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.
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:
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:
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!
After getting the ferry from Cape May, I arrived in Lewes, DE around 90 minutes later. Passing through, it was a similar story to Cape May. I’m sure in season it’s buzzing, but in mid-November, on a weekday, it was really quiet.
To be honest, it wasn’t the most enjoyable start to the day. My legs were pretty achey and the places I was cycling through in Delaware (after Lewes) weren’t welcoming. There were a lot of “Get the hell out of here” looks. No way was I going to be attempting to stay overnight stealth-style as it didn’t feel out of the question to wake up to an angry farmer with a shotgun in my face. It became a race to make fast progress at this point.
And then I crossed the Delaware border into Maryland. Ah, thanks Maryland! It’s amazing how quickly the atmosphere of a place can change in such a short distance.
Pulled into Berlin, MD, around 6.00pm, and was hit by the quaint, homely feel of the town. Met a bunch of cool people on the main street (Hi Terry, Shelly & Billy – that’s a lot of y’s). It’s like a model town. Plus it was dinner time, which is always a joy after spending hours on the saddle. Got a burrito in a local Mexican eatery, and then set off to cycle on. But I probably got about 200 metres down the road, until spotting Rayne’s Reef, an amazing looking diner place, and went in for a coke. What I love about this trip so far is spontaneously meeting people. Bumped in to these cheeky lot in Rayne’s Roof, it was a lot of fun and turned an okay day into a great one.
After a good time in Berlin, I pedalled on through the night, arriving at the historical Snow Hill at around 10.00pm. There wasn’t anywhere obvious to stealth it that I could see. A few people before this trip began mentioned sleeping at churches & fire stations, so upon passing the Snow Hill Volunteer Fire Service, I decided to give it a try. But no-one was in. So I went into ‘discreet mode’ i.e. no tent, and settled for the night in between some very well sculptured trees in the Fire Station garden, waking up at first light to keep heading south. Luxury, eh? The morning after the night before:
Day 7 – Snow Hill, MD – Cape Charles, VA (80 miles)
First light. The first time I’ve been up and ready to go at the start of the day. Perfect opportunity to get a full day in. It was cold, so the layers came out to warm up. The day started off with really nice riding. Flat roads through amazing autumnal forest landscapes.
After a couple of hours I wheeled in to Pocomoke City, just above the border into Virginia, or on the outskirts at least. Lethargy on the bike hasn’t been an issue until this point. Pulled into an eatery and just zoned out for about an hour and half. Half sleep, half awake, a bit bizarre. It was good to refill water bottles and charge the bike light. The staff were entertained by my English accent, requesting many times ‘Sorry, could you say that again?’ just for amusement purposes.
Made the border of Virginia shortly after that, and ended up cycling in samey-looking farmland for 2 hours, until reaching Accomack as the light was at its best, where I fell off into a ditch, forgetting to unclip. Classy. Said ditch:
It was a strange day in terms of taking a lot of long-ish breaks, but really stretching the day out starting from early to late.
Pulled into Cape Charles around 11.00pm again (seems to be a recurring theme), after cycling through the dark for a few hours. Friday night and it was totally quiet at the harbour area, but windy so not the best place to sleep. So I looked on the GPS and saw that there was a massive park really close, so cycled over there, and found a really un-subtle place to stay by the side of the river. Decided to try to be as discreet as possible by bivying (no tent) on the grass, and hide the bike down nearer to the edge of the river, setting up alarms that would give off a piercing tone if anyone moved it. (Needn’t have been concerned though as three people in Cape Charles have mentioned that there is no crime here whatsoever).
Quick thoughts on night riding / attempting this project in winter:
Day 8 – Cape Charles, VA (0 miles)
The alarm clock on my phone went off at 6.15am, ready to move on and head for the Chesapeake tunnel bridge before being discovered. Yesterday must have taken it’s toll, as the first thing I did when the alarm clock buzzed was to turn it off, and continue to sleep until 10.
