5/2/23 – Davis to Buxton, NC – Day 2 of The Outer Banks

Miles: 36.0 Today / 1369.8 Total
Elevation Gain: 623 ft. Today / 14,469 ft. Total

Today was a photo filled day, so I just spent over an hour sorting, editing, organizing, and deleting photos, and now I’m out of time to write anything. Hope that’s okay with you.

We had a lot of extra time, this morning, because the ferry we were taking was 19 miles away, which takes less than 75 minutes to reach. The problem with this particular ferry is that it only runs twice a day: In the morning at 10:30 and in the afternoon at 4:30. The word, as we pulled out of the 1st Baptist Church parking lot was that we needed to be at the ferry no later than 10:15. That allowed time to go check out an Estuary that Connor stumbled upon yesterday when he went out for a run.

So he led the way and we rode a mile or 2 down dirt roads, passing a few No Trespassing signs and driving up what looked like a private driveway, but was really just a dirt road. We came upon large pools of water that were marshy and swampy, with ducks, swans and other foul floating around.

And that is where Connor announced that it was going to take another 3 miles to loop around the marshy, swampy water we were looking at. I told him I wasn’t up for that, mostly because it was more of a mountain bike excursion than a touring bike excursion, so he suggested riding in 1/4 mile, to which I agreed. Well when we got in there, it was such a cool place, that I said I’d do the whole 3 miles, and off we went, and It was slow going, with lots of stops to take photos. When we finished circling the estuary and got back to the route we were now under the gun to make it to the ferry. We were going to have to be pedal to the metal the 18 remaining miles to the ferry to make it by 10:15.

I had to get my navigation going while riding like a maniac, then I decided to also check my text messages, in case the route leader sent us an update, which he or she did. The update was that all of our group now had to be at the ferry by 9:50 am, or our entire group would lose it’s reservation. Talk about pressure. I was pushing myself at 100%, and I would have made the 10:15 time easily, but this 9:50 time? No way! So I sent a text message to both of the route leaders who were driving the 2 vans today to let them know I wouldn’t be making that new time. In the mean time, Connor had called them, and one of them was on his way to pick us up and get us to the ferry so the team could use its reservation. And that’s how my bike got on the rack here.

Connor was about 3/4 mile up the road from me, and he just crammed his bike in the van to save the time required to put it on the rack. Jeremy, the route leader driving the van, drove like a maniac and we just barely made it to the ferry ticket booth at 9:50. Whew! So to be clear, this has compromised the integrity of my ride. I will never return to ride the 8 miles of the route that I didn’t cycle, today. I will throw on 8 additional miles somewhere along the way to make up for the miles missed. I can do that easily with a couple of navigational errors.

The entire team boarded the ferry together, which was kind of fun. During our almost 2.5 hour ride, some of the guys played cards and others sat around and chatted, checked the internet or napped. I worked on stitching my silk sleeping bag liner back together where it is falling apart, so I don’t trash the inside of my sleeping bag, which isn’t nearly as washable as a sleeping bag liner.

When the ferry landed in Ocracoke, we had just 15 miles of riding with a nice tailwind before the next ferry.

Of the the 3 islands we saw today, Ocracoke was my favorite. It had very few tourist space and very little civilisation overall, seemingly entirely by the Okracoke harbor, where there were a lot of really enticing restaurant, shop and activity choices. Jade, Connor and I stopped for lunch at a local eatery and bellied up to the bar, enjoying a nice meal, before peddling down the route again. After lunch, I pealed off to explore and take photos.

If you remember, yesterday I theorized that the scenery was about to change. Here is proof of that it did—-all going northbound on one island.

After enjoying the sights, I met up with 6 from our group at the next ferry terminal on the north end of Ocracoke Island.

The ferry from there to Cape Hatteras runs every 1/2 hour, so there wasn’t much of a wait for it. Everyone else either slept or phoned friends and family, during this 60 minute ferry ride. I got a call from my daughter Camille, and we chatted for a good part of the ride, which was the highlight of my day. Probably the highlight of my week, actually.

On my way out to get back on my bike, the ladies who had been parked in the van next to my bike for the ferry ride asked me about our bike ride and it being for MS. Turns out that one of them, a beautiful gal named Tracy Morgan, who was sitting in the back seat, has has had MS for 43 years. She didn’t look much older than that, but it turns out that she is actually 59, so has been battling this disease since she was just 16 years old, bless her heart. I had them open the door so I could give her a hug and get a photo with her.

Tracy, if you want to have a dream trip around Arizona, message me, and we can make a plan for a guided tour of some of the most beautiful places in the West. Bring your girlfriends. You and people like you are the reason I am doing this bike ride.

If any of you reading this would like support the cause I am riding for, here is the link to my donor page.

Once on Hatteras, the group rode together for the 11 miles to Our Lady of the Seas Catholic Church community center. This island is heavily occupied, but has a lot of nice quiet places with no people too. The tailwind was so nice, that we moved over 15 mph effortlessly and were at the church in no time at all.

Some super kind and generous ladies from the church plus a husband, daughter and au pair had a delicious meal awaiting us, when we arrived and joined us for dinner.

Afterwards, I took a walk to the waterfront, which was just a 100 meters or so from the church, and waited for the sunset. Found this horseshoe crab also waiting for the sunset. Actually, I have no idea what the crab was doing out and about. It looked like a little armored tank.

We took our last Outer Banks ferry today. Tomorrow, we will just be cruising northward. I’m bringing my swimsuit and towel and will hopefully be able to take some time out to enjoy the ocean.