Category: Bicycle Travel

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 31 – 35: Jesup, GA – St Augustine, FL

After setting up a mail drop for St Augustine, I’ve had the unusual task of maintaining a fixed schedule over the last few days. With the post not due to arrive in St A until Friday, it’s been a few days of light spins. Nothing too eventful has happened to be honest, but it does mark the end of stage one of the journey.

—
Day 31 – Jesup to Nahunta, GA (28 miles)

Set off late after finishing the previous blog at 5.20pm! Bring on the night riding. It wasn’t a complicated day, just simple cycling on a quiet road with a nice shoulder to ride on. I was passing through Nahunta when Blanche, a local woman who owned the town’s hotel, offered camping space in the hotel grounds. Camping that’s allowed, as always, much more relaxing than being discreet. So it was with surprise at around 3am, getting woken by what sounded like the loudest foghorn ever made. In the morning, the cause became instantaneously obvious:

Day 32 – Nahunta, GA to Callahan, FL (48 miles)

An early start just to get away from that bloody noise. The 301S road totally quiet with huge straight sections that stretched right to the horizon. Plenty of this, and then eventually there was a river. St Mary’s River, which splits the state line. Florida, a new state, and the final state in stage one of the journey.

Pedalled on for a while to finish the day in Callahan, FL. After some very unenthusiastic, and unsuccessful, attempts to scout a spot to camp, I ended up in the most budget (for a reason) motel room. Anyone like bugs? You’da loved it.

Day 33 – Callahan, FL to Jacksonville, FL (22 miles)

Up and out of here, early start. Oh hang on, it’s pouring down. Tropical rain-style. I spent a while repacking the bike bags to make sure all the vitals were in drybags and safe from the rain, and saw a forecast that said there was to be heavy consistent rain all day. Spent the rest of the day getting soaked and attempting to avoid the heaviest of the downpours, with mixed success. Arrived in to Jacksonville in a heavy downpour as the light was disappearing – a very aesthetic nighttime skyline from the riverfront.

Day 34 – Jacksonville to St Augustine, FL (37 miles)

The simplest cycle ride possible. Essentially a straight road from Jacksonville right the way to St Augustine. Not overly visual or stunning roads or anything, but I found it very easy to get in to ‘the zone’ due to this being the last day of the first leg.

I pulled in to St Augustine and was very kindly offered a room at the Quality Inn – don’t worry there’ll be many more stealth camping stories soon enough!

Day 35 – St Augustine

Going to have a peruse of St Augustine today, so other than cycling around town there’s no miles today. So that’s it, the end of the first part of the journey. The first corner. It’s been an incredible experience already, and I’m excited to begin heading west, across the country tomorrow. Ready for a corny photo taken in the wind?

P.s. Just bumped into my first cycle tourers; Marcus and Yulanda from Switzerland who have been on the road for 5 months and head to Argentina on New Years Day for more touring, they’re loving it! More on that in another post. And also, a huge big up to my buddies Isaac and Sarah for sending a parcel rammed full of Campbell’s goodies, happy days – thanks guys!

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 27 – 30: Savannah – Richmond Hill – Fort McAllister – Jesup, GA

Day 27: Savannah – Richmond Hill (23 miles)

The morning was spent having a look around Savannah, exploring the sights and drinking a lot of of orange juice. Interesting place with amazing historical sights and architecture, and typical college-town contrast – the quiet town I was in, surely in contrast to that when the student population returns after the holidays. It seemed to now be mainly tourists walking around the popular River St and Broughton St. There are a lot of cyclists cruising the streets, and well thought out lanes, which is unusual for many of the towns and cities visited on this trip so far. After a few hours of typical-tourist stuff in the town, I began cycling out of Savannah at around 3pm, keen to get cracking with  the aim being to find somewhere to sleep. In Richmond Hill, outside of Savannah, nestled between a Church and a housing complex was a football-pitch-sized field. That’ll do.

Day 28: Richmond Hill (3 miles)

All set for the bigger miles today, I woke up early to get going. Unfortunately I’d pitched in an ants nest. Not the best of starts.

