Outer
Banks 2
Our trip actually started on Thursday night,
9/6/01. Ashley came over with
all of her stuff and we bagged it up in zip-lok bags,
and packed her panniers (bike saddle bags).
I had already packaged my stuff, and we loaded it into the trailer with
our camping stuff. And stuff is what it was.
Little bags of stuff. Individually they were small bags that
weighed very little, but together they seemed to coalesce into this dense mountain
of, well, stuff, and the problem with bike trailers is they work really good at holding stuff.
Much, much more stuff than you really want to drag 190
miles even if you do need it.
Well, whether we needed it all or not, we threw it in the trailer. The next day at noon I picked Ashley
up, and we headed out.
Nine hours later we pulled onto Cedar Island and parked at the ferry terminal. We were spending the night at the Driftwood
Inn right by the terminal. It was an
attractive cinder block room with pre-war lamps and bed spreads. The shower had an interesting floral
arrangement growing in the tile grout, and the water smelled of sulfur. It was $69.00 a night, but it did come with a
continental breakfast, and you can imagine how good that was. But hey.....we had not come for the amenities
of the Driftwood Inn, and in the morning we are out of here!
6:45 AM found us straddling our bikes while standing in line awaiting to board the ferry across Pamlico Sound. After the last car drove aboard we pushed our
bikes across the loading ramp, and fastened them to the sides of the
ferry. 2 1/2 hours later we are rolling
them ashore. We started planning this
bike trip at the end of last year, almost a year ago, and now we were about to
start pedaling. As we rolled out of the village of Ockracoke I caught glimpses of places Susan and I had visited on our bike
trip here 2 1/2 years before, and I wondered how the two trips would
compare. Lets
see. Susan and I had van support that
carried all of "stuff", and circled the route to bring us food and
refreshment. We stayed in great
B&B's and ate at top restaurants.
Ashley and I on the other hand were carrying all of our "stuff";
we better not run out of water or we go thirsty, and we were sleeping in a tent
at the end of summer, (you know heat, no AC, no TV). Who knows where we were going to eat, but one
thing was for sure, we were either going to walk or ride our bikes to the
restaurant because that van wasn't with us this trip. I could hardly wait to start! It was 14 miles of nothing to the next ferry
crossing. Sand dunes on the right, and scrub pine on the left. We were still pretty pumped from the
excitement of the trip and these miles fall away pretty quickly. We just missed the 10:30 ferry to Hatteras Island, so we sat down and drank a gator aid while we waited for the 11:00'er. By 11:45 we are rolling again, and we pedal our way through the town of Hatteras as we ride across Hatteras Island. A few hours later we
arrive in the town of Avon. The temp is in the mid
80's. We have been riding against a head
wind most of the day. This was not a
wind that blew with malice, or was it an ill wind, just a steady little breeze
to insure us that just because the ground is flat, "it ain't
going to be easy". We were not
quite as inflated as we had been from our original "pumped", but we
were still standing tall. Well, we may
have slouched a little,
but we were not doing bad for our first 36 land miles. Counting ferry trips we had covered 66
miles. I made a call to the campground
in Wave (that's the name of the town) to reserve a spot and find out how far
they were from us. They had one more
tent site and they were 14 miles away. They
said they would hold it for a couple of hours.
14 miles is just over an hour at our speed, so getting there in time to
claim the site was not going to be a problem, but that big gray cloud over our
shoulder was. A few more minutes rest, and we were off.
Half way there the cloud caught us.
The only vegetation between Avon, and Wave are sea oats, and the road
just runs to the horizon. There are now
sand dunes on both sides of the road, and they spill onto the pavement. The telephone, and
power lines are draped over old gray weathered poles that lean away from the
prevailing winds, and threaten to fall from the weight of the large black crows
or ravens sitting wing to wing along the lines. The road itself is not
straight, but it is not serpentine either. It's more like a piece of string
that has not been pulled tight, and still has kinks in it. The whole scene has the feel of a "Mad
Max" movie, and the fat rain drops beginning to fall gives a surreal
feeling to the moment. I decided to stop
and put on my raincoat, but Ashley decided the cool rain felt too good cover up
from. We pedaled on. Any minute I expected to see a dune buggy
with a few crazies in it come blasting over the top of the dunes. Finally the sign for the Ocean Wave
Campground comes into sight. As we pull
in the sun breaks through, and all of sudden my raincoat becomes a personal
sauna. We unload the tent and start to
assemble the poles.
