On to Charleston, and Time To Go Home

We covered a lot of ground in the last 3 days and are camped just outside Charleston.   On the way we stopped for an interesting tour of the US North Carolina,  a WW2 destroyer.  The riding was long and satsfying but too much of it was along US17 and the shoulders were often poor. The problem,  as usual, is that there are no accommodations or campgrounds along the quieter routes.

US North Carolina 

Myrtle Beach 

Huntington Beach State Park was really nice.

Lunch stop.

We were not impressed with US17. Narrow,  overgrown shoulder and then the rumble strips make it useless .  grrrrrr

A well earned  break.

Spanish moss hanging on the trees.

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After we got settled in to the campground near Charleston my Allie got news from home and now it's time for us to end our ride.  We wish Lesley safe travels as she continues without us.

"I pulled out the big move...the combination "lean-against nuzzle, with a slight lick and an adoring glance." In dog-land the move has a degree of difficulty of nine point seven, and as far as I know, there is no known defense against it.”  But though Allie smiled, it did not reach her eyes, and I knew I had failed her when she needed me most.

Emerald Island and Wilmington, NC

Last night we stayed with Liz. She is part of "Warm Showers ",  an organization where people offer a warm shower plus a place to camp in the yard, sleep on the couch or floor, maybe even beds and even meals and take advantage of others doing the same when they travel. Liz provided all of that plus intellegent and warm conversation. She was recommended to us by Bridget and George,  the folks we met the day before.  We stayed up so late chatting that I was too tired to blog last night. Apparently 8:30 is considered late for us now.   OK,  I will back up to yesterday.

We got up at 5:30 to catch the morning ferry from Ocracoke to Cedar Island.  So that was goodbye for now to beaches, white egrets, pelicans (funny guys), porpoise .... .  We started riding at the other side at 10 and had a long ride ahead of us.  Nice riding but not too much to capture in pictures.

I noticed that Lesley's rear wheel was wobbling, told Allie who told Lesley.  We stopped and saw she had broken a spoke. Turned out later it was 2 spokes. Allie used her phone to find a bike shop that was more or less on our way.  The wobble did not prevent Lesley from riding so we rode the 35 klm to the bike shop in Beaufort. The nice fellow did repairs from his garage and he seemed to know his stuff and by the time we finished eating our lunch at his picnic table in his backyard the bike was ready and on we went. Sadly, no one except me thought to take a picture and what could I do?  We rode on hopping from island to island to mainland by bridges and then another bridge to Emerald Island on the Crystal Coast. An hour later we arrived at Liz's house.  As soon as I enterted in the yard and saw the collection of chewed and abused soccer balls I recognized the telltale signs, from knowing my cousin Boggle, that a collie lived here. I was right. Liz has a bearded collie. Unfortunately she was staying with Liz's mom who seems to have a, not too subtle, plan to make that a permanent thing.  We had a great dinner, did laundry and chatted as I already  mentioned.

107 klm this day.

This morning Liz provided a great breakfast and we headed out into a sunny but slightly cool morning, starting with yet another bridge back to the mainland.

We soon arrived at Jacksonville which has a large marine base attached to it.  The commercial strip consisted of barber shops offering military cuts, pawn shops, "gentlemen's  clubs" and tattoo parlors.  Liz recommended getting a tattoo from a place beside a marine base as a fun thing to do, but we declined.  Actually she said to skip that and to stop at Sonic drive in for our morning break, which we did.

We soon realized we were making good time and changed our destination to Wilmington.  Allie insists that I stress that it was not her who decided we should be road warriors for a second consecutive day. But she loved it of course.

114 klm this day (US election day)

Lesley has cooked a candlelight dinner here at the KOA and we have wifi and will catch up on the election results if we stay awake long enough.

Ulike Allie I am quite willing to admit I am getting older. So the other night while we were shivering in our sleeping bag it did not bother me to say "I'm too old for this, we need more blankets".  So tonight we are ready.  Ahhhhhh.

