Wilmington to Yemassee, SC Sept. 22-27, 2021

After two rain days in Wilmington, NC Jay decided to put in at least 70 miles a day while the weather was favorable. We continue to head SSW along the coast. Jay cycled the last bit of the Outer Banks passing through Kure Beach, NC catching the ferry to Southport to continue the ride on the mainland.

It’s now offseason so the normally bustling summer towns of Myrtle Beach and Surf City were at the start of the winter ghost town cycle. Jay’s bike maps now took him off the shoreline through long stretches of idyllic tree covered roads as well as hazardous miles on busy highways without any shoulders.  

Our roads are still planned by car-centric engineers. In a few places where the very narrowest strip of asphalt extended beyond the roadway that would provide some biker safety, the North and South Carolina Departments of Transportation opted to rumple strip that bike accessible real estate. Car safety is important, but riding with cars zooming past just three feet away at 60 miles per

Steeple w/ wind vane instead of cross

hour is a white-knuckle experience. One needs to accept the tradeoffs from pedaling down beach roads to gliding under Spanish moss trees on the deep back country roads of the Carolinas.

After Jay resumed his ride from our hotel in Mount Pleasant, SC, Helen toured the Cold War Memorial and took a 90-minute bus tour of nearby Charleston. She enjoyed seeing all the beautiful homes with the piazzas on the sides of the houses. Of course, there were churches, government buildings, The Citadel and more. There is a lot of history still visible in this picturesque city.

An Off-Road Discovery

The Charleston Visitor Center itself is a beautiful, open building full of brochures, displays and a staffed kiosk if tourists have questions. One updated feature of this renovated structure is the restroom (singular). The stalls are closed all the way to the

bottom. Helen was a bit taken aback when she walked in and a smiling young man was drying his hands. At first she thought she was in the wrong place, but then saw another woman at the sink washing her hands. Our church in Atlanta is renovating and updating an old church for our congregation’s use, and one of the features is to make non-binary people comfortable is the unisex restroom. We don’t know how comfortable other people may be, but Helen found it a bit disconcerting.

Rest Day

We are now taking a rest day in Yemassee, SC located in the middle of nowhere at the crossroads of US 95 and Highway 17. When Jay resumes riding tomorrow, he will cycle through Beaufort, SC completing the day’s ride in Savannah. We plan to book a room at the Marriott Riverfront Hotel where we concluded our Seattle to Savannah cross country bike ride in 2018.  We doubt we will be greeted with hoopla and a bottle of champagne as we were at the conclusion of our last great bike ride. Savannah is  just a waypoint on this journey, but being in Georgia will no doubt give us a sense that we will indeed complete this ride to Key West, Florida!

Video of some more images.

Wind, Rain and a Memorial (Sep 20 – 21, 2021)

Click to Enlarge

We typically post a blog on Sunday, but we find ourselves again sheltering in a hotel dodging a swath of rain coming off the Atlantic Ocean covering an area from Wilmington, NC to Charleston, SC . . . our intended bike route. We are still making progress.  With Jay’s last ride, we have covered 1,413 miles and estimate we have another 1,200 to complete our trek to Key West.

Jay’s ride yesterday took him past Camp Lejeune, a large Marine Corps base where he was once stationed (about 50 years ago!) This was also the same base where the 13 marines recently killed in Afghanistan were stationed. A poignant memorial honoring the fallen appeared on the road leading to the base’s front gate. Photos of

Memorial for Fallen Marines

the fallen were also used as mileage markers on the bike path that snaked around the base. Needless to say, Marine Corps flags flew from every building in the towns around the base. We owe so much to so few. . .

Our campsite in Surf City was our first opportunity we had to camp literally right next to the ocean. Only the dunes separated our tent from the crashing waves on the beach. Ideal . . . until that night the winds started blowing, then gusting, and then howling. All through the night the weather made every effort to either blow down our tent or flood us out with heavy rains. Egad!

Campsite before the Winds

The weather the next morning was equally dreary with a prediction of more to come. We packed up as best we could in the swirling winds and headed for a hotel. When the weather clears, we’ll headed back to Surf City to resume the ride.

The video shows a flag standing straight out due to the winds.

The Ride Continues Sept 13 – 18, 2021

Click to Enlarge

We left the North Carolina Outer Banks via ferries and camped Saturday night at the Cedar Campground in Sea Level, NC. We are now over 1,350 miles into our trek to Key West . . . just south of Morehead City, NC. When we last wrote we had just crossed from New Jersey into Delaware via the Cape May Ferry where we stayed at the Big Oaks campsite in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

Jay finally had some favorable wind days, and rode some long rides through Delaware and Maryland to Kiptoeke, VA where we put the bike on the car and traveled through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  Our stopping point was the Travelodge Inn in Ocean City, VA. Quite an experience at this hotel under new management. All but three rooms had been fully renovated . . . and we had one of the unrenovated rooms. We survived.

