April 24, 2024 to April 25, 2024
To Wilmington: A sailing do-over
I may have mentioned that I like a 40 mile day. It's far enough to get somewhere and still have time and energy for all the other business of touring - making camp, grocery shopping, calorie intake, reservations, route research, correspondence, bike maintenance, journaling, sleeping. Usually we have to go farther to a good place to stay, but that's the ideal in my mind.
Today is a good ways farther - a 70 mile ride to Wilmington. There's a nice campground at the 50 mile mark in Carolina Shores, but that would make the next day less than 20 miles, which is hardly worth the trouble to make camp and pack it all up again. I've signed up for the long ride after seeing the forecast for a strong tailwind. That makes all the difference. A stiff southwest breeze should help us cover the distance.
Mike leaves first and is long gone by the time Barry and I cross back inland over the Intracoastal Waterway. We're on rural roads for a change, like Hale Swamp Road and Holden Beach Road around the town of Shallote. The scene is much more calm and bucolic than yesterday's course.
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We're moving along well until the traffic backs up approaching Southport. There's a ferry there every 45 minutes across the Cape Fear River to Fort Fisher. At 12:45 we decide to grab a takeout lunch from McDonalds and hustle the last four miles to the ferry for the 1:15 crossing. Traffic and construction stops threaten to derail that mission but we press forward.
At 1:14 we pull up to the ferry ramp where the gate agent says the fare for the two of us and our bicycles is four bucks. On the ferries at home we just get on and they settle up on board. Here you gotta pay to get on. We offer him a $10 bill but he can't make change and doesn't want to take our money. I really don't want to go back to the terminal for change and wait for the next ferry. Between us we come up with $3.50 in bills and quarters and the agent cheerfully waves us on. Nice guy.
Out on the ferry, a fierce wind over the Cape Fear River tugs at my flag and my flyer saucer helmet brim. The river starts near the state's northern border above Greensboro NC, and flows southeast for 200 miles to the ocean near Southport at Bald Head Island.
The name Cape Fear is an old one. It comes from a 1585 expedition of Sir Richard Grenville. When his ship became trapped in a bay the crew feared they would wreck on the shoals. While I don't usually go for horror movies, I am curious about the 1991 "Cape Fear" movie starring Robert de Niro.
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The ferry takes us to Fort Fisher where the Confederate Army ran a critical supply post during the Civil War. The Federals' capture of the fort in January 1865 was a major blow to the Confederacy.
Unfortunately the state historic site for the fort is currently closed so we keep pedaling. The roads and trails from Kure Beach to Carolina Beach are calm and beautiful, and the wind pushes us along. This is the most relaxing long ride I can remember in a while.
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In Wilmington we are delighted to find dedicated bike trails much of the way to our stay for tonight. They make the last of our ride stress-free. Between all the low-traffic roads and trails, the sunny weather and the tailwind, this has been an ideal day for a long ride. My 11.3 mph average speed isn't particularly fast, but it's the fastest I have moved in weeks.
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Mike has gone to stay with a WarmShowers host on the north side of town. Barry and I are spending the night with Elaine and John Clyatt, friends from my college years at the University of Kansas. They have a full house with their two younger children TJ and Donielle and Elaine's sweet Mom, Barbara.
John lends me a garden hose to clear our groundsheet of the mud we brought with us from Myrtle Beach so we can pitch our tent in the back yard. John is a great cook, spoiling us with St. Louis style ribs that have been slow cooking all day. Home stays in a tent are even better than a campground.
Elaine and I go back almost 50 years to when we were Douthart Dollies at KU. Douthart was a "scholarship hall," kind of a cheap sorority where the residents did all the cooking and cleaning. We were both music students and had a lot of fun together, going to house parties, concerts and choral rehearsals and learning to dance the jitterbug.
Elaine, John, my first husband Tim and I all became very young parents in our 20s at KU. She was a foul weather friend I could rely on for support figuring out adulthood and dealing with feral toddlers. We haven't seen each other in decades. It's such a gift to reconnect.
Thursday is a layover day. We're staying at the home of Don Kass where Mike went last night, so that's our first stop to drop off the luggage. Then we point the bikes downtown toward Wilmington's historic waterfront.
We have a notion to tour the Battleship North Carolina. First, Barry has a UPS return to make. He's gone for awhile, leaving me downtown to explore.
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On a yacht by the dock a guy is getting ready for a sailing charter, one of several tours he offers each day. Ever since Key West on that "sailing trip" that didn't involve any sails, I've wanted another shot at it. He has two spaces open at 3:30. Well, this is an unexpected but tempting opportunity. I call Barry for consensus and the Battleship visit is cast aside.
There's time for lunch and a walk around the waterfront area before we board the boat for a two hour cruise up and down the Cape Fear River. We're a small group- just 6 passengers. Our captain, Oliver Parody, encourages us to climb up to the front and explore.
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Meanwhile Mike went for the Battleship tour. We meet him back at the home of our WarmShowers host, finishing the day with 23 easy miles. It's been just enough to move the blood around before our next big ride.
Our host Don Kass just left on a tour so his girlfriend Dolly and her daughter Miranda welcome us in. They are wonderful hosts, filling us up with spaghetti, salad and Boston Cream Pie.
I hope we get to meet Don next week. He'll be riding south through North Carolina's Outer Banks with his brothers when we're riding north.
Today's ride: 93 miles (150 km)
Total: 1,281 miles (2,062 km)
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