Happy Holidays! It’s been quiet on the blog for a few days but there’ll be a new update tomorrow.
For now though, here’s a bit of cycle-related inspiration for your Christmas day:
Categories
Happy Holidays! [video]
Tag: cycling
Case of the manflu so it’s a rushed post – will put up video and more in-depth writing soon – this is a quick ride update.
Day 39 – Gainesville to Mayo, FL (66 miles)
The bike got a service. Yeah! Meant a late start but worth it to have a fresh bike. Sounds like the bottom bracket may not have too much life in it, but should be good for a while so it’ll be interesting to see if it holds up to San Diego.
Florida, without question, is the best state to cycle in so far. There’s a state law saying that cars have to leave 3ft between them and any cyclists and the road shoulders, on the whole, are huge.
After a great ride through farmland and rural Florida (the sound of donkeys is quite bizarre when you can’t see them) the day finished, after several hours of night riding, in Mayo at 10.00pm. And with no headwinds at all.
Day 40 – Mayo to Crawfordville, FL (80 miles)
What a road. It’s probably one of the best roads so far. The Coastal Highway.
Set off from Mayo at about midday. Simple cycling enjoying the long flat roads that stretch into the distance, yet again with no significant headwinds. Just turn off and pedal. The sunny day turned to an amazingly clear and starry night on the road. Here’s a couple of snaps:
At around 8pm, in the distance there were a couple of flickering lights on the other side of the road, and after a while there was the sound of blasting metal music. ‘Ey up, what’s this about? Turned out to be Simon and Mike, from Gainesville. Gainesville? Maybe they’d been out for a long day ride. Nope. Simon had been on the road for 18 months, after setting off from Gainesville, and had cycled (with a boom box – hence the music!) to Washington state and this was his final couple of days before returning home. Mike had joined the ride in Louisiana for the final part. It was enjoyable and insightful to chat with someone who’d been living the bike life for so long. It sounds fairly bloody epic, bears and all.
More night riding and a late finish in Crawfordville, where the wonderful people at The Inn At Wildwood sorted out a room for a couple of nights.
Day 41 – Crawfordville, FL
Today there’s been thunderstorms and heavy rain across Florida, and tomorrow it clears up again. The offer of indoor accommodation couldn’t have come at a better time. Happy coincidence there. This was earlier:
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Thanks again to The Inn At Wildwood – if you’re passing check it out. Great staff and an awesome place to hang out – especially when it’s pouring down! Onwards!
After spending day 36 off the bike in St A taking care of online stuff, followed by stealth camping in the least subtle place so far (about 15 metres away from the main road), on day 37 there was a definite renewed motivation to get moving. West we go.
Day 37: St Augustine to near Hawthorne, FL (51 miles)
A shoddy nights kip just off the road in St Augustine, packing up was sloth-like, but eventually everything was in the bags.
The roads out of St Augustine are a dream for a cyclist, on a Sunday at least. Cycle lanes, whoulda’ thought it? And quiet, well maintained roads. So far, Florida is definitely leading in the cycle lane and hassle-free roads league table. It was fairly easy through Palatka, then Interlachen – the GPS showing the longest single road navigation so far – 126 miles.
Because of a liberal start in the morning, it became dark around Palatka so on came the lights. On quiet roads, night riding can be a blast. Depending on where you are, it can be a bit spooky, but not so on this ride. Until Hawthorne that is.
After a good half-hour of hunting for a place to put up the tent, I actually cycled past a campground, by chance. Gated and fenced, I called the buzzer at the main entrance, to be greeted by an aggressive sounding chap, who could say nothing other than “WHO YA KNOW?!” and “WHAT YA WANT?!”. Well to camp, please sir. At the campground that you own. After an unsuccessful attempt I moved on, across the street and found a sandy, wooded area near the local church. The morning after:
Day 38: Hawthorne to Gainesville, FL (26 miles)
Another shoddy sleep. Consecutive rubbish sleeps have caught up. In the morning, drained would be an appropriate word. Groggy, another. I woke and just wasn’t into it – weak, lethargic, and not in any way keen. Jog on, Carpe diem.
On the bike, I usually carry two water bottles on the frame (with 2 more water-carriers available in the pannier bags which are kept empty until the more remote areas). Yesterday I must have left one of the main water bottles somewhere, or perhaps it fell out. Either way I woke up and didn’t have any water left, or food. So still half-asleep I set off and stopped at the first place that sold a source of sustenance. It didn’t come for about 18 miles on the outskirts of Gainesville. It was a frustrating morning, slowly pedalling away on long roads that stretched into the distance, hoping for something over the horizon, to then be greeted by more of the same.
Oh, and headwinds. The arch nemesis of cyclists everywhere. They haven’t been a problem for the first month at all, and today they’ve been consistent all day. Guess that’s what happens with a shift of the direction. It’s slow progress, noticeably. I’m going to see how the next couple of days go and then perhaps send a bunch of stuff on to a maildrop to reduce some of the weight in the bags in preparation for the slogs.
I called it a day fairly early in Gainesville, having never really perked up since the morning. But this is the struggle. I signed up for the struggle, for the groggy days. The struggle is one of the best parts, retrospectively of course. So, embrace and crack on. Looking to do a sustained consecutive period of 50+ mile days for a while just to see a bit of Westward progress so we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Onwards and into the wind!
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Rough Map:
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.
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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!
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!
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!)
Day 2 – Linden, NJ to Burlington, NJ (63 miles)
So after day one, I woke up feeling quite sore in the leg department. Didn’t start cycling until around midday, even later than the day before, what a fool.
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.