rural areas until we reached Newport, NC, which was a fairly sizeable town. We stopped at the grocery stoer to get supplies to make dinner and prepared ourselves for the last 9 miles of the trip. However, we saw this. Needless to say this didn’t look good but we put on the rain covers and determined to ride into it. When what should appear? A man sticking his head out the driver’s side window of an RV. “You guys don’t want to go that way,” he said. We tended to agree, but what choice did we have. We’d reserved a spot at a campground there. He waved us back and told us he’d drive us to where we were going. It didn’t take us long to take him up on the offer. We hauled the bikes into/onto (they’re heavy) the back of his huge pickup and he drove us the remainind 9 miles through what was the hardest rain we’d seen up till this point. It was good thing he offered beacuse it would have sucked, no doubt. He felt bad about leaving us at the campground in the storm but he did anyway. I thought that if he really felt bad, he could have let us stay at his house and made us dinner and given us fresh towels and maybe a massage. Not in the cards, alas. However, this campground has ameneties! There was a nice pool, private bathrooms with showers, and the most important saving grace, a large laundry room. It was large enough to fit all of us, our bikes, a large table, and several laundry machines. We camped out in there. We dried off, dried some clothes in the dryer, cooked and ate dinner at the table and had a nice time while we waited out the storm. When it died down, we pitched our tents and got them ready to sleep in, which we did eventually. I wanted to stay in the laundry room but I was outvoted but the tents were fine. The storm was over.

The total mileage for the day was 53.5 miles (and that’s not including the last 9 in the pickup).

IMG_1503

Originally uploaded by hewins.

We finally made it to Key West! After nearly 1200 miles and 4 flat tires, we got to the end of the road, literally. You’d think we were in better shape, but we’re not. This is the door of our last hotel room.

Day 7 began after a rainy night at the campsite in Avon, NC on the Outer Banks (OBX). We got up and packed up camp and got on the road early. This day ended up being on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to the headwinds and rain of the previous day. And this day was to be our first day at the beach. We rode on down the Outer Banks towards Cape Hatteras, the elbow of the outer banks. We got to the lighthouse at Hatteras and climbed up it while we were there. It’s the tallest lighthouse in North America. You can see pictures of it here. It was pretty cool to climb up all 12 stories of it but it was a bit tiring considering our legs are used to pedaling. The lighthouse was moved about 2200 feet about 7 years ago to get it away from the eroding seashore. After visiting the lighthouse we went to the neighboring beach for some ocean swimming and rest on the sand. After the fun in the sun we got back on the bikes for the rest of the day’s rid which included 2 ferries. The ferries were pretty cool and it was good to relax on the longer one (where I wrote a bunch of these ‘catch-up’ posts). We learned the value of a good tailwind this day too. It makes riding worlds better than riding in a headwind. I never thought it would matter that much but it does. At the end of the day we were more or less back on the mainland of North Carolina. We camped in a town called Cedar Island with three other guys next to us that had been touring the same route for the last few days. The total milage for the day was about 32 (not including the farries).

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.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Originally uploaded by hewins.

This is a shot of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse right before we climbed up it. It’s the tallest lighthouse in North America at about 175 feet. Which, for us, was about 12 storiesv up. And there is no elevator. It was a cool view from the top so it was well worth it.

tonight was Alan Pinstein and Janine Franco’s wedding. It’s day 20 of the trip and I know that I’ve only wrtten about days 1-5 at this point. Give me a break, we’re busy. But I want to write now tolet you all (or y’all) know that we’re still alive and still thinking of all of you, our blog rollers. The wedding was absolutely amazing and unparalleled. We had a great time and we’re looking forward to getting back on the bikes on Tuesday. We’re in Atlanta now and we’re driving to Savannah, Ga tomorrow (perhaps after we go to 6 Flags) and we’ll continue the trip on Tuesday. Mazeltov.

