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Days Five and Six - Thursday/Friday

Touring North Carolina's Outer Banks,
April 12-19, 2003, continued   

Days Three and Four - Tuesday/Wednesday

Tuesday

I awoke early and decided to take a warm up ride. I snuck past the dogs and onto the street and rode up to the post office to pick up some postcard stamps. The ride was seven miles round trip and warmed me up nicely for the day's ride to come. I roused Jeanette. We showered and packed our stuff. The napkins held out so we didn't have a crisis in the bathroom. Now what do we do for breakfast? We saw a Citgo gas station almost across the street from the bumpy dirt road and headed over to see if we could find some coffee and maybe some packaged donuts. Thankfully, the dogs were still asleep as we left. To our surprise, the station had four tables set up and advertised breakfast. I ordered eggs, over easy, hash browns and toast. Jeanette, the same except scrambled. We found that the restaurant was called Glen's Grill. The station itself had a grocery store, video rental, the grill of course and also sold gas. The breakfasts were delivered shortly. The eggs were floating in grease and the toast was coated with a quarter inch of butter. I scraped off the extra butter and sopped up the over easy eggs with the toast. Jeanette's breakfast looked a little better, not so greasy and she had ordered a muffin, no gravy, so was in better shape as far as fat calories were concerned. As we looked around I noticed a sign over the register with five names under the heading, "To err is human, to forgive is to pay me." Looks like you don't want to bounce a check at this station!

We headed south to Avon. The day was much warmer than the day before with morning temperature in the high 50's and mid day temperature in the high 60's. The ride was 13 miles along the roadway and was really pleasant with the warming weather. The scenery along side the road reminds me of the type of vegetation one sees in the transitional zone between mountains and desert. The road is straight enough that we could see the town's water tower from about six miles away. Avon is a pretty little town, much different in appearance than the three previous towns we were in. Many of the businesses were landscaped and decorated. The town sported a supermarket and strip mall as well. I was surprised to see a full service bike shop, "Island Cycles" in the mall. (1-800-229-7810) We stopped in and were treated very well. The employee said the store had been in operation for almost ten years. We stopped at a Subway and had some cokes. I saw an inviting small motel in the middle of town, the Avon Motel and wrote down the phone number, 955-4123. The place looked spotless and much more appealing than the Salvo Inn.

We continued on to Buxton, a ride similar to the one to Avon with the exception that the wind freshened but was mostly from the side. The island turns southwest at Buxton and we could see both the Buxton and Frisco water towers as we neared the towns.  We came upon the Falcon Inn, our next stop, right in the center of town. It was only one o'clock but I thought it was worth the effort to see if we could check in early and drop our panniers. The lady at the counter was accommodating and we were soon free of our panniers and headed towards Frisco and the town's Indian museum. All we had eaten was the breakfast at Salvo so we didn't feel guilty when we stopped and had ice creams on the way to the museum. The museum itself, properly called the, "Frisco Native American Museum and Natural History Center," is a ramshackle collection of low ceiling buildings housing an incredibly valuable collection of artifacts, some very old and some very rare. We spent our time wandering among the exhibits and the gift shop.

Finished with the museum, we headed back to Buxton to get ready for dinner. The round trip was about 15 miles. We took a quick side trip to the Hatteras light only to find that the visitor's center was closing just as we arrived. We walked around the light and then headed back to our room, now only a short distance away. We were hungry and ready for some real southern cooking. A fancy restaurant called, "The Tides" had been recommended. We cleaned up from the day's riding and then jumped on the bikes for the short ride to the restaurant. People were sitting or standing all over the porch when we arrived. We found that there was a waiting list and put our names at the bottom. Next crisis, we found out that in North Carolina, at least the county we were in, there are no bars, even in restaurants, we couldn't have a few drinks while we were waiting. Ok, so we struck up a conversation with some North Carolina tourists from the interior of the state that were at the Outer Banks on Easter vacation.

I had heard about soft shelled crab forever and that was my choice for dinner. The waitress kept on asking about side dishes and how I'd like the crab cooked. I answered, "southern" to all of the questions. I ended up getting my soft shell crab batter deep fried with coleslaw and fries along with a North Carolina chowder. Jeanette ordered batter fried oysters, okra and a baked potato with shrimp gumbo soup. We ate our dinners with gusto and finished off two half carafes of wine as well. We shared a key lime pie for dessert. I was assured by the waitress that our dinners had been about as southern as one could get!