It wasn’t a very eventful day other than a chance meeting. Quick stop to pick up supplies, and I bumped in to two folks called Frank Thompson and Ty Stowe, both from out of town. They were intrigued by the bike outside, and after chatting about the Vague Direction project, they mentioned what they were in Richmond Hill for. An unusual invite, there was no way I was going to miss this, so plans for the days cycling were halted, because…

Day 29: Richmond Hill – Fort McAllister (9 miles)

It’s 1864, there’s cannons going off. It’s the civil war. Thousands of William Sherman’s Union forces are preparing to attack a small number of Confederate forces, to take the strategic position of Fort McAllister. Only kidding, no time travel here, it’s still 2012 of course. This is a civil war re-enactment held in the same location as the Battle of Fort McAllister in December 1864, nearly 150 years ago. And this is what Frank and Ty were in town for. They, and around a hundred others, are Civil War reenactors, and were in Fort McAllister to recreate those 1864 scenes, play-by-play and in real time.

Having never been to a reenactment before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But it was epic and the people were so friendly. A complete range of men and women, from retirees through to workers to students. Even a heavy-metal / hardcore vocalist. Whole families as well as individuals. Large groups walking round with huge muskets, in genuine clothing, and speaking in traditional ways. Cannons going off. Huge flags being waved. Orders being shouted. Everyone was really happy to share the story and incredibly welcoming, and really enjoying the battle. What did surprise me though, was the amount of people laying on the grass having a nap in the sunshine. Everyone has to sleep, but whole groups having a nap in the midst of a battle?!

It seems like after chatting to many of the reenactors, it’s a hobby that runs through families, generation after generation – a lot of the people were born into it and often their direct relatives took part in the actual civil war. Here’s a quick video with Ty, Michael Croft and Lawson Owens – in the fort and the traditional campground, looking at how they got into this, and what they enjoy about it.

(Click here if the video doesn’t load in your email browser)

After the battle was over, I spent time with some of the participants, which was great fun, and also some of the local people who had come to watch the Battle. Guns are common place in Georgia, so it was interesting to chat to one of audience members about personal security on this trip. He was shocked that I wasn’t carrying a firearm. And after explaining that in the UK guns aren’t common place, what followed was a slightly uncomfortable conversation about what positives carrying a gun can bring.

“You don’t carry a gun?! What if you have to defend yourself?”. He has a whole host of firearms, ranging from handguns that he keeps on him at all times, to shotguns and more. He mentioned that his house is covered in CCTV cameras, and he’s stockpiled ammunition in case one day it’s needed. I was hit by a sense that perhaps this all indicates an end-of-the-world paranoia, but perhaps the situation in the South is very different to that of the UK.

A unique and fun day nearly over, time spent with the reenactors was something I won’t forget. They were incredibly welcoming and once again it was a case of warm Southern hospitality. As the day came to a close, I found a park bench in the trees just outside Fort McAllister, and after the gun talk felt a sense of paranoia myself, with strange sounds (which turned out to be squirrels dropping stuff from the trees) and total darkness. Another night of spooky luxury!

Day 30: Fort McAllister – Jesup (56 miles)

Up at first light. Awful nights sleep. Bitten by bugs. Let’s go. Incredible empty roads to start the day’s pedalling.

But something was wrong with the bike. The chain was skipping every 7 pedal strokes. Strange, but something to take care of when stopped in a better place. Passing through Hinesville a little later, and getting annoyed by the skipping, the plan was to stop, get something to eat and then take care of the chain. So as I was pulling up to a shop, SNAAAP. Funny how things work. Chain snap number 2.

After a painless and relatively fast fix (and a thought that I really need to get the chain replaced asap), and now fuelled up, the next stop was Jesup after a few hours of easy riding on wide shoulders. The plan was to keep going further and to drop the miles to St Augustine, but after filling water I was offered a complimentary room at a local independent hotel, the Red Carpet Inn – can’t refuse that after the last few nights. People must really like bikes with a lotta’ bags.

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 22 – 26: Charleston, SC to Savannah, GA

It’s been a few days since the last blog, so this may turn into a fairly long post – sorry! (But it does involve alligators so all’s good). No interview video in this one and only phone snaps unfortunately but there’ll be plenty more video and photos soon.

