East Coast Greenway Ride

  Sarah, Beth, and Sandy left camp at New Bern on US17.  Traffic kept them on their toes, but there were moments of light traffic. Later, I joined Sandy and Sarah on lightly traveled backroads taking in the swamps and fixer-uppers. This fixer-upper seemed to have lots of possibilities!! And this one has character! This phosphate fertilizer plant is expanding in several areas along our ride, with dozers clearing land for more plant space.  It appears many of the residents throughout this area work for Nutrien. Soon we reached the ferry terminal.... Beth and Randy were soaking up shade for the ferry that would never come (at least in our desired time frame).  The published times online didn't match the time displayed at this ferry point.  So we loaded the bikes on the magic sleds, picked a new set of roads, and high-tailed to Washington, NC.

"Early to bed, early to rise..."  Wait, I think it was late to bed and early to rise this morning at Atlantic Beach. We took a tