Post 4 - Williamsburg to Myrtle Beach
The wear on the chainrings did not visually appear to be too bad so John did not anticipate any problem with the shorter pitch of the new chain matching the slightly longer pitch on the worn chainrings. If the chain is replaced when it should be, the chainrings do not need to be replaced until after many, many chain replacements. The bike will tell you when it is time to replace the chainrings in the form of noisy engagement of the chain on the chainring and improper release of the chain at the bottom of the chainring known as chain suck which is the chain not releasing from the chainring at the bottom and wrapping around the chain ring to the top. When that happens the drivetrain essentially locks up.
On the way over to Chick-fil-A for breakfast on the first day of riding after the Williamsburg break, the drivetrain was actually much more noisy than before all the maintenance was done on the day off and there was one occurrence of chain suck in the very short mile and a half trip to breakfast. With the prospect of a longer day of riding John was inclined to see if we could get by with the new chain and not delay our ride to change it out and put the old chain back on, but Sue was the voice of reason and John agreed that it would be better to bike the bullet and change it out rather than risk damage to the new chain or orge drivetrain parts. John had kept the old chain in case there was any problem with the new chain which turned out to be a very good decision since the only thing at that point (outside of having new replacement chainrings which we didn't have) that would solve the problem of a noisy drivetrain and, more importantly, chain suck was a worn out chain and that's not something you can buy. John bit the bullet and dug the old chain out of the bottom of the pannier and made the swap on the patio of the Chick-fil-A and then got cleaned up inside.
We were on our way with a much quieter and smoother drivetrain. The worn out chain matched perfectly with the worn out chainrings so all was good again.
John had anticipated the need for replacing the chainrings at some point in the near future so he ordered some new chainrings before the trip but unfortunately had not taken them nor shipped them in the maintenance resupply kit to Williamsburg. Our very good friend, Trish, went on a video-conference-aided-treasure-hunt throughout our very messy house that we left in a hurry prior to departing for our trip and was able to find the new chainrings and FedEx them to us to a future hotel stop. With plenty of lube on the chain every night, we milked the old chainring and old chain setup for another 6 days since that was the earliest place we could ship the new chainrings to a hotel that could receive and hold them for us. On the sixth day after Myrtle Beach, John installed the new chainrings and chain in our hotel room. The drivetrain was happy once again.
Ok, sorry for so long, but back to the ride. 🙂 With the, now late, start from Williamsburg, we really put it in gear to the reach the Jamestown Surry Ferry so we wouldn't have to wait another 30 minutes for the next one. John had it timed just right, and we got on the ferry about a minute and a half before it departed. The ferry personnel are great to bike riders and the trip across the James River allowed us time to catch our breath.
Leaving Williamsburg, we wore our new Going To The Sun Road jerseys our friends Mary and Brian got us for the trip.
They were designed by an artist in Whitefish, MT and they're really beautiful and colorful. A lady from Montana stopped us at a restaurant and said "I know you didn't ride that road on that bike", which was a conversation starter. We have had a few more people approach us since then that commented on the jerseys including a lady on the Outer Banks of NC that used to live in Whitefish.
We enjoyed lots of low use roads dotted with farmland full of soy beans, cotton, and corn.
We saw lots of solar farm installations in various stages of completion near Surry, VA. They're really ramping up in that area.
They had a field full of supports installed just waiting for the solar panels to be mounted next. You can also see that they installed a lot of new power lines. Just down the road there was a new electrical substation.
We had a great lunch in Smithfield, VA, at the Smithfield Gourmet Deli, complete with coconut meringue pie, before continuing on to Suffolk, VA.
We were bummed. Our usual, Taste of Smithfield, was closed on Monday but the Smithfield Gourmet Deli was every bit as good. That night after our ride, we walked to dinner across the pedestrian bridge in Suffolk, VA, which felt really good.
Tuesday we rode from Suffolk to Elizabeth City, NC. Though we were on high stress roads for a bit (Route 17 is not good news in any state), we also rode some quiet miles on the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail both in Virginia and North Carolina.
John perfecting his drone hand launch and catch on the Dismal Swamp Canal Path.
The path was a dedicated two lane road just for bikes and pedestrians. It's amazing how many of these canals existed in the 1800’s, that they were dug by hand, and that they carried so much cargo. The historical markers about the canals were a good read. The Virginia side of Route 17 had a nice wide and smooth berm. When crossing over from Virginia into North Carolina on Route 17, we were greeted with no berm.
Fortunately, within a mile of entering North Carolina we got off Route 17 at a rest area and that is where we got back on the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail.
Overall the drivers were pretty cautious and considerate. Route 17 in this area is a four-lane divided highway and cars were whizzing by at interstate highway speeds.
We arrived at our hotel in Elizabeth City before dark and enjoyed a great Mexican meal within walking distance. Then it was laundry time.
Wednesday was sunny and warm. We rode through many farms in Currituck area before crossing the bridge to Kitty Hawk, NC.
The bridge from the mainland over to the Outer Banks in Kitty Hawk is 3.2 miles long, no berm, and considered by the ECG org to be a high stress road so we got across as quickly as we could. John had ridden the Outer Banks 15 years ago in September of 2008 when he rode from Roswell, GA back to his hometown in central PA and now Sue was able to ride it too.
Right after the bridge we met a guy named Danno who lives in Kitty Hawk. He was riding his bike on his way home from work. He saw John about to take a picture of Sue in front of the Kitty Hawk sign and offered to take a picture of both of us in front of the sign. Danno had a really nice new electric assist bike he uses to commute and gave us lots of good local info. Thanks, Danno.
We ate at The Jolly Roger that night in Kitty Hawk after snapping a few sunset pictures with the drone, just down the street from our hotel.
The Jolly Roger is one of the top restaurants in NC and we can see why. The decor is eclectic, the outdoor dining is on the roof, and the food is delicious.
Thursday was another gorgeous day, though a little hotter. We found a bagel shop up the street and enjoyed a bagel sandwich for breakfast which was a welcome change from the usual breakfast included with the hotel that we eat most days.
Our intent that morning was to cycle to Manteo an island off the Outer Banks towards the mainland; see Fort Roanoke, the lighthouses there, and then continue to our AirBNB in Salvo. When we arrived at the bridge that crosses over to Manteo, there was a lot of construction activity. They were adding more lanes to the existing bridge. Half the old bridge was blocked. We looked at the half of the old bridge that was still open to two way traffic and there was no berm with a concrete wall to keep drivers in the lane where we'd be traveling. It looked extremely dangerous.
So, we turned around and rode back toward Nags Head and South towards Salvo. We now had extra time, so John flew his new drone in Nags Head.
Unfortunately, it clipped a shrub right before landing. One of the motors was rough when turned by hand. After some judicial probing with a interdental brush, followed by some alcohol flushing, and a few runups of the motor, it returned to its smooth running again.
At Bodie Island, we took a long look and break at Bodie Island Lighthouse.
We met several folks there who were interested in our bike and we chatted with them. John got his National Park Passport Book stamped and we rode on towards Salvo. Traffic was lighter the further south we went. Even the bridge to Pea Island wasn't too busy. We liked the nice berm and smooth expansion joints.
Some parts of the Outer Banks have changed since John cycled up the East Coast in 2008. The Rodanthe Bridge was added in 2020 to bypass an often flooded section of road. Several locals told us how bad the erosion and water damage has been. The ferry routes have changed as well to avoid shallow areas.
Near the end of the day, we stopped in Waves, SC at Waterman's Grille and ate at the tables out on the lawn. Yummy burgers!
A stop at The Dollar Store got us all the supplies we needed for dessert and breakfast the next day at our AirBnB before we went on to Ocracoke.
The ride from Salvo to Hatteras, mostly through the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, was absolutely beautiful. There were places where the dunes were being built up by heavy equipment taking the sand off the road, and John could tell a difference from his ride up the Outer Banks 15 years ago on his way to Pennsylvania.
We saw lots of fisherman who buy permits that allow them to drive onto the beach when we went up one of the dunes to check out the surf.
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was very pretty and the exhibit in the museum about the state moving the lighthouse in 1999 was fascinating. It took 23 days to move the lighthouse 2900 feet back at a cost of 11.8 million dollars! John got another National Park stamp in his book.
We ate a nice lunch in Frisco at Pamlico Deli, and then continued to the 4 pm Hatteras to Ocracoke Ferry. We arrived just in time and didn't wait long at all to board.
Once on Ocracoke Island, we rode down to the southern tip in Ocracoke through the National Seashore again to see the Ocracoke Lighthouse right at sunset. It was too late to get a park pass stamp, but it was still very pretty. After a nice pizza dinner at Jason's we went to find our hotel.
Once again, the change in hotels when we delayed our departure didn't make it into the GPS route. We went to the hotel Sue had booked before our dates changed and discovered we were at the wrong hotel. Sue walked across the street to ask a couple if they knew where our hotel was since we had no data service on our phones to look it up. They told Sue it was just down the street right around the bend. When the couple crossed the street behind Sue as she was returning to the bike, in the dark, the husband recognized John from the ferry crossing onto Ocracoke Island hours before and said "Remember us, we're the ones with Oliver, the miniature dachshund"? John had met the couple and Oliver when he walked to the front of the ferry to get a better view. Of course Oliver reminded us of Barnaby, Trish's adorable miniature dachshund and John remembered seeing them on the ferry with Oliver.
All day long, and that evening, we kept meeting people who said they had passed us on the road, or seen us at another stop. They were all very nice and interested in our trip
Saturday morning we had to be at the ferry port before sunrise to catch the 7:30a ferry off the Outer Banks from Ocracoke to the mainland at Cedar Island.
On the ferry we met Bryant and David, from Hampstead, NC. They had been fishing on The Outer Banks and were great company during the 2 hour, 15 minute trip on their way home.
When we arrived at Cedar Island, John remembered waiting there when he was headed north on his ride in 2008.
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After landing, we continued through the National Seashore. The marshes and birds were beautiful. We rode through Beaufort, NC and then on to Morehead City.
After a good barbecue dinner, we checked into our hotel on Saturday where Trish had shipped us the chainrings. We arrived early so John could install the chainrings before our 62 mile ride the next day. The hotel staff told us the package was locked in the general manager's office and it would not be available until Monday (two days later). Before shipping the parts, Sue had contacted the hotel staff and arranged with them to receive the parts and have them available when we checked in. After a lot of pushback, a supervisor eventually came to the hotel and we got our chainrings package. John replaced the chainrings and installed the new chain on the bike. It was a very late night finishing because of the delay getting our package.
On Sunday the new chainrings and chain were smooth as silk. We rode over the bridge to Atlantic Beach and had a beautiful day going through the Emerald Isle, with lunch at The Village Market. A nice couple, Russ and Krista, came over to our table on the lawn and asked about our Erie Canal Jerseys we were wearing that day. Their family had done the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail from Pittsburg, PA to Cumberland, MD and part of the C&O Canal. They were interested in our take on the Erie Canalway. We told them of our travels and they told us about theirs. It was a fun lunch break.
We rode over the bridge inland and headed through farmland and horse ranch country, ending up in Jacksonville NC.
We rode the great Greenway in Jacksonville right along the perimeter of Camp Lejeune. It's a smooth paved path with bridges over swampland and over Route 17. The fence for Camp Lejeune runs along it. We saw a sign that said any signs posted on the Camp Lejeune fence would be removed every Thursday. Shortly after that on the trail, for the first time ever, we saw East Coast Greenway signs glued to the trail asphalt. Good solution!
The path continued to within a mile of our hotel which meant we avoided a lot of Route 17 at rush hour. We stopped by Walmart along the way to restock some essentials supplies and had dinner at the nearby Panera Bread. It was a cooler October night, and the hot broccoli cheddar soup was really good.
The next morning, we rode out of Jacksonville in cool and sunny weather toward Surf City, NC. There were many miles of Route 17 and the traffic was intense with little to no berm. We had forgotten Monday was a holiday and maybe that was the reason for the heavy traffic. The section along the coast through Topsail, NC and then into Surf City, NC between the bridges was a nice break.
In Surf City, right before we got to lunch, we passed by a not so fancy Trailer Bar with a funny sign out front that I'm sure catches people's attention and undoubtedly brings them some business. We might have checked them out ourselves had it not been for our tone lock on Hot Diggity Dogz that Sue had planned for our lunch stop.
For lunch at Hot Diggity Dogz, across from the beach, we got some Heinz ketchup packets with the state names on them with our fries.
This reminded us of a little girl we met in Hamden, CT outside the hotel with her father as we were checking in one night. She was so taken with John's description of our trip she wanted to give him something but all she had was a single ketchup packet with a state name on it. After giving John her only packet, she told him she was going to collect as many states as she could, that this was her very first state, and that she thought John deserved the packet for riding such a long way. John thanked her and asked her if she could to keep it for her collection. She thought about it for a moment and then agreed to keep it. Such a nice gesture from such a young girl.
Back on Route 17, we headed into Wilmington/Landfall, NC in intense traffic with a very narrow berm between the rumble strip and soft sandy soil.
We ate at a Chicken Salad Chick next to our hotel and calmed our nerves for about 30 minutes. We hadn't had CSC since we left home and it tasted good. CSC is one of our favorite 20 - 30 mile lunch rides we often do back home. The hotel was right behind the CSC, another plus. When checking into the hotel, Sue went up to the desk and John followed in behind her and stood in the lobby with the fully loaded bike. We were both still wearing our bike gloves, bike helmet, and sunglasses when the assistant guy at the front desk said in a hurry before we could walk to our room, "Oh, we are sealing the back parking lot first thing in the morning so you must park in the front lot and not in the back". The other front desk employee, Sue, and John looked at each other and then the guy at the other guy at the desk said "they don't have a car, they're traveling by bike". 😃 Poor guy, I'm sure he was told to make sure all the guests knew about the temporary parking situation and that he had told so many people all day that day that he just wasn't thinking when yet another guest came in the door that early evening.
Tuesday was another pretty weather day, and we hopped back on Route 17, hoping it was not for long. Luckily we soon turned onto The Wilmington Cross-City Trail through the UNC Wilmington Campus and local parks. At a stop sign while waiting to make a left turn, we met a local rider, Ken. We told him about our trip when he asked. He, then, kindly offered to give us his phone number to call him so he could pick us up if we ran into any trouble while riding in the Wilmington area and that he had a vehicle that would accommodate our larger tandem. We took his number down and then he turned left before us since we're kind of slow. We could see him up ahead until he took another left and was out of sight about the place where we eventually took a right. Shortly after that we saw a guy on a bike up ahead and when we got closer we could see it was Ken. After we parted ways he got to thinking that we might need some routing advice that a local rider like himself would know so he circled back around and caught us. He offered to check our route in Wilmington to make sure it was on safe roads and that we wouldn't be crossing any of the dangerous bridges that might be used to route in the direction we were traveling. As it turned out, we weren't going to be on any of the dangerous bridges but it was awfully kind of Ken to be concerned about some strangers passing through. Ken's an avid cyclist too and is doing a Gran Fondo ride next weekend. Thanks, Ken!
Off the path, and mostly on River Road, we continued to the bridge to Carolina Beach and into Kure Beach. We had Burrito Shak burritos and tacos along the way. Yum! This wasn't where Tour Planner Sue had on the docket for lunch that day but she was looking at some alternate lunch choices while we were stopped at a park to use the bathroom and it sounded good. Some of the best places we've eaten were by chance as we've traveled south along the Eastern seaboard.
Someone painted a robot around the hose connection on the wall at the park.
At Fort Fisher, NC, we took the Cape Fear River Ferry over to Southport, NC. In Southport, we were hopeful the bad traffic was behind us, but it was not to be. There was very heavy traffic for 12 miles with the first 7 miles of that under construction complete with some sections of concrete barriers on the berm right up to the white line. It was actually worse than Route 17 and that's saying something. The only positive on this stretch of road, if you could call it that, was that the volume of cars was so high that they weren't able to reach the posted speed limit for the first 7 miles in the construction zone. We made it though, and finally reached a better section of road. We stopped at Chick fil-A for dinner and shopped for necessities at WalMart before heading to our hotel for a good night's sleep.
Wednesday was pretty and a little cooler. We left Shallotte for a shorter, 50 mile day. The roads were quieter. There was a stretch of the dreaded Route 17, but it was only 3 miles. There was no berm for most of it, but the cars were mostly good about moving over.
We rode through the little towns, stopping for lunch in Calabash at the same deli where John had lunch on his ride from Roswell, GA to Bloomsburg, PA in 2008. John showed the deli owner a picture of Sue standing inside the deli from 2008 and she got a big kick out of it telling all her employees about how we were there 15 years ago and now we're back. She was very nice, the food is still great, and we enjoyed our lunch on the nice patio, a nice addition since we were last there.
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Right after lunch we crossed into South Carolina where there was a state line crossing sign so, of course we had to stop and snap a picture. We haven't had many marked state line crossings for this trip.
At one point in our route, we turned and a big sign said "road closed". We went ahead to check it out, as often we can walk the bike through, especially if no one is working. We didn't see a good detour without backtracking several miles. They were working, but we asked an equipment operator in a crane of etc could proceed and he said others had gone through and to proceed with caution because they were operating large equipment ahead. We did, and we were almost through when a worker approached us and said we couldn't come through. He evidently had had problems with bike riders coming through regularly, and said they were too far along for it to be safe. We listened, and John explained we had asked and were on a long trip, we weren't local riders. He said we could go though this once. That will do it for us!
We rode through the pleasant beach towns north of Myrtle. There aren't too many tourists in this area at this time of year, and we had great riding. We had to be on Route 17 again briefly, but then the ECG turned us into housing developments, crossing 17 and then heading into another housing development. This ended in a path that took us right into Myrtle Beach near our hotel.
We checked into our hotel and then rode around a bit before returning to shower and walk to dinner on the boardwalk.
We enjoyed reading some info signs about the history of Myrtle Beach posted along the boardwalk as we walked to dinner. It started to rain as we returned back to the hotel after dinner so we hurried up to get back before the heavy rain came in and then did the laundry.
The next day we stayed in Myrtle Beach and took our fourth planned rest day. On our rest day, we walked in the drizzle up the strip to a restaurant to get some Eggs Benedict for breakfast. It's John's favorite and he said it was yummy.
While we were walking up the strip, we saw a guy go by on a bicycle the opposite direction. We initially couldn't figure out what was making a noise on his bike. Unfortunately he was out of picture range by the time we realized it was a battery powered leaf blower propelled bike. It seemed to be doing a good job at propelling him forward. It was a funny sight.
Our next day off is in 10 days, and we should be in St. Augustine, FL. We'll blog again from there. Thanks for following along.
Totals so far
Riding days: 38
Distance: 2,262.3 miles
States/district ridden in: ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, Washington DC, VA, NC, and SC
John and Sue
Sounds like a nice leg of your journey. I’ve found your adventure to be very interesting and have enjoyed your pictures.
ReplyDeleteJeff from Mattapoisett Ma.
Glad you are enjoying the blog and thanks for the feedback, Jeff. It seems like not so long ago we were in MA. We're continuing to make good progress - we rode to Daytona Beach today and have 8 more days of riding until Key West.
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