Day 5 was to be out “short day.” We found a campground on the map on Roanoke Island and had a plan to get there early, set up camp, unlaiden our bikes, ride back to the ocean and go to the beach, and then go back to Roanoke for “The Lost Colony.” Getting to Roanoke was no easy task, however. The Washington Baum bridge going from Nags Head to Roanoke was a killer bridge. Really high and steep with a really narrow shoulder. And the worst part about it was that the crosswinds down the sound were super strong making this stretch the most harrowing so far. After crossing that bridge we concluded that we wouldn’t be going to the ocean beach that day because there was no way we were going to cross that bridge another three times, once more would be one more too many but we had to do at least that tomorrow. At the Food-a-Rama, the local grocery store, we learned that the campground we wanted to stay at no longer existed and had been torn down. Our options dwindled. Maybe this could be our first motel night, we though, and looked for a motel. The rates were not all that great but we chose the Duke of Dare motor lodge. Got the room from a woman wearing a mumu and swam in the ppol beofre going out for a bite to eat at the Weeping Radish, a German Beer hall. The food was good but it was no Zum Schneider. Then we rode up to see the play. (Again, see Kiki’s Lost Colony Entry for more info.) We actually ended up riding 32 miles on our short day but some was fully unloaded, which was really nice.

The fourth day brought us to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It also took us on the busiest roads up to that point. As the land gets narrower, there are fewer roads and we end up having to share them with all the cars that were going to the Outer Banks for the weekend. This was a Friday too, so the traffic was probably heavier than it would have been on another day. We went through towns named Maple, Aydlett, Grandy, Coinjock, and Harbinger. We all wanted to know what Coinjock was named after. We passed an inmate street cleaning crew near Aydlett. After crossing the 2-mile-long bridge into Kitty Hawk we went to the Visitors’ Center and gathered up pamphlets and brochures among which was the brochure for “The Lost Colony” symphonic drama. The Lost Colony is an outdoor play that is performed in the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site about the first English colony in America. The colony was where the first English child was born in America, Virginia Dare. And Virginia is named after Queen Elizabeth, “The Virgin Queen.” It cought our eyes, Kiki’s especially, and we knew what we were going to do the next day. (See Kiki’s Lost Colony Entry for more info.) After the Visitors’ Center we went to the Kitty Hawk Post Office to pick up the package that our roomate Dan sent to us General Delivery. Everything was there (thanks, Dan!) so we had our new tires and spare tubes. We sat down for a big late lunch at Awful Aruthur’s for some seafood. In a fit of history-making, Kiki decided to eat some bits of seafoot that she’d never eaten before: oysters and crab cakes. It may not sound like much, but this was a milestone for Kiki. I had a great teriaki grilled tuna burger. mmmm. We’ve been eating a lot on this trip and we don’t feel guilty about it either. That’s because we rode 48 miles on Day 4. We camped at Joe and Kay’s campground in Kill Devil Hills, which had its fair share of permanent residents, one of which played Madonna from his car at the late hour of 11:00 pm! In addition to eating a lot, we’re also on an earlier sleep schedule. I’m getting up earlier in the morning than I aver do, normally 6:00 or 6:30. In our first but of bike maintenance, Hillary and I changed our tires. The new ones are great, we have to say.