Continued to pack up the sleeping kit and went to put the panniers back on the bike. Had a little moment:
Ah no the bike alarm! Totally forgot about it, I’ve just moved the bike and now it’s going off at roughly a million decibels, it’s not helping add to the discreetness of the situation.
Silenced the alarm after some frantic moments, and went on to explore, going down to the beach (amazing to be blasted by the Atlantic breeze) and bumping into the mayor of Cape Charles, Dora, who is amazing and contagiously positive. A snippet below:
Chilling out now in Cape Charles. After a week on the saddle, today will be the first full day off, time to rest and catch up on sleep before setting out again tomorrow. I was at a lunch place earlier and bumped into a great guy called Ned who manages the very snazzy Hotel Cape Charles. It closes in a couple of weeks once the fishing season finishes. He told some great stories about Cape Charles at one point, around WW2, being the railroad hub of the Northern US and that it buzzed all year round with people, as it does now in the summer, but no longer does in winter. Incredible generosity once again, as he is providing a room for the night. Kind of mind-blowing really. Looking forward to washing clothes, getting clean and starting fresh tomorrow.
In terms of how body and bike are doing after a week – fine to be honest. No punctures or mechanical issues so far, bike is still running smoothly. Body is okay too. Saddle no longer an issue, it’s gone from a pain to more of a comfort – I didn’t believe the reports (who does?) but Brooks saddles really are comfy! The only thing is slightly sore legs after the bigger days, but it’s only a numb soreness and goes away quickly once setting off.
Change of plan again yesterday. Couldn’t cross the bridge by bike at Carneys Point, so re-jigged the route a little bit / a lot, and made my way right around the coast, to Cape May, NJ. Ended up being the biggest day so far at 81 miles.
Another cracking day weather wise, cold but incredibly sunny all day. It started off from Carneys Point, going through farmland, until Pennsville. Stopped for apple juice and bumped into Dave, an ex-dairy farmer who has a couple of Elvis’s driving licences. Friendly guy who shared a couple of stories of his brother being stationed in the UK in the war, who loved it there.
And Umesh, who’s been living in Pennsville for 4 years after moving from Nepal, who sent this photo over:
It was pretty flat the whole way, no sustained up hill or down hill. One of those days where you just pedal and don’t really think about the mileage. Still really interested in setting off at first light and seeing what mileage is possible in a day.
Passed by a quirky looking fruit market, so popped in to get some lunch. Quite amusing seeing all the descriptions- “Jersey Apples – sweet and crunchy, goes well with cereal”. Nothing wrong with that, in fact as far as fruit descriptions go it’s quite well thought about. The ‘Apple Pears’ description wasn’t as original.
Going through Gloucester County and Cumberland County was refreshing, the air being seaside-like. A lot of crab shacks, and fishing bait shops that were closed until next year, so it was a bit eerily quiet for a couple of hours. But amazing roads for most of the day.
Click on image to view full panorama.
Pulled into Cape May, an interesting port town. It’s really empty at the moment, a lot of shops closed for the season, a bunch of holiday homes going unused. I arrived quite late, and had missed the last ferry, so went to grab some wifi at a local well-known fast food establishment until closing. It’s warmer inside than out, after all. So at about 11.30pm, it was time to find somewhere to sleep.
It’s probably quite tricky to find a place to camp in ‘the season’, but out of season, it seems like no-one cares that much. So after a few minutes of looking for a place to stay that was hidden, it became obvious that actually it doesn’t need to be that difficult. So I set up camp in the corner of the towns football pitch and had a good nights kip to be up early to board the hour-and-a-half ferry ride to Lewes, Delaware.
Farewell New Jersey (again). Next post from Delaware!
(Sloppy presentation and formatting today but the ferry’s here so must dash!)
Set off from Linden, and was quickly on some amazing roads. Massively wide shoulders, fairly level for the most part, cool drivers. It was great to be in more scenic, less urban America.