The riding and the touring had taken it's toll. We headed back to our rooms full and ready for bed and soon drifted off to sleep after watching a little TV.

Total miles traveled - 46 miles

Wednesday

When I first thought of the trip I had planned to ride all the way to the town of Ocracoke at the south end of the island chain. It was still 26 miles distant, OK for a one way trip for Jeanette but too far for her to do a round trip of over fifty miles. We talked about it before going to bed the night before and decided she should ride with me to Hatteras, the southernmost town on Hatteras Island, a ride of about ten miles.  I would continue on to Ocracoke and she would return after looking around in Hatteras. When we awoke, I tried to stir Jeanette from the bed covers but she was too comfortable and told me to go on by myself.

I rode across the street to the Diamond Shoals Restaurant and had a breakfast of eggs, toast and hash browns, washed down with three cups of black coffee. The hash brows were weird. Instead of being grated and mashed into a patty, they were cut into little cubes, deep fried and served in a shallow bowl. When you tried to eat them they fell off the fork.  I guess they were some kind of potato diet food. It took more effort to eat them than the calories contained therein. 

I rode past all the sights we saw yesterday up to the Native American Museum and then entered new territory. The road was as flat as ever and the day was already warm enough at 9AM to ride in my shirtsleeves. A headwind was blowing strong enough to slow me to about 12 to 14 miles an hour and so it took me almost an hour to reach the little town of Hatteras at the south end of the island. Since I wanted to go on to Ocracoke it would be necessary for me to take the free ferry. I rode through the quaint little town and noticed a few respectable but inexpensive looking motels if a tourer wanted to spend the night. Had I more time I would have liked to look through the maritime museum but I wanted to get back at a reasonable time to join Jeanette. I found the ferry at the end of the road and rode up to the front of the line to wait for boarding. Some repairs were being made to an access light and as soon as the crew was done, the ferry was opened for boarding. All the cars loaded first and when done, I was signaled to come on and park against the rail.

Since the ride to Ocracoke Island would be in the sound and not in the ocean, the ride was very smooth. It lasted about 35 minutes and then we all disembarked. Again, I was last to leave which didn't bother me since, if I was off first, all the cars would have passed me on the road anyway. The little town of Ocracoke was at the other end of he island, about 14 miles away. The ride there looked similar to those of the two previous days with the exception that the dunes were a little higher and closer to the road. The wind was coming straight at me riding down this slot towards the town and my speed slowed to between 11 and 12 for most of the way. As I neared the town I actually passed through a small wooded area with the trees forming a tunnel partially covering the road. The smell of the pines was a wonderful aroma as I rode through

Ocracoke is a pretty little town that has a permanent population of about 600 and a tourist population of about 6,000 at the peak of the summer season. Fishing is still a major industry in the community and it has an active fishing fleet. The town has a variety of hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts, with prices that vary from reasonable to VERY expensive. Ocracoke has several claims to fame. The pirate Blackbeard was killed just offshore in 1718 and the town hosts the oldest North Carolina lighthouse, built in 1823. I rode through the harbor area and then over to the lighthouse to take pictures. Since I had made the trip on my own I thought it wise to stop in to a tourist store and buy Jeanette a gift for allowing me to make the trip alone, leaving her by herself. 

After spending a hour or so in the town I headed back to Buxton, this time with the wind at my back. I flew! I regularly hit speeds of 18-20 mph with the only stop being the ferry ride from Ocracoke Island to Hatteras Island. On the ferry I met a very pleasant Irish lady named Janet. We discussed travel in the UK since I am planning to go this summer and also discussed touring in Ireland. She was surprised that my wife and I planned to spend a whole month in just southern England. She said most Americans try to do the entire continent in that time and asked why I was concentrating on such a small area. I explained that I thought it better to do a small area well rather than attempt to see everything in Europe on the run. She agreed.

The ride from the ferry to the Falcon Inn was as fast as the island ride and I arrived home about 3:30 in the afternoon. Jeanette had lazed around all day. I took my time cleaning up for dinner and we walked across the street to the Diamond Shoals, this time for dinner. The weather that night was shirtsleeve warm up past 11 o'clock and I took an evening stroll to the Coast Guard Station before turning in for the night.

Total miles traveled - 58

Days Five and Six - Thursday/Friday