Into Heat and Headwinds

I had a nice, relaxing couple days with my cousin and her husband in Norfolk, mostly spent watching Netflix on the couch while being provided no end of wonderful food and alcohol. It was exactly what I needed. I used some of the time to plan out my route and stops ahead, and after a lot of tough contemplating (and a coin flip), decided not to do the Outer Banks. There's strong head winds and bursts of storms all week, which would be worse out on the barrier islands. One day I will have to redo this portion of the trip, taking DC instead of Delmarva and the Outer Banks instead of inland, the paths untaken this tour. But for now, I can only take one road.

I ate breakfast, got around, and said farewell by a little after 8. I would have loved to stay longer, especially since I don't​ know when I will see them again, but I have to make miles if I am to meet Rachael in Saint Augustine for a mini vacation together on the 1st through 4th, which has now been officially scheduled with tickets and a place booked out. I don't want to have to bus my ass down there because I failed to make time.

It was hot today, which is never fun, and there was a fairly strong wind coming out of the South, which is never fun when you're heading South. And as the day progressed it got hotter and the headwind got worse. I made decent time at the start of the day, as I biked my way on some big roads to get out of Norfolk, before the wind and heat got too strong. Shortly outside Chesapeake I hopped off 168 and was on side roads for a good portion of the day, ones with great names like Bunch Walnuts and Ballahack. Bunch Walnuts took me through a swampy region with a sign that warned it sometimes flooded. And sure enough, it had some well flooded segments. It was an entertaining challenge trying not to get soaked in brackish water or hydroplane. I was thankful that for the biggest pool of water, I was able to get off onto some property and go around, while having a fun time watching cars make huge splashes going through. It was some of the best excitement of the day.

I ran into another bike tourist shortly after that, who was heading up the coast, soon to turn west to Oregon. He was a school teacher doing this while on break, and needing to make time, was planning to do about 100 miles a day every day. ...It sounded miserable to me. I have a hundred mile day planned for tomorrow, and one of those every now and then (especially with headwinds...) is more than enough for me. We both wished each other well and went our separate ways.

Not long after I came to a road called Sandy Road, which with its name I had very bad feelings about. But as I turned on to it, it turned out to be paved. ...For all of a 1000 feet. Then it was 8 miles of gravel, most of it badly unpacked, and nothing but even worse little farm roads as avenues to get off it onto pavement. I sucked it up and rode the gravel road. Sheena, my friend now in Minneapolis who once did Lincoln's Gravel Worlds, 150 miles of all gravel, in awful weather, would tell me it builds character and I would grow to love gravel eventually (still haven't) I thought fondly of her as I rode the hand-beating road in the horrible heat with no shade or wind break and the wind and road condition slowing me to under 10mph. Nothing wrong with some character building.

Though I was glad to be back on pavement. There were a couple aptly named roads after that, 4 Mile Desert Road, and 2 Mile Desert Road, 4 and 2 miles long respectively and with nothing on them. Hertford seemed like a neat little town, though I hadn't the time to properly appreciate it. I was on 17 after that, with its not quite wide enough shoulder, made worse when at a county line it gained a rumble strip that covered what little it had. Slowly but surely I fought the wind and made it to Edenton, arriving right around 4, and just before a big storm.

While waiting on dinner to be ready (after of course getting my shower), I got to see my hosts' yacht, which he has been working on building for more than a decade, with no initial knowledge of ship-building (funny, the second boat maker family medicine MD that I've stayed with this trip). Then we had a wonderful lasagna dinner. And afterward I got a car tour of the little town. I saw the screw-pile lighthouse that had been moved twice over from its original location at the mouth of the Roanoke River, the first time by an eccentric tugboat operator and marine salvager who apparently lived next door to my hosts, then to its present location at a park, the downtown, some impressive Antebellum houses, and the old textile mill that has now been turned to condos. It was nice getting to see the cute little town, which my hosts moved to after stumbling into it on accident while searching for a good quiet place to settle down.

And now, I am just about ready for bed. Because the earlier I can get up and out the door, the better, with a hundred miles in even more heat and headwind before I get to sleep again tomorrow.