Now for those of you that have never used a light-weight back packing tent you
can't imagine what this ball of nylon, aluminum, elastic and plastic loops
looks like when it first falls out of the bag.
It is as intimating a sight as you will ever see, especially when you
are surrounded by RV's that look like house trailers. Each pole is folded in
about ten pieces, held together with an elastic cord that runs through the middle
of it. The poles are also threaded through plastic loops sewn to the tent and
the tent is pushed all to one end of the poles.
There are three poles. All three
are tangled together like a backlashed fishing
reel. Half of each pole has already
started to pop together and inter-twine it's self amongst it's
neighbor. In the middle of all this it
started to rain again. Father-daughter
teams don't work well under these conditions.
They tend to get a little snippy with each other, so for the sake of family
peace we decided to cover the tent with the ground cloth, and wait out the rain
somewhere dry. The rain finally quit,
and the tent poles untangled, and camp was finally set
up. As we sat exhausted on the picnic table admiring our handy work a fat guy
with two of those sissy little toy poodles walks up. He asked us where we were from, and was
disappointed to hear we had only ridden from Ocracoke. He said, "I thought ya'll were from
somewhere far away". I felt like telling him to get his fat butt on a
bike, and just ride around the camp, and he would impress me, but I was afraid
he might want to fight, and I was too tried to get up. As a parting insult one of
his little dogs peed in our camp site.
After showers we walked to the restaurant next to the campground. To our surprise they have a full vegetarian
menu. It's not for me though. I have a Mexican chicken meal(very
good), while Ash has a veggie burger. We
just rode fifty miles fully loaded with "stuff", and she thought a
veggie burger would be nice for supper. I'm glad I'm at the top of the food
chain. Maybe a steak
tomorrow. The shower and meal has gone along way in reducing the road
fatigue. We are camped right by the
beach, and decide to take a walk a long the shore. As I looked out over the ocean I was reminded
of the couple that was attacked by a shark just a few miles from this spot only
a week past. He was killed and she still
lay in a hospital. Little did I know then that a much greater,
and terrible atrocity awaited.
Darkness falls quickly when there are no street lights around, and Wave lacked
any. The sky was also very cloudy, and
rain looked like a real possibility. I
did not like the thoughts of having to zip the door and window
closed, and sweat out the night, but things were looking bad. As we lay on our thermo-a-rest mattresses (a
very generous use of the word mattress), we listened to the wind, and wondered
how long a night will be that started at 9:00 PM. A long one I’m afraid. I also wondered about another problem. At 52, an all nighter
for me meant not having to get up to go to the bathroom. It's an aggravation when the bathroom is
attached to your bedroom, it's a whole different thing
when you have to walk 300 hundred yards in the rain. Unfortunately this was not going to be an all
nighter.
Sometime in the middle of the night nature called. Actually nature was screaming. I stumbled out of the tent, and looked up
expecting to see an overcast sky, but instead I saw the most beautiful night
sky I have seen in many years. The Milky
Way was a glimmering mass of light leaving a wide luminous strip against an pitch black sky.
There was no mistaking where our galaxy's name originated from as the
milky white stars spilled from horizon to horizon. It was a sight you cannot see from the light
polluted cities I have lived in the past years and I had forgotten how
spectacular it looked.
By 6:00 AM Ashley and I had twisted, and turned, and fidgeted, and rolled long
enough. We decided to break camp, and
take off. The plan was to stop and eat
at the first place open. As we rolled
through Wave and out of Rodanthe (I can't pronounce
it either) we realized that the week after Labor Day doesn't leave you many
choices for a breakfast. Actually it
left us only one. We pulled over at Rodanthe's town limit and opened the trailer and dug out
our bagels and breakfast bars. It wasn't
exactly country ham, eggs and grits, but it was filling. With breakfast over the next stop was Nag's
Head. 27 miles of nothing lay between us
and it, or that's what we thought.