Oh, the saddle. Before setting off (literally a couple of days before) I got hold of a Brooks Flyer saddle. Everyone seems to accept that once broken in they are insanely comfy, but that the breaking in period can be quite tough. They’re right. It’s not unbearable by any means, but on long downhills it’s a great relief to be able to stand up and get off the saddle. Anyway let’s not get into how to care for this kind of pain (Sudacrem).
Where were we? Oh yes the roads. They passed through some lovely quaint suburbia, one of the first areas being North Brunswick, where I found a little cul-de-sac to have a rest for a few minutes. It was a Sunday and the weather was ace (hot!) so people were at home, hanging outside their houses. I bumped into a father & son, Jim and Martin, who were really friendly and we chatted for a good 45 minutes. Jim is actually a photographer so we nerded out for a little bit, and Martin is in-between school at the moment and has big dreams for adventure hiking. We shot a quick little portrait (aren’t red trees ace?):
After this I cycled for a good few more hours, finally hitting Burlington (via Springfield) at around 9.00pm. For the first time I managed to stealth camp in a secluded section of woodland near the college. Pillow solution could be improved. So that was day 2, another 63 miles according to the odometer which was nice after having set off so late and stopping a lot along the way.
Day 3 – Burlington, NJ to Cherry Hill, NJ (12 miles)
What a brilliant day. I rode all of 12 miles, not because of tiredness / recovery, but because today I’d arranged to meet a into-cycling-couple living in Cherry Hill after they’d finished work.
The little cycling that I did do was pretty rad, once again a great area of New Jersey and nice roads.
And then the coolest part. A chap called Isaac emailed a couple of weeks ago, asking if I’d be interested in going for dinner with him and Sarah, his wife if I was passing through. You bet! So I was hanging out with a Coke outside a cafe in Cherry Hill, and at about 4.00pm a big pickup truck pulls up and Isaac shouts hey from inside.
We bundled the bike into the back of the truck and he drove us to his apartment to meet Sarah, stash some stuff and recharge batteries.
Then we grabbed some dinner at The Cheescake Factory and it was great to hear about their love of cycling, families and general lives.
After dinner, we visited Campbells Soup’s global headquarters. Isaac is a head chef there and he invents some of the products that Campbell’s produce. Pretty awesome to see his work up there on the marketing wall. After this we went back to the apartment to pick up the gear and batteries, and shot a bit of video too. A snippet below:
It was a great experience to be in the company of two of the most hospitable people. After an amazing dinner, they surprised me by organising a suite in a local hotel for the night and a bag of Campbell’s goodies. How incredibly kind is that?!
I haven’t spent much time in the cycling community before this trip, but first impressions are that it’s a network of kind-hearted and welcoming people. Thank you Sarah and Isaac, it was an absolute pleasure and I’m excited to stay in touch with you guys.
Shattered now (apologies if the writing isn’t very clear!) but feeling good after a light days riding and the great company this evening. Roll on tomorrow.
Since the flight I’ve been staying in Jamaica, Queens just getting sorted, fixing the bike up and waiting for the snow to melt.
After the mini-epic getting here it was nice for the next day to go well. Thankfully, the first set of ACA maps had arrived, as had the Magellan GPS, so now there’s no excuses for getting lost.
Built and tuned the bike after the flight. Nothing wrong other than a slightly bent fender but easily fixed.
I was supposed to meet a couple of people but due to the storm and work schedules it didn’t happen, but as I’m flying out of NYC there’s another opportunity which is cool. So instead, I’ve had a couple of touristy afternoons & evenings and got some last minute bits in the city.
It’s quite an interesting time to be here, just after Hurricane Sandy and Obama being re-elected. I visited Lower Manhattan yesterday (World Trade Center, Wall St, Brooklyn Bridge etc). It’s really quiet at the moment, with a lot of shops boarded up post-Hurricane damage, and there’s a lot of people working very hard through the night trying to fix things like power and water.
In contrast, Manhattan (Central Park, Times Square etc) is heaving with people. Central Park was surprisingly awesome (so was the hot dog), a breath of fresh air in the hustle and bustle of America’s largest city, surrounded by incredible architecture every which way.