The route of Day 3 took us basically due east towards the coast. We apparently needed a lot of sleep so we got a relatively late start at about 9:20. We had heard that Day 3 would be the one that would make us want to die and it didn’t start well. We all had pain in our rears from the moment we put them on our bike seats. It wasn’t a good sign, but we pushed through. It turned out not to be a very hard day though as we got into it. We crossed through the Great Dismal Swamp and got a closer-than-normal look at a lot of roadkill. One deer, a few racoons of various sizes, a handful of snakes, other medium-sized rodents, and a turtle. As we ride down the back-country roads and along the sides of busier roads we get a view of the country not normally seen. It’s a great way to see things that we wouldn’t normally see. There are more things that are more worth seeing than road kill though. After the swamp we got to a small town called South Mills. This is where things got interesting. As we sat down for lunch at the only place available in town, the gas station that had a lunch counter in back, we heard a loud bang from right outside where our bikes were. As it turned out, my front tire blew out spontaneously. There was no apparent cause, and the tire itself had torn. I replaced the tube and reinflated the tire after we ate and minutes later came a loud bang of the same sort as the new tube exploded. If I had known before what I just learned then I wouldn’t have changed the tube because I would have known that the damaged tire wouldn’t have held the new tube and I could have predicted the blowout.g Hillary and I had ordered Schwalbe tires and tubes directly from the company’s North American office in Canada but they hadn’t arrived in Brooklyn by the time we left so we were spare tube-less and spare tire-less at this point. The nearest bike shop was 15 miles away in another town. A local guy named Wendell overheard us discussing our predicament and offered to drive me to the bike shop where I got a new tire and some spare tubes. The problem was that Wendell didn’t offer a ride back to the gas station. I got the tires and tubes and had to thumb a ride back. I’d never actually done this before so it was a new adventure for me. I did get a ride about two miles down the road to a 7-11 but that was as far as he could take me. So I started walking with my thumb out. Keep in mind that the heat wave was still on and I was sweating like crazy and hot as hell. Nobody stopped for about 15 minutes and I decided to stop in to an “antique store” which was more like a junk heap and ask about calling a taxi. There were two men in there with almost all of their teeth, one reading the bible and minding a baby in a playpen. They called me a taxi and gave me a Dr. Pepper and I waited for the taxi that would end up costing 25 bucks to take me back to South Mills. After that long delay we were back on the road for the 25 mile trip to Bell’s Island near Currituck. As we got closer we stopped at a farmers market and picked up supplies for dinner. We found some to-go BBQ pork and cole slaw and took that out to the camp to heat up in the camp stove. Bell’s Island is where we stayed that night. It is an “island” in the North Landing River, which is basically Currituck Sound. The vacation homes out there we really nice and many had private boat docks in their backyards that were built into a canal of sorts that led out to the sound. We set up out tents about 20 ft from the seashore and saw the sunrise over the sound in the morning. A spider had made a web inside my shoe over night. From then on I kept my shoes in my bag at night. We traveled a total of 53 miles in Day 3.

Day 2: More peanuts­ — peanut fields, that is. We made it to the border of North Carolina. There was an old concrete marker from 1887 showing the border and another nondescript traffic sign stating “STATE LINE”. No indication of what states it was the line between just that the line was there. If you have to ask… For lunch we had barbeque again in Sunbury, NC. This time it was more of what we gathered to be North Carolina style. (see BBQ entries.) The waitress said that they were the best BBQ around but had to ask her mom when I asked what exactly made it North Carolina style. We stayed at the BBQ joint for a while soaking in the a/c and got the first of many inquisitions about the bike trip. A lot of people are interested in where we’re going and coming from and we weren’t able to tell people much about where we’d come from at this point. But it is pretty cool when people ask, “Where are you heading?” and we get to answer “Florida.” Sometimes we get a positive reaction like, “Have a great trip,” or “be safe. But sometimes people ask if we’d gotten a bump on the head recently. Or as Hillary’s doctor asked, “What are you, fucking nuts?!?” We can all agree that so far it’s been an amazing trip though. So, after lunch at the BBQ place we bought a watermelon and some ears of corn from the back of a man’s pickup truck. I gave Hillary the tent, which I usually carry, and strapped the watermelon to the back of my bike and we rode to the campsite. The campsite was Merchant Millpond State Park. We all agreed that this campsite was better than the last one and we praised the state park system of North Carolina. (Now that we’ve been into this trip for seven days, we’ve learned to appreciate things that we normally wouldn’t appreciate like: state park campgrounds over small, local, private ones with permanent residents; laundry machines becase we’ve been doing all of our laundry by hand in sinks with ‘campsuds’; tailwinds; downhil slopes, even ever so slight ones; and more things we wouldn’t notice in our everday lives in NYC. We ate the watermelon and some pre-made indian food from Trader Joe’s that we got in NYC and hit the sack for a much-needed rest. Over the course of Day 2 we logged 57 miles, which wasn’t bad for the second day of the trip.