About half way to Nag's Head is Pea Island Wild Life Refuge, an unexpected
break. When we stopped at Pea Island it was too early for the Visitors Center to be open, but the restrooms were open, and they supplied a
needed relief. While we sat around
enjoying the break and the morning cool, I decided to check the map. It was then I noticed we would be crossing
the Oregon Inlet shortly. It seemed to
be a little wide for a bridge, but there was no mention of another ferry crossing. Oh well, 3 or 4 more miles, and we would
know. It was fewer miles than that when
we pulled up short to stare at the structure that rose out of the morning mist. It was as tall as the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, and we could only guess as to its length as the far end curve
away into the distance. After the many
miles of flat landscape this was an impressive sight indeed. The Oregon Inlet Bridge is not a draw bridge. It
is a giant arch tall enough for a ship to steam under. In less than 10 minutes we were at the run-up
to the arch. A quick look at the
odometer told me we rode over a half mile of water before we started to climb,
and climb, and climb. 5
mph going up; 27 mph coming down.
2 1/2 miles later we rolled off of the bridge. The long stretches of flat, sand dune
bracketed road, can make biking this leg almost like riding an exercise
bike. The long down hill of the Oregon Inlet Bridge broke it up nicely, and was actually worth the climb.
Around 10:30 AM we wheeled into Nag's Head, and looked up at another towering
sight, the sand dunes of the Jockey Ridge State Park. These sand dunes climb
from the edge of the road up 100-125 feet high.
They are completely nude of vegetation.
Standing on top and looking over row after row of rolling dunes Ashley
said it looked like the home of the sand people from Star Wars. I guess we watch too many movies, but I had
to agree. As we stood in the hot sand
barefooted, I decided I had explored all the sand dunes I wanted to, and turned
to go back. Ashley chided me for not
going on to see what was over the next dune, but I left her to carry the family
standard forward, and I went down to get an ice cream cone. As I sat under the shade of a Deli's awning
it was not long before I watched her slowly trudge down the dunes. When she finally reached me I asked her what
was on the other side, and she told me, “just another sand dune". Yes! Mark one up for dad. Big smile.
After lunch we started out for Kitty Hawk. From Nag's Head north,
the island is much larger, and we have a choice of a 4 lane highway or the
paralleling coast road. Both have
advantages, but we decide to take the coastal route. Tonight we plan on staying in a hotel. AC and TV. Our hotel is on the highway and we are hoping
we will see it from the coast road. We
don't. After a quick call for
directions, and a little back tracking, it's hot
showers, cool pool, and AC. Oh yeah, and
TV. Now sharing a room with two bikes, a trailer, a pair of panniers and your
daughter might not sound like the lap of luxury, but just think 6x9 tent and it
takes on a whole new look. After a
little nap I was good as.... almost as good as, new.
We rolled the bikes out for a trip around Kitty Hawk and to find a
place to eat. Kitty Hawk reminded me of Myrtle Beach without the attractions.
There was an endless row of beach houses, and little else. It was actually a little boring. Nothing quaint or exciting. After riding around we found a nice
restaurant ...right in front of our hotel.
We put up the bikes and walked across the parking lot for dinner. No veggie burgers here. They barely had a vegetarian salad. Ashley finally settled on a pasta dish, and I
had Blackened Mahi Mahi and
a New Castle (I wasn't driving).
Tomorrow was our long day so after a walk on the beach we called it a
night. We planned to stop at Kill Devil
Hill, and ride 63 miles so the morning would come early.
Breakfast was continental at the hotel.
We were up and out by 7:30, and by 8:30 we were climbing
Kill Devil Hill. What an impressive
sight standing at the top, and looking down. We could see for miles, but we had many more
miles to go, so we walked back down, and climb on our bikes. Has we rode out of Kill Devil, and into Nag's
Head we could see the Oregon Inlet Bridge, and it was still seven miles away! Over the bridge, and pass Pea Island we rode. Through Rodanthe
to a lunch break in Wave. After
lunch we pedaled through Salvo, and on to Avon. In Avon we had traveled 54 miles, and we pulled up for a much needed
rest. This was the hottest day so far so
I decided another hotel was in order for this night, and called the Holiday Inn
Express in Hatteras.
