Thursday, June 2
Left Powhatan and drove through the rest of Virginia to the Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina. The OBX are barrier islands separating the Atlantic Ocean from the mainland of the upper half of North Carolina. As usual, it took us longer to get there than originally planned.
Sherri has an Adventure Bicycle set of maps for this area and we were trying to find their recommended routes. We finally drove to the visitor center & talked to the “expert”. He set us up with maps and information. The traffic has been really heavy and we hadn’t seen even one bicyclist, so we asked the man at the visitor center if it is a very “bicycle friendly” area and he said “Not really”.
When we crossed the bridge into Kitty Hawk, we drove North on Hwy 12, the “spine” of the OBX. Driving North to Corolla, we observed shoulders and bikeways as we went. Sherri started riding in Corolla. Mary Ann drove back to Duck and parked the van. We rode South for about 7 miles then back to the van.
When we were in Corolla we visited the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. It is the most Northern lighthouse of the five on the OBX. It is made of roughly a million red bricks, not painted like many of the lighthouses. We rode as far as we could on a pedestrian/bike path and some on a very narrow designated bike lane on the shoulder of the road. It was terribly hot and humid and getting late. We did not go as far as we would liked to have gone. As has been the case throughout the trip, we got a late start. We loaded up and found our camp spot in Rodanthe, which is the Easternmost point of North Carolina. We showered, went to dinner (first meal out, and we were craving seafood). Doing laundry here. Plan to start early tomorrow morning to beat the heat!
Glad to finally be on the OBX. Now the bike riding adventure really begins!
Sherri and Mary Ann