Day 22 & 23 – Charleston (commuting miles – not many)

Charleston – it’s a cracking little place. Decided to stay longer than planned for a couple of reasons: 1) It’s ace and a day isn’t enough, and 2) I have an inflammed 5th metatarsal – yep. (Thanks to pals at The Body Rehab for the new lingo and the help!). Apparently this is fairly common when wearing cycling shoes for sustained periods, and can be remedied by standing on a golf ball and scrunching the underside of your foot.

Back to Charleston. There’s plenty to see and do, and it’s very accommodating to cyclists. There’s a lot of ’em wheeling about. All very welcoming, too. One of the downsides to this nomad-like style of living is being too focused on the travelling and missing stuff, so it was enjoyable to stay somewhere long enough to see the difference between night and day, literally. After walking over the bridge in the dark in the last post, I cycled over it a couple of times over these two days. And with an un-loaded bike. Holy smokes – what a difference a lightweight bike makes. You get used to a weighted bike and carrying a load, and then when you remove the weight, it’s feels like NASA’s new rocket. Twitchy and bizarre. Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge life on a weekend is thriving – there’s Marty McFly’s being pulled along on skateboards by dogs, about a million runners and ample cyclists out to get some fresh air.

To sum up the two days, it was typical-tourist really, exploring & chatting to / getting showed around by the locals (Whaddup’ Gabby, Bryan et al!). Good times which involved eating an incredibly unhealthy amount of chicken – always a bonus. I really recommend visiting Charleston if you get chance. Here’s three phone snaps for good measure – bikes, arty and sights:

Day 24 – Charleston – St John’s, SC (31 miles)

After a couple of days of not much cycling and chicken to act as fuel, it was time to head on, with another new state line within a couple of days riding distance. Those little dotted lines provide a boost of motivation.

This project’s now involved over three weeks of cycling, and the tyres on the bike seemed to be a little softer and riding felt more sluggish, so being in Charleston, a cycling hub, what better place to visit a local bike shop and borrow a track pump. Using Affordabike’s pump, I put some air in the front tyre. And then… PSSSSSSSS. Oops, too much. Split inner tube. It was always going to happen, so was good to get puncture #1 out of the way on a stunning day, rather than in the depths of a snowstorm.

After a quick fix the bike was running smoothly again, with much less rolling resitance – although there’s a chance that’s just a placebo effect. After cycling out of the city – the most hassle-free leaving-a-city-on-a-bike process so far – I was soon on the Savannah Highway. By this point it was getting on for 3ish, but I was keen on getting plenty more miles in, so ploughed on for a couple more hours.

As the sun was dropping, and the light was awesome, there was a couple of drivers who screamed past really close. All my lights were on, it couldn’t have been clearer that there was a cyclist on the road. You can be a safe as you like but an unattentive driver is just that. Then there was a sign… No literally, a sign that told of a State Park. I couldn’t hack cycling on a shoulder-less road after those close calls so took the sign as a ‘sign’ and got off that damn Highway, ending up camping behind the St John’s Fire Department just a mile-or-so off the road. It’s quite enjoyable stealth camping with prior approval (thanks St John’s!). Means you can use a headtorch and see what you’re doing which is novel.

The morning after:

Day 25 – St John’s – Hardeeville, SC (68 miles)

Early start and an opportunity to get some early miles in to avoid a similar situation to yesterday evening. The same road that caused frustration mere hours ago, now almost totally quiet, cars travelling by few and far between, the drivers usually decent enough to offer a full lane passing distance.

It’s hot, and it’s the first time on the trip experiencing salt sweats. Not pretty – maybe it’s the Charleston chicken. Imagine a salty waterfall riding a bike and it’d be a close fit. Eventually the route went through Beaufort, where there’s a big US Marine Corps Air Field. On the way there’d been several low flying F-18’s, performing crazy manoeuvres in sets of three, so that explains it.