We took a day off to visit the Chrysler Museum in nearby Norfolk, one of the many suggestions we had from our friend Kristina Banks, who grew up in Norfolk. We were delighted by a docent who is an art teacher at the local college. There were three

Depiction of T. Roosevelt's Door

of us in the group, so it was quite personalized. Our favorite piece that was pointed out to us was a life-size painting of a door hung with a variety of objects, including a dead turkey, an 1822 almanac, a hat, pouch and a gun leaning on it. The artist was depicting a scene in Theodore Roosevelt’s hunting lodge.

After our day off, Jay got an early start to Currituck, NC to avoid potential rains and winds that were predicted to shift into a very unfavorable direction. The day started great with a ride along a bike path with the ocean nearby. As with all great plans, something happened. About 20 miles into the ride Jay got a flat. He inserted a new inner tube only to discover that his bike pump was not working. A call to Helen resulted in a trip to a bike shop, a pump repair and a resumed journey. However, the dreaded winds were now blowing against him and light rain fell from time to time. Jay did catch the last ferry from Knots Island to Currituck. On the ferry Jay met Charles, another east coast cyclist.  Charles is doing his ride self-contained (carries all his gear with him) without any support.

Fortunately, the winds shifted just as Jay was making his way to the Outer Banks. These strong tailwinds allowed him to ride the 100 miles on the Outer Banks (OBX) over two days with a smile on his face. There were smooth roads, little traffic, a great tail wind; his average speed was 19 mph. It was one of the best rides of his life!

Wright Brothers

Of course you can’t go to Kitty Hawk without visiting the Wright Brothers Memorial. We spent several hours touring the Visitor’s Center, reading the info, looking at old photographs and admiring a full scale model of the first airplane that flew in Dec. 1903. We climbed up the original sand dune (now covered with vegetation to preserve it) to admire the huge monument built to honor and preserve the memory of Wilber and Orville Wright. And to think . . . just last month untrained civilians flew almost 400 miles above the earth and orbited it for several days!

Jay kept pedaling and Helen took a side trip to visit the Lighthouse at Cape Hatteras. The inside is currently closed to visitors due to the first full renovation since its completion in 1870. However, visitors were invited to tour the grounds, which includes the Visitors Center and museum, and take as many photos as they wished. A number of young park rangers were on hand to provide info and recount stories of the fabled monument.

Saturday was a day of ferry rides; the first one from Hatteras to Ocracoke, then a second from Ocracoke to Cedar Island. While we waiting for the 1:00 pm ferry to Cedar Island, we had lunch SmacNally’s.  Since it was Sunday, we ordered a pitcher of mimosas to celebrate the beautiful day. Only after checking our ferry tickets did we realized it was Saturday. Oops! Hard to keep track of the days.

The video below has images from our blog over the past two weeks.

 

 

Sun, rain and a purple finger

Jay with figurehead

Rainy days give Jay a chance to rest and we get a chance to explore where we are. We ended up in Beach Haven, NJ for two nights and took the opportunity to visit the Museum of New Jersey Maritime History. There were a number of articles from shipwrecks, including the Andrea Doria.  

There was also a lot of old diving gear, hundreds of pages of maps, old newspaper articles, photos of people who had caught 40 pound lobsters, and scrimshaw, just to name a few.  We could have spent the whole day there there was so much to see. 

For those of you who knew Mary Sherman, we had dinner with her sister Ida on Labor Day. She lives on the 16^th floor in a penthouse apartment. She has a wrap-around patio with lots of trees, bushes and flowers. We ate outside at a table on the east side and enjoyed the magnificent view of the New York Skyline and Central Park, which is only two blocks away. Ida had just returned from one trip the day before and was headed out again on Thursday, so she stays busy!

Since last Sunday Jay has ridden through New York, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. We are currently camping in Rehoboth Beach, DE. At last count, Jay’s ridden his bike well over 1,050 miles and Helen has driven the car 3700 miles! Quite a few of those miles were for her to make trips to urgent care. We were staying in a hotel in Edison, NJ (home of the World’s Biggest Light Bulb, which we didn’t get to see because all the roads leading to it were under construction!). Helen decided to clean her tennis shoes and stuck her hand inside one and got bitten. Ouch! It stung like a bee or a spider, but we couldn’t find anything to verify it. Her finger swelled up and turned dark purple. She drove to urgent care, saw a doctor that prescribed antibiotics, and now she is well on the way to recovery. No more purple finger!

Atlantic City Boardwalk

We enjoyed an afternoon together in Atlantic City and walked up and down the boardwalk taking in all the sights and sounds. We each enjoyed an ice cream, and Helen took a ride on the biggest Ferris Wheel we’ve ever seen! 

