Day 13 - 27

Big update. I got an email from Cam with the guys collective notes from Days 13 through 26. I also got a CD full of pictures that were taken from May 29 to June 11 (Day 7 through Day 20). They are one day from Florida, the home stretch, but also the state with the most stops. Unfortunately, this will mark the end of the road for Cam who must fly to Texas once they hit a major airport. Cam will be starting work with Weatherford next week. Without further adieu, here are their notes, followed a sample of their pictures. I will try and upload the rest of the pictures to the facebook group as soon as possible.

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Day 13 - Richmond, VA to somewhere near Isle of Wight, VA. Once we left the city, we saw nothing but corn, soybeans, cotton and swamp. The only other interesting thing we saw while riding was the bizarre naming scheme for rural roads in Virginia. They are all between 600 and 699, and they seemed to be named randomly and discontinuously. Our campsite was envisioned as some sort of pagan retreat (there was literature on paganism in the office and a may pole near the lake) but deteriorated into a redneck shantytown where people could put their fifth wheel on blocks, build a plywood addition, get a mean dog and throw away all nonessential clothing --like shirts. At least we met another touring cyclist there. He was headed north, and we traded stories and told each other what to expect. We had a thunderstorm in the middle of the night, and the mosquitos bothered us a little.

Day 14 - Rural VA, to Maple, NC. The scenery did not change in the slightest from crops and swamps until we made our approach to Maple. Once we were there, we were on one of the many sounds just short of the Outer Banks. Our campsite was on the water and inexpensive, but full of biting flies. We turned a few heads by ordering 12 double cheeseburgers for dinner.

Day 15 - Maple, NC to Rodanthe, NC. Maple is on the mainland about thirty miles from the causeway to Kitty Hawk, on the Outer Banks. We had a tailwind, and we ended up arriving in Rodanthe 70 minutes ahead of schedule. Our day was enlivened by my spectacular high speed crash on some sand on the roadway. I was unhurt and my bike was fine, but as I type this, I still find sand in my ears and handlebar bag. We camped at a fairly nice trailer park, and all that seperated us from the ocean was one short sand dune.

Day 16 - Rodanthe, NC to Ocracoke, NC - The wind that helped us so much the previous day switched directions in the night and made our comparatively short day miserable. We rode the ferry to Ocracoke Island and stayed at an NPS campground a little outside the village of Ocracoke. The place was very well maintained and had other people camping in tents! Again, only one dune seperated us from the beach. The location was so good we decided to take a rest day.

Day 17 - Rest day in Ocracoke. We did a lot of lounging, swimming and touristy stuff in town. The infamous pirate Blackbeard was killed on Ocracoke, so there is plenty of cheesy junk available for purchase in celebration.

Day 18 - Ocracoke, NC to Cedar Point, NC. When we got up to break camp, mosquitos swarmed me. The only other time I've had so many itchy welts, they turned out not to be mosquito bites, but valley fever. After what seemed like an eternity, we got on a different ferry to get from Ocracoke Island to Cedar Island, which is really more like the mainland. We rode through a lot of brackish swamp where we saw fiddler crabs and snakes. About 10 miles short of Cedar Point we got caught in a terrible thunderstorm. We rode through it as best we could, even though visibility was essentially zero until we reached the outskirts of town. There we went to a cafe to wait out the storm. That was when we saw exactly what we rode through on the emergency broadcast system. 50 mile per hour winds (we saw these), nickel sized hail (we did not see this) and cloud-to-ground lightning (we think we heard this). Once we got to Cedar Point, we claimed the last campsite in Croatan National Forest, which was the last lodging of any kind in the area. We heard some interesting worldviews from our Vietnam vet neighbors.

Day 19 - Cedar Point, NC to Snead's Ferry, NC. Today we rode a total of about 10 miles. Our route goes through Camp Lejune, but they have recently closed the base to all civilian traffic. To get around this, we called Joe's brother, who is stationed there, and he drove us through. But before this, we slept in, ate an enormous, unhealthy breakfast, played a round of miniature golf (Cam won) picked up some stuff for my mosquito bites, played scrabble at a coffee shop (Joe won) and hung out in front of a gas station in direct violation of the no loitering policy. Tomorrow we have an easy ride into Wilmington.

Day 20 - Snead's Ferry, NC to Wilmington, NC - 49 miles. We had a short day into Wilmington, and the weather was nice. When we got there, we poked around the downtown area for a little while, then went out towards the airport to find a cheap hotel. After that, we ate lunch, ran errands and went to bed. Wilmington is a very pretty city.

Day 21 - Wilmington, NC to Little River, SC - 80 miles. We left Wilmington through the port area, and rode through sandy pine forests until we reached the ferry on the Cape Fear River. After the ferry ride, we had a nice breakfast at a Port City Java. Everyone in the coffee shop was very friendly, some were bikers and they seemed satisfied with our route to Little River. We ate at a Carolina barbeque joint where we had picked pig and fried pickles.

Day 22 - Little River, SC to Andrews, SC - 79 miles. Roads in South Carolina have no shoulder, and sometimes this makes for exciting riding. Log trucks in particular give me the heebie-jeebies. In any case, we ate breakfast at a seedy looking gas station where a trucker named Curtis paid for our meal because he admired our efforts. Again the scenery is corn fields and loblolly pine forests, and does not make for exciting journal entries.

Day 23 - Andrews, SC to Charleston, SC - 91 miles. On our way into Charleston, we rode past a number of preserved plantations, which were full of old trees and Spanish moss. We stayed with Joe's aunt and uncle. Aunt Pam made us a big southern dinner which involved collard greens (cooked in fatback), red rice (included two pounds of bacon) fried pork chops, cornbread, corn on the cob and sweet tea. We also cruised the beaches in Uncle Randy's Jeep.

Day 24 - Rest day in Charleston - In the morning we cruised Charleston Harbor with Randy and his brother Glen in Randy's boat, and went in just before the rain started. Then we had a big southern lunch at diner, and relaxed until it was time for another big southern seafood dinner with Randy, Pam, Glen and Glen's girlfriend at a restaurant outside the city. The drive was long, but very entertaining.

Day 25 - Charleston, SC to Point South, SC - 79 miles. The ride was very monotonous. Swamps to the left, swamps to the right and a flat road straight out in front of us. We got to our campsite, set up the tents, showered and installed ourselves on the couches in the air conditioned lounge. We enjoyed watching enormous people maneuver their RVs into the slots. We were the only people in tents until late at night when a scout troop came in to sleep.

Day 26 - Point South, SC to Statesboro, GA - 73 miles. Another uneventful ride through farmland and forest. More of Joe's family met us in Statesboro, and we are all staying at a Holiday Inn.


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Pictures!