I ended up in Hardeeville at around 10pm after a great night ride, with quiet roads and wide shoulders. It needed to be a fairly big day to time the next day, and ‘Alligator Alley’ up right. “Son you don’t wanna ride through there after dark – you’ll miss it”.

Day 26 – Hardeeville, SC – Savannah, GA (22 miles)

I’ve been looking forward to this day for a while, for a few reasons. Savannah’s been recommended several times, the route involves cycling through Alligator Alley and it means reaching a new state – Georgia. Visible progress on the map which is encouraging.

(Click on image to open full panorama)

Shortly after leaving Hardeeville, was a turn off onto the infamous ‘Alligator Alley’, which cuts right through the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, and is so called because from March – October, there’s loads of Alligators hanging out. In December, they’re usually only seen on hot days, like today, c’mon! It’s a short-ish ride, of around 6 miles, through swamp and forest, prime location for wildlife such as deer, wild hogs, a bunch of birds including eagles, and more.

I cycled ridiculously slowly keeping an eye on the water and banks around, hoping to catch a glimpse of a ‘gator. And after travelling about 3 miles, there it was in the creek. Excuse this description, but – so rad. There is an alligator in this photo if you look closely (bear in mind the photo is named ‘crap_alligator_photo’). Couldn’t get closer and travelling light means not carrying a telephoto lens and maxing out the zoom on my phone. But anyway there it was, probably only around 5ft long but an alligator nonetheless. Alligator Alley delivered!

Soon after, crossing the State Line into Georgia, it was a simple and generally flat few miles into Savannah. The next post will be about time spent in Savannah. Here’s a bridge into Savannah and a rough route from Charleston. Looking forward to continuing down the coast to near Brunswick in the next couple of days.

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 19, 20 & 21: Georgetown to McLellanville to Charleston, SC

Day 19 – Just outside Georgetown to Buck Hall Campground, McLellanville (41 miles)

After bedding down a few miles outside of Georgetown, the first thing I came to when setting off on the 17 was the bridge over the river into Georgetown. A cracking day, quiet traffic, perfect breeze and a quality river vista. That’s what we’re talking about.

I hadn’t had breakfast so stopped in Georgetown to grab a bite to eat, but didn’t leave for a while as there was a web-streamed seminar that I’d been looking forward to. After leaving a couple of hours later, the road quickly switched from town-suburbs through an industrial landscape to through-the-forest. Highway 17 cuts right through the Francis Marion National Forest. There was a moment when it was a case of cycling along the same road for 58 miles, the lengthiest single-road so far. With light dropping, the sun shining through the trees and woodland was an inspiring sight. It’s become obvious in the last couple of weeks that light i.e. when at it’s most aesthetic, is clearly a motivator and aids getting ‘into the zone’ no end.

Stopping off at a service station around 6 miles outside of McLellanville, I bumped into (yet again) some great people. It was the night of the biggest rollover in history on the US lottery, so the queues of people buying tickets was huge and there was an excited atmosphere and discussions of what people would do with the half-billion dollars.

An elderly retired couple, Joan and Richard, who were queueing at the service station too, recommended staying at the campground they were at, around 5 miles away. They made it quite clear that it was a stunning location, so without hesitation I set the GPS and was on the way. It didn’t take long to reach Buck Hall Campground, which true to word, was indeed stunning, based on the shore of Bull’s Bay.

Day 20 – Buck Hall Campground to Mount Pleasant, walking distance from Charleston (28 miles)

Late to wake, I began cooking some breakfast and chatted to Alan who was staying in the campground. Alan is an organic farmer and grower from Weaverville, North Carolina, who was taking a few days off to relax in and around Buck Hall (as it’s his off-season), kayaking and riding his motorbike on the trails. His story was one of risk, entrepreneurship and opportunity. In his mid-twenties, after having the vision of an opportunity, he quit his job in landscaping to try to become a self-employed organic farmer with his wife, and it paid off as he’s been doing it for the last 30 years.

See a very rough snippet below:

Chatting with people like Alan is always inspiring. The non-traditional, potentially risky route in his work was intriguing. It was fascinating to talk to him about how he and his wife recognised an opportunity, went for it and have since sustained it, now getting ready to hand business over to their son. And their plans for retirement which involve a venture into making small affordable houses from pallets. After the great comments from the previous blog post, where Meghan talks about not needing to be passionate about work, it’d be ace to hear your comments on taking the risky route to follow your passion. Two contrasting views which are both really interesting.