Anyway I don’t want to harp on too much about the touristy stuff, but I’m looking forward to spending a few more days here at the end of the trip.
Tomorrow is the first day of cycling. Pretty keen to get on with it now. So from here on out the blogs will be more trip-orientated!
I’ll leave you for now with an out-of-focus picture of a hot dog from 5th Ave.
Today was the day of departure, which involved a flight to Reykjavik (who knew it’s actually called Keflavik?), and then onto New York City JFK.
Leaving family on a trip that’ll last multiple months is always pretty rubbish so this morning I thought the best strategy would be to get the goodbyes done speedily and try not to dwell. And what better way to take your mind off of something than faff about with tired and moody airport staff?
Getting to Manchester airport with loads of time in hand, the bike box, which is absolutely massive, took a long while to sort. After plenty of waiting around, the bike being brushed for dynamite, and some very funny looks, the ample buffer time actually ended up being a mad frantic rush to get on the plane in time.
After the previous couple of days, I was totally shattered so slept like a log for most of the first flight and landed in Iceland around 3.00pm local time for a quick switch onto the America leg.
Looking out of the plane from Iceland to America made the cycling part of the project, for the first time, tangible in my mind. I think I’d been blocking out the reality of the task before that moment. The expanse just coming over the east coast of Canada and dropping into the US is quite something. I was surprised to feel very anxious about it all. Not about the ride, sure it’s a long trip but it’s simple. More the thought of being away from family and friends for months and coping with that. Theres a lot of ground to cover, a ton of time to think, and it’s most certainly going to be an adventure.
Back to the journey, it was all going so well, until the captain clearly was staying in the air intentionally. He’d earlier said that all was well, they just had to clear snow off the runway for twenty minutes or so. Snow? What snow? They didn’t mention that on the forecast! He swooped down, getting very close to landing, and then suddenly used full throttle to avoid touchdown and begin a rapid ascent. Something was clearly wrong, or he just liked drawing shapes on the trip computer.
There was minimal visibility and poor weather, and landing safely wasn’t going to happen. (EDIT: Turns out the Nor’easter had arrived) Then a tannoy announcement. “Ladies and gentleman, due to deteriorating weather in New York, we have no alternative but to divert to Washington D.C.” Shit! This threw a major spanner in the works as the entire trip navigation was waiting at a hostel in NYC. A Magellan GPS and ACA maps. Bugger.
Waiting around at Washington D.C. it was quite unclear whether we’d be going back to JFK, until finally the pilot “wanted another pop at it”. And this time with success, and applauses from the cabin.
After cueing through customs, it was time to collect the bags and bike box. The bags came quickly, and then nothing. It took about an hour after everyone had collected their baggage for a friendly chap to bring the bike box into the collection area. It was quite surprising to see the box in absolute tatters! It made moving it a challenge but thankfully everything is in tact.
Leaving the airport, as they’d said, it was snowing in New York, apparently for the first time this year. Not a whiteout or anything but moderate snow and strong gusts.
After a day of mini-epics, I finally made it to the hostel, bike and bags in tow. In a weird way, I enjoyed the travel issues. It wouldn’t be an adventure if nothing went wrong on day 1 right?
Just one last thing – a massive shout out to all those who have helped and supported the project in the last few weeks. It’s been amazing, so thank you! It begins!
This is a post about the bicycle spec. To see more about other touring gear and equipment, see this post.
The bike is finally sorted. It’s changed a lot in the last few weeks, from something which was more ‘cycle-to-the-shop’ than ‘cycle-round-a-continent’ to something, I hope, a little more robust and up for the job.
It’s had a revamp: upgraded wheels, upgraded saddle, upgraded pannier rack.
Took it out for the first time fully loaded yesterday. It’s, umm, quite a shock to the system when it comes to ascending. Down hill and flat, it really doesn’t feel so bad at all. It was surprising how nimble and controllable it is. Up hill is a different kettle of fish altogether though, so that’ll be interesting.
Anyway for those into their gear specs, here it is:
