Saturday, April 30 – Saturday, May 7, 2022

Upon entering North Carolina we immediately noticed that the rumble strips had disappeared. Thank goodness! The riding conditions all around improved dramatically, with bike lanes and paths, wide smooth shoulders, and appropriate signage.

Our Adveture Cycling route had us zigging and zagging all morning on Saturday to avoid the busy tourist roads (we completely bypassed downtown Myrtle Beach); Rob wanted to stop for a second breakfast; and we seemed to be doing a lot of stopping for other things like sunblock and pain killers and bathrooms and lunch, so we didn’t make very good time until the afternoon when we picked up steam, and crossed into North Carolina.

After riding 61 miles we arrived in Southport around five o’clock where we had a room reserved at the Inn at River Oaks, a sweet little local motor lodge.

After cleaning up we walked to the waterfront to get some dinner. All the restaurants were crowded with lines of people waiting. Our dinner at The Frying Pan was pleasant enough. I ordered shrimp and grits because I’ve determined that, just like lasagne, everyone makes it differently. But, although I enjoyed the shrimp and grits that my cousin’s husband cooked, I’ve decided that I’m done with trying grits.

After dinner we walked around the waterfront and historic area of town.

Sunday morning we hopped on the 8:30 ferry to Fort Fisher and then had pleasant riding through Kure Beach with its multitude of colorful homes, then on to Wilmington, where Rob had made arrangements for a visit with Julian Kieth, a graduate school colleague.

Connecting with old friends as we ride around the country has been an absolute joy. Since Rob and I met when we were both in graduate school at CU Boulder (I quit; he didn’t) I know all his former colleagues. Julian and Rob overlapped by one year. My memory of Julian is that he stayed with us when he first rolled into town. Rob didn’t share that memory, but Julian confirmed that I was right.

We arrived at Julian and Amy’s around noon, after riding 29 miles. After showers, laundry, and lunch we drove into downtown Wilmington for a brief tour of the waterfront.

Monday morning, after a delicious breakfast that Julian cooked for us – pancakes made with oats, bananas, and other stuff mixed in a blender, we got on the road around nine o’clock. As we left we agreed that we’d better not wait another 38 years before meeting again.

We rode out of Wilmington then on back roads to Surf City and North Topsail Beach. Although we were riding with the ocean on one side and marshes on the other, we didn’t really get many views of the water, as the streets were lined with houses. But the houses were lovely, mostly new and painted in myriad pastel colors.

We stopped about 4 miles from our Warm Showers destination for a beer and to catch up on some blog writing. We arrived at Ray’s house around 4:30, after 52 miles, and enjoyed sitting out on his back deck overlooking the water.

On Tuesday we head to the Outer Banks. This was another day when we had a choice of either 50 miles or 90. We chose the shorter day after Ray told us that Swansboro is a quaint little tourist town on the water. It was.

The riding was pleasant and unremarkable. We arrived in Swansboro around 1:30, had lunch under a shelter by the docks, then found the Waterway Inn, a sweet little locally owned motel on the water, about a mile from downtown Swanboro.

We hadn’t planned on riding 72 miles on Wednesday but the miles just flew by and we didn’t want to stop. This was probably our most fun day to date on our bikes. We had about ten miles first thing on a busy highway then quiet back roads the rest of the day.

We arrived in Newport after our first speedy 20 miles and stopped at a coffee shop where we got egg, bacon, and cheese croissants that were delicious. We read a USA Today newspaper, catching up on the news about the Supreme Court leak, and I worked on a blog post.

Then after another 20 miles we stopped for lunch at a convenience store. This one had a porch with a wooden swing on it. Rob wanted ice cream but they didn’t sell any since they took out their freezer to put in lottery tickets. So we stopped at the next convenience store, after another 10 miles. This one had Edy’s ice cream and waffle cones. The kid who scooped it gave me at least three scoops of Death by Chocolate. Same for Rob, and he charged us $1.98 for both. What a deal!

As Rob was getting on his bike a woman asked how far he was riding and when he said to Boston she said, “Lord have mercy!” Earlier that day when we were stopped at a traffic light a driver asked how far we were riding. We said 40 – 60 miles a day. He asked where we started and when we said Orlando, he said, “No shit!”

I’d like to think that our easy riding was because we are getting in pretty good shape but Rob says it’s the tail wind we had all day.

After 72 miles we arrived at the Cedar Island Resort, with a motel and campground. We were too hot and tired to tackle setting up camp, plus we wanted to pack up quickly in the morning to catch the 7:30 ferry to Ocracoke, so we got a motel room. And happily for us there was a restaurant next door that had decent food at a decent price.

Our first ferry on Thursday was a short walk from our motel room. We disembarked in Ocracoke, a cozy old fishing town that now caters to tourists, with a mix of new and old buildings, a small museum, and a working lighthouse. 

We learned that there is a cemetery in Ocracoke where the bodies of four British sailors are buried. They are the only bodies that washed ashore from a British ship that was torpedoed by the Germans during WWII.

After a second breakfast and a tour of the town, we got on our bikes for the 14-mile ride to the next ferry, to Hatteras. The headwind was brutal.

We decided, even before boarding the second ferry, that we’d call it a day after another 11 miles of riding. That would take us to Buxton, where we were able to get a room at the Cape Pines Motel.

Dinner was just a short walk down the road and we were entertained by a musician who had a voice like Paul Simon and played guitar, drums, and harmonica, somtimes all at once. But he didn’t sing and play harmonica at the same time.

Friday was terrific. Starting out at 8:00 am, we had another day of riding where we fairly flew, covering 60 miles by 2:30. That included a morning stop for a snack on the beach and a lunch stop at a national park campground. We pretty much spent the day riding through the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreation Area., a long narrow windblown island. Happily the wind was in our favor.

We were happy to get in our miles quickly because that allowed us to spend a couple hours at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. I was curious as to why the memorial is located in the town of Kill Devil Hills when everyone knows the first flight took place in Kitty Hawk. It turns out that what used to be Kitty Hawk in 1903 when the first flight took place is now in the town of Kill Devil Hills.

Orville and Wilbur had a bike shop in Dayton, Ohio. When they became interested in solving the problem of creating a flying machine, they looked for a place that was windy (to help give lift), sandy (for soft landings), and isolated (for secrecy). They settled on Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. But they maintained their Ohio residence where they did their research and design, coming to Kitty Hawk for testing.

Exhaustion and the weather forecast got the better of us and, although we had a campground picked out, we decided to stay in a Quality Inn on the beach instead. We then enjoyed a walk on the beach to dinner at a Thai restaurant. And, again, a walk on the beach Saturday morning before we took off for our last North Carolina ferry and Virginia.