We walked into a couple of casinos and saw how people play the slot machines. They’re electronic and there’s no “arm” to pull. The player just sits there and pushes a button. Almost every time they hit the button they lose some money. 

One casino catered to kids, and all the games were aimed at getting them to ride a motorcycle, play a game with Cinderella or Willy Wonka or win a stuffed animal. 

Lots of loud music no matter where you go. Jay noted Trump’s boarded up casino on the far south end of the boardwalk, far from any other casinos or attractions. Poor choice of locations.

On the way out of town, Jay rode his bike and Helen drove. It was a beautiful sunny day with little wind, which made for good riding.

We took the Cape May Ferry to Lewes, DE yesterday. We have been making a point to see if we can get senior citizen discounts, and sure enough, we got one for the ferry! Jay calculated that he’d get to the place in Cape May where Helen was to meet him about 2:00. There are 2:30 and 4:30 ferries. We decided not to cut it too close and get our blood pressures up, so we booked a space for us and the car (extra for the bike rack on the back) for 4:30. It ended up we got to the ferry loading dock at 2:15. The woman at the gate told us to park on the side, and if there was room they’d let us know. As it turned out, there was space for us on the 2:30 ferry and we got the last spot!

Our campsite is only about a 12 minute drive from the ferry dock in Lewes, so we were able to set up camp while it was still daylight and enjoy supper al fresco. Today Jay did a 70 mile “backwards” ride because of the strong southerly winds. Helen took him to the end point and they both rode back to Lewes, Jay on his bike and Helen in the car.

Shadow of Ferris Wheel at the beach

Sandwich, MA to Rye, NY Aug. 30 - Sept. 5, 2021

When we last wrote we were in Fall River, MA (east of Providence, RI). We are now in Rye, NY a little

Cones blocking bike path

over 800 miles into our trek down the east coast with an estimated 2,000 cycling miles before we reach Key West. Urban cycling, tropical storm Henri and Hurricane Ida have hampered our progress. 

We don’t think very much when we drive our car through an urban environment like Providence, Hartford, New Haven or Stamford. A bike rider does not have access to an interstate highway, but must find ways to navigate around, over or under these obstacles. Jay has been using the

East Coast Greenway map that has reliable routes through these cities albeit on roads less traveled. Such roads are a mosaic of pothole patches, surrounded by hastily applied asphalt by construction crews, layered on an original road surface that is cracked by the ravages of time and extreme winter and summer temperature swings in the Northeast. Bicycle speeds rarely exceed 10 mph. However, such is the cost of seeing the east coast of America on a bicycle. 

Hurricane Ida that pounded the Northeast with heavy rains had to be

Frog Bridge in Willimantic, CT

accommodated. Jay split some of his long 70 mile rides into two-day rides to dodge rain showers. We were fortunate to find shelter from the worst of Ida at a hotel in Willimantic, CT. Willimantic, we discovered in our three day stay there, was once known as “Thread City.” Mills powered by the Willimantic River once dominated the town and were serviced by forty trains per day that stopped in this mill town. Who knew? There is also a legend about frogs, which led to the 11' high statues of frogs sitting on thread spools on the newest bridge in town. 

The day after Hurricane Ida passed, Jay was anxious to get back on the road, but frantic warnings of flash flooding by the team on the Weather Channel, echoed by local newscasters further reinforced by warnings blaring on our phones gave both of us pause. Jay reworked his use of rails to trails (most likely under

Flooding on Route 6

water) to surface roads and reduced his mileage objective. He suggested we drive this new route in a car to check out conditions. Good thing! A major intersection at the start of his route was flooded. Since the sky was so clear and blue, Jay decided to try his shortened ride. He avoided the flooded highway section, but found other sections of his route underwater. Confidence on having unobstructed bike routes was fading. 

Puritans had strict rules

We spent Saturday night in Fairfield, CT. While Jay was cycling, Helen took advantage of some “time off” to explore. Checking out “Top 10 Things to do in (city)” on Trip Advisor is her go-to guide. The only thing that appealed was the Fairfield Museum. She spent a couple of hours there and enjoyed learning some local history. 

Flooding is just one obstacle, but it is not uncommon for Jay to see signage reading “Road Closed.” Such warnings, however, do not go unchallenged. Frequently a road closed to a car is passable by a bike. In the meantime, we are staying warm and dry at the Marriott in Rye this Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend. The weather forecast for tomorrow looks pretty good; the chance of rain is 0-15%. Jay plans to be on his bike by 9am to cycle into Manhattan where we’ll have dinner with our friend Ida Cole.

Stuck in a Storm

We have had more rain delays on the first three weeks of this trip than we thought possible! With time on our hands and a good internet connection, Jay decided to use his time off the road to create a video of some of the sights we've seen along the way. Right now we are in Willimantic, CT and will be here until at least Friday morning. We hope at that time the weather will allow us to be, as Willy Nelson sang, "on the road again."