Loaded with ample food-for-thought after that chat, Alan went off-roading and I began cycling. I was never going to get far on a 2pm start! But luckily it wasn’t a problem as Charleston was only 28 miles away. After another great cycle through the forest, the landscape began to get more urban and soon turned into the suburbs of Charleston.

Wow, Charleston. What a place. After dropping the bike off at a crazy-cheap motel in Mt. Pleasant, I went for a walk (what a novelty!)  over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which is a jaw-dropping design and is the third longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere. Add to that the approaches at each side and it must take about half an hour to walk across but is quite a sight!

Day 21 – Rest-and-see day in Charleston (0 miles)

Currently writing this from Charleston, after exploring the French Quarter around East Bay St. Charleston has been voted loads of times as “the friendliest town in the US” and it’s clear why. In the next entry I’ll sum up time spent in Charleston but it’s amazing so far.

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 17 & 18: North Myrtle Beach – Myrtle Beach – Georgetown, SC

Day 17: North Myrtle Beach to Myrtle Beach State Park, SC (22 miles)

The night before, I’d cycled into North Myrtle Beach quite late and after a little hunting around, found a reasonably stealthy place to pitch the tent that was probably only 100 metres or so off the main strip. After constant camping for the last few days, ‘the system’ has become a lot quicker. It’s much better, and faster, knowing where everything is in your pannier bags and having it organised so it becomes less of a PITA each time you go set up a place to sleep.

The same goes for packing up camp, so after a few minutes and with some Granola-fuelled energy, a new day on the bike began. As per usual for the last couple of days, I didn’t get very far until stopping. But this time because of the beach. What a corker.

I used to live in Cornwall, and since then the beach and general easy-going coastal lifestyle has been very appealing. For at least a week (since Cape Charles / Norfolk), the route has been just in from the coast slightly, often by only a few miles in more swamp-like surroundings, so seeing the Atlantic for the first time in a while was exhilarating.

Got chatting to these two great folk whilst at the beach: Tom, a chef and Meghan, a waitress who both work at the local grill.

A steak sandwich later (c’mon!), these guys were ultra-welcoming and it was obvious they were very interesting. Tom is into Taoism as a philosophy, and told me about an adventure that he’s always wanted to go on which involves taking a year off work and walking across the country with an incredible twist. Tom, if you’re reading this I hope at some point you make it happen.

After lunch, I filmed an interview with Meghan. See a (very) short career-topic snippet:

(If the video doesn’t work in your email browser click here)

Whilst Meghan’s outlook on career is not something I subscribe to at the moment (perhaps that’ll change with time), her no-nonsense approach to knowing that personally she doesn’t have to be passionate about what she does in a day job, as it’s the time when she’s not at work that counts, was food-for-thought.

These guys were great and after several days of groggy tent-life, positive people with good vibes are uplifting. So it was time to crack on, now being mid-afternoon. Out of North Myrtle Beach, the cycling was on cycle paths away from the road, through the woods in the dropping sun. As good as it gets.

Rocked up to Myrtle Beach State Park around 7.30pm and tried to find somewhere subtle to camp, it didn’t work.

Day 18: Myrtle Beach State Park to just outside Georgetown, SC (23 miles)

Was woken at a horrendous hour by the Park Ranger, and had some explaining to do. He was cool about it though so after a not-as-frantic-as-it-could’ve-been packing up camp, it was time to move on and head towards Georgetown. There was some dark looking rain clouds stirring.

Met Wayne Montgomery shortly thereafter. It was his 70th birthday and he was out for a spin on his bike (Happy Birthday, Wayne!). He started cycling only 6 months ago and is now a total convert after witnessing first-hand the health benefits. He cycles every day now. So awesome, mega-friendly and totally inspiring. It was enjoyable to geek out on bikes for a while and learn some nifty shortcuts from Wayne the iPhone whizz!