Do you have rooms? Yes. How much, and how far from Avon? I don't know if I was more disappointed in
the price, or how far away it was. They
were 12 miles away. We saddled up, and
pedaled off. Only one
more hour until AC & TV. As
we rode through the sand dunes, and under the hot noon sun we talked
about our friend, Mark Wilson. Mark had
just finished the Canadian Iron Man Competition a few weeks earlier. He swam 2.4 miles, rode his bike 112 miles, then ran a marathon.
As we cranked on through the heat I told Ashley, “At least we don’t have
to run a marathon when we finish”.
In Buxton we took a side trip to see the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. We were only
a few miles from our room, and decided the expended energy would be worth
it. It is the tallest brick lighthouse
in America. Thank goodness it was
closed, and we could not climb to the top.
As we rode back to the main road we kept a sharp lookout for our
hotel. After a few miles I decided to
stop and ask someone where it was. A
postman told me it was at the end of the road by the ferry landing, 11 miles
further down the road! What does a
postman know? I called the hotel to
demand they be closer. I asked her how
far from the lighthouse they were, and she said, "only
ten to fifteen minutes". All
right! Hey, wait a minute, I'm on a
bike! "Well, in that case you’re
got eleven more miles", she said.
The longest I have ever ridden my bike was 71 miles, and that was only
hauling me. It looked like I was going
to break that record today, loaded! This
would be our marathon. Ugh, double ugh.
76 miles later we walked into a room so cold you could see your breath. It felt great! Again Ashley hit the pool while dear Dad
unloads stuff. Something’s never change
no matter how old they get. Another
shower and nap, and I'm as good as a 52 year old man
can be after lugging 50 pounds 76 miles.
I was moving very gingerly, especially up and down steps. Again we had a great restaurant next to our
hotel, and after stiff legging my way over (my knees were still pretty ticked
off about the ride distance) we ate.
This restaurant had no veggie menu at all, but the cook made Ashley a special
dish all her own. Ashley claimed it was
the best meal she had all week. It
looked like penne pasta mixed with left over broccoli, and green beans all mixed
up, and covered with Raggu sauce. It didn't quite taste as good as it looked. I had flounder on garlic mashed potatoes, and
another New Castle. Another winner. As we limped back to our room I was happy we
only had to bike 14 miles tomorrow after the ferry crossing to Ocracoke.
We slept in this morning, and caught the 8:30 ferry over. We rode about seven miles before stopping at
a pull over to walk to the beach one last time.
As we sat on a bench watching the ocean I called Susan. She told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. My thoughts
then was it was a small personal aircraft. As we talked her boss yelled in that another
plane had hit the other tower, and that it was a passenger plane. As Ashley and I sat at the beach, and heard
this news it was just too unbelievable to comprehend. I didn't say it then, but I thought that they
had to be mistaken, and really did not think more about it. We pulled in to Ocracoke
and rode around the village, going by the lighthouse, and small shops. We went into a village restaurant, and had
brunch. I asked the waitress if she had
heard anything about a plane crash, and she said she had heard a few people
talking but she really did not know anything.
Ashley and I decide it couldn't be much.
After parking the bikes and walking through the shops the real horror of
what happened began to appear. We
watched stunned as the video of the second plane crashing into the tower was
shown on the TV. No wonder I did not
comprehend it when Susan first told me.
It was still unbelievable now as I watched it. We caught the 12:00 ferry to Cedar Island and sat glued to the TV for the next 2 1/2 hours.
The next morning we pulled out of Cedar Island for our 9 hour trip home.
For nine hours we listened to the radio, and talked very little as the
details were unfolding. Instead of
reliving our trip and talking about our favorite parts we listened. Even now it seems unreal. Our trip, our adventure that we had planned
for so long, would forever be tied to September 11th. The time we shared on the road was great fun,
but I will always remember the day America changed when I think of the Outer Banks. Where were you when you heard about the WTC
disaster? I was sitting with my daughter
on a deck over looking the ocean not wanting a bike trip to end. It seems many things may have ended that day.
skip