Ocracoke

We had sunday breakfast at a restaurant with Bridget and George, the couple who are thinking about joining Lesley on the next stage. She is a keen cyclist while he drives a funky motorcycle/car/???? carrying all their gear and towing a neat little tent/trailer, and their dog R.T.

We started riding at about 9. It was another pleasant ride. More wonderful beaches as we continued south on these islands.

We only rode 50 klm due to ferry timetables. We camped at the south end of Ocracoke and this will be our last night on the outer banks.   

“You humans always try to make things too simple, except when you’re trying to make things too complicated. You can never just be with what is.” 

Avon on Hatteras Island

Today was great. Sunny and 17. Still a bit of wind that made it chilly at times but it was a tail wind. 

About 90 klm today.

Fishing is the big attraction right now.

We saw surfers and kite surfers at Nags Head then miles and miles of sand and surf and not much in the way of towns.  We are riding the backbone of a series of skinny sandbars.  Quite amazing. Staying at campground in Avon.

The west side of the island is calm.

Lesley made a delicious seafood curry for dinner.  She has been communicating with a couple from North  Carolina who are interested in joining her for the next stage of her ride after Christmas. They joined us at the campground and are quite nice.   We will have breakfast with them. 

Kitty Hawk

Last night was warm so the gals stayed up in the dark playing cribbage while I wrote the blog.  It cooled off in the night and rained, at times hard. The noise of the rain, the wind and the sea was impressive.  By morning the rain had stopped but it was 10 degrees colder than the night before and the wind was blowing hard from the northeast.

Allie took a picture at the same spot as last night to show the change. I'm a smart dog and refused to pose in it as I did last night since I did not want to spend all day wet and cold. We met some friendly people and dogs.

We headed for the outer banks of the Carolinas.  A string of skinny islands off the the coast linked together by causeways  and ferries. 

Distance for the day was 84 klm although several klm were spent wandering around looking for campgrounds.

Unfortunately it seemed that everyone else had the same idea,  but they were in their cars and trucks. We had 4 lanes of noisy traffic most of the day and though we were never far from the sea we rarely saw it.  It was, however sunny, although on the cool side and the 25 kph wind was at our backs. At our backs except for the causeway from the mainland to the first of the islands near Kitty Hawk.  For that we had a gusty and strong crosswind for this 5 klm open crossing along a 4 lane highway with no shoulder, just a curb and a too low railing. The wind caused us to wobble a meter in either direction, so one moment we feared hitting curb and maybe going over and the next we veered dangerously in to traffic.   It was the worst 20 minutes I ever had on a bike and I kept my eyes covered with my paws.  No pictures were taken!

Adrenalin was high when we reached Kitty Hawk where we bought food supplies.  A bit further down the road we stopped at the Wright Brothers Museum and Memorial.  Well worth stopping even though Allie was getting chilled.  The speaker for the tour was great and pulled us in to how momentus an achievement it was to fly that first short flight in 1903.

The stone positioned at the location of lift off has been visited and touched by millions. He said it represents the moment where impossible was redifined to mean "not yet figured out". To touch it is to affirm that belief with respect to whatever challenge you may be facing. Allie and I touched it.

The stones in the distance mark the distance of the 4 flights on Dec 17 1903.  They were just getting the hang of things but took a break to warm up, forgot to tie the plane down and a gust of wind lifted it, tumbled it across the field and destroyed it.

They experimented with gliders from the top of the hill before applying what they learned to powered craft.

The campground and hostel in Kitty Hawk were closed so we headed to nearby Kill Devil Hill. One campground did not allow tents, another had no one in the office to talk to but looked pretty dismal.  So we checked in to the Days Inn and the gals went down the road for seafood.  A waiter who knew his craft (schmooze but with sincerity) resulted in Allie having a double tequilla shot as a "digestion" (as the French say). Dinner cost more than the hotel. A final note; Allie is in better spirits today and I know I had help making that happen.