Then heavy rain for the first time on the trip. It was obvious it was on the way after waking up this morning. I hadn’t really prepared for it, so had to make a dash for shelter to rummage through panniers for waterproof kit. All kit stood up perfectly to getting blasted by the elements for a while which was a useful test.

Magellan eXplorist 710 GPS in it’s element

All in all, two very light days again. Off the bike, so far I’ve been struck by the overwhelming positivity from South Carolinians. On the bike, it’s a while since a big mileage day, and it’s something I’m very aware of (not least for visa-reasons!), so the miles will be picking up again on the other side of Charleston.

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 15 & 16: Wilmington, NC to Shallotte, NC to North Myrtle Beach, SC.

Day 15: Wilmington to Shallotte, NC. 38 miles.

There are some days that you know aren’t going to be big mileage days, and this was one of them. Started off late with a sore lower body (and weirdly, thumbs) so upped the cadence and went lightly for a couple of hours to warm up. Nothing too bad, just need to remember to stretch properly after each day and take it easy for the first couple of miles in the mornings.

It was all going well, stopped at a service station to get some late lunch and met three nice folk. Linda the policewoman, Joe and Matt, all keen cyclists who were super-friendly. Hello!

Then darkness came (and for the first time so far, a cold chill in the air), and there was a bit of an incident which involved a combination of  the night, dodgy road & idiotic cycling. One of those very-quick-to-learn-from experiences where you tell yourself “you moron!” repeatedly in quick bursts for about a minute (Everyone does this, right?). The Ocean Hwy 17 has parts with really thin shoulders (if any), and if you’re a cyclist I would advise you avoid this road at night. Sometimes, being loose and unattached about this kind of route, IMO, can be a good thing (obviously not if you’re anywhere remote!) – you end up in places off-the-beaten-track and it’s more authentic. But approaching Shallotte on the Ocean Hwy 17 reinforced that this can be a stupid (and potentially downright dangerous) idea. Choose the safe roads because sketchy roads at night aren’t fun or worth it. I’ll certainly be doing a lot more research about the roads going forward after last night. The ACA maps are great for this, they’re tailored for safe cycling.

Anyway, after walking the bike down the grass by the side of the road for about 3 miles, I ended up in Shallotte and found an awesome stealth camp in, once again, a park behind a church (seems to work well!).

Day 16: Shallotte, NC to North Myrtle Beach (Mileage: 23 miles)

Today’s been another really light day but one that marks a new state and progress. Made it into South Carolina – the state lines are great for morale – more mentally significant compared to town-to-town. It’s been another stunning day with chilled out cycling and a long time hanging out at the ‘Welcome to SC Rest Stop’, which was a gem and features wonderful staff. Writing this post from Little River, whilst charging batteries. Sorry about lack of decent imagery in this post, that’s the reason!  Heading to Myrtle Beach in a sec to find a place to stealth camp so will put those details, along with overall mileage, into the next post.

South Carolina seems like a great area and everyone’s incredibly friendly so far. I’m ‘stoked’ to meet a couple of interesting people (that’s a cheesy clue as I’m near SC’s surfing spots at the moment). Hang ten. It may be a few days until the next post but hopefully it’ll be a good one! The next two or three days will be working down towards Charleston, SC. Will attempt to push for some bigger mile days from there.

It’s been a case of ups and downs in the last couple of days but that was always going to happen and is fun, whether that’s in the moment or in retrospect.

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 12, 13 & 14: Greenville – Jacksonville – Wilmington, NC

Day 12: Greenville – Greenville (Odomoter: 10 miles)

Really not much to report about Day 12. I ended up just cycling from the stealth camp at the football pitch a few miles east of Greenville,  into the town, did emails, bought some food in preparation for Thanksgiving, and rode back so thought it best to add to a post with other more productive days.

Day 13: Greenville – Jacksonville (66 miles)

Thanksgiving. Everything was super quiet with people celebrating the holiday and eating turkey. Nothing much was open, and the roads were very clear so a perfect time to enjoy the sun and get pedalling.

Leaving Greenville, Kinston was the next town on the route, and was a prime example of how the recession is affecting huge communities. Whole streets boarded up and empty. There was an awesome thrift store though, selling a jet ski on the patio at the front. Decided it might add too much weight, so continued. The rest of the day was spent riding through mainly farmland. Cows and goats mainly.

Like the day of the mechanical, today was a day of firsts. And one that I hadn’t particularly been looking forward to. Getting chased by dogs. It happened twice in the space of about half an hour. Damn they’re fast. At first it’s terrifying, as you only hear them. That terror quickly became amusement on both occasions, as luckily they were both friendly dogs (a tiny little thing and a labrador). Happy days.

I arrived on the outskirts of Jacksonville at about 7pm, with the thought that on Thanksgiving stealth camping should be easily achieved. There was a park wedged in between a church and a street, hidden from the road so it made a great place to pitch the tent. It was all going so well, until cooking up a couple of tins for dinner. Can’t have been that discreet as about 5 minutes later a car with full beam headlights slowly approached the tent. They’d seen the flame from the stove.

Amazingly though it was the pastor of the nearby church and his son, a Jacksonville police officer. They were totally fine with the camping, and had just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to burn anything down. After explaining the situation, they even offered to bring some left over turkey. The pastor continued to give some valuable advice:

“Here’s good, but you really don’t want to go any further down the park. There’s dogs. Rottweilers. Try not to disturb them.” Noted. Thank you sir.

 

Day 14: Jacksonville – Wilmington (52 miles)

Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving, when a large chunk of America go holiday shopping. Shops open at midnight, people fight, and try to get some reduced-price swag.

Today was rare, in that I knew the destination was Wilmington. Having a quick look at the GPS told me that it was 52 miles away. So after a fairly leisurely morning, it was time to hit the road at around 11am.

The Black Friday traffic wasn’t particularly noticeable, not until arriving in Wilmington later on anyway. It was another glorious day, perhaps the hottest so far. The first half of the day was uphill all the way, and was the first sustained up hill I’ve encountered. It wasn’t steep by any means but it seemed to go on and on at a gradual incline, at obviously a much slower pace than on flat. Hard work with a flat battery in your music / audio device. Oh and the roadkill, so much roadkill today. You name it – foxes, deer, birds, cats. Grim and not photo-worthy.

Pulled in to Wilmington relatively early, at around 6.30pm, which made a pleasant change. Looking forward to checking out the coast between here and Charleston over the next couple of days.

Not particularly accurate G-maps:

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 11: Ahoskie, NC to Greenville, NC

58 miles today. Late start leaving Ahoskie. Loaded up on Granola bars and soon got in to a rhythm, heading for the North Carolina 11 S route.

Today was the first day of really long straight roads, where you don’t have to do any navigation for basically most of the day. There was a point when I just had to ride down a single straight road for 38 miles. In many ways it’s quite enjoyable as you can turn on the music and audio books and it becomes very simple and almost meditative. ‘We Are Augustines – Rise Ye Sunken Ships’ was the highlight of todays music selection.

Click the images to open the full panoramic.

That state didn’t last too long. Had to do some obligatory mountain biking when, slightly ahead, one lorry was overtaking another. The overtaker pulled out in to the oncoming lane which was clear of cars, just not cyclists. No way was he going to stop the procedure so I promptly diverted to the grassy verge to avoid them.

Mind games have started to kick in too. Here’s one for you to try: How long can you ride whilst balancing on the white line on the side of the road? Oh the thrill! Another one is cat eye slalom. How long is this trip again?!

The ride was really great, passing through Martin County & Pitt County. Through a lot more cotton fields, and swamp land. Over the amazing Roanoke river, too. Via some awesomely aesthetic abandoned houses.

Stealth camped at a football complex 3 miles east of Greenville, near a place called Bradford Creek. Once again, not the stealthiest of spots but it seemed to work, hiding from road-visibility by bivying behind a platform.

Looking forward to riding to Wilmington, NC, arriving on most likely Saturday now. At the time of writing it’s 4pm and I’ve probably cycled about 3 miles today, so it’s not boding well for a big mileage day! It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow, so best get some food as everything closes later on today.

Oh, it was a really clear night whilst stealthing-it last night, here’s the sky:

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 10: Norfolk, VA to Ahoskie, NC

Day 10: Norfolk, VA to Ahoskie, NC (Odometer reads: 79 miles – that’s with faffing and getting lost on the way out of Norfolk. Nail it first time and it’s more like 75 miles.)

Didn’t meet any people today for more than a few minutes at a time so it’s more a purely cycling post today.

Started from the budget motel in Norfolk, VA this morning, and begun the urban navigation with the first goal being to get on to the US. Route 13 highway heading South.

Norfolk is home to Norfolk Naval Base, the largest of it’s kind in the world. So cycling out of the city and over the rivers you get to see a variety of ships being built, dismantled, and repaired including a couple of huge aircraft carriers and some other super-serious looking ships.

As for the cycling in the city, it’s tricky to get to the US-13, as you aren’t allowed to go through some of the tunnels and over some of the bridges. Eventually I found this one and was soon on the way. Riding down the other side of this bridge was incredible – top gear, body low, FAST!

Got on the right route shortly thereafter and was greeted with great roads with wide shoulders. Eventually it went past the edge of The Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge (what a name!), which was great. Swampy, wooded, and autumnal. It does a lot for overall motivation when cycling through inspiring places.

And then it finally happened! At a set of traffic lights on the way through downtown Suffolk, the light turned green, I pedalled about a half-stroke and SNAP! That’ll be the first mechanical issue of the trip – snapped chain.

Fixed it eventually (it’s been a while!) and carried on, sure that it would only last another few minutes before breaking again (thankfully it didn’t). The whole endeavour created some incredibly oily hands.

After cycling out of Suffolk, there was a sign that read ‘NC State Line – 16 miles’. That is motivation in sign form. It’s the little things ‘eh? The landscapes from then on were mainly cotton-fields which were unusual on the eye at first.

Other than the snapped chain, it all seemed to line up today. Flat roads, rested body, and the wind. A perfect North Easterly. I’ve read so much about headwinds being awful (wouldn’t know yet). But what isn’t mentioned as much is how great it is to have the wind on your back. It makes for noticeably faster progress.

Staying in a budget motel tonight in Ahoskie, NC, and I’m currently working down to Wilmington (hopefully in 2 days time) and then on to Charleston, SC (where there’s surfing!) a couple of days later than that.

My GPS is tracking the route to the meter, so on a rest day soon I’ll try to pull the data off it and upload a totally accurate route-so-far. For now though a rough Google maps will do. Today’s route:

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Day 9: Cape Charles to Norfolk, VA

12.5 miles today. Not a massive post today on the cycling-front as there’s not a whole lot to write about.

I set off from Cape Charles this morning, after a great nights rest and a decent cereal breakfast. Begun cycling and just had no energy.

Anyway kept going for about 9 miles until the Toll Plaza for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to get a shuttle off the Delmarva Peninsula (no cycling allowed). Phoned ahead this morning so they were expecting me, so it was a very hassle-free process of just waiting for a shuttle van for about half an hour.

And then the driver showed up. Meet Jim Davis. An ex-union worker retiree who now works part-time at the Bridge.

It’s great having met such a variety of people already, only being a week-or-so in to the trip. Just yesterday I was with Dora from Cape Charles, who radiated positivity. In contrast to that, Jim is very passionate, and has got strong feelings about working conditions and the state America and Virginia is in at the moment.

Excuse the poor quality – shot on phone on the fly:

Along the bridge we stopped off at the pier at Chesapeake Bay – North America’s largest estuary. It was awesomely windy and there were some pretty hardcore fisherman out there having a blast / getting blasted. Jim mentioned that on really big swell days, fish can get thrown on to the road!

Back to the cycling, after getting dropped off at the other side of Chesapeake Bay, at Norfolk, I continued cycling for 3 and a half miles, and the energy had just gone. So I called it a day. It doesn’t help in the overall game of averages but I was content enough with knowing that another light day was needed before getting back into the big stealth days.

Tomorrow the rain arrives, which I’m quite excited about in a weird way. Should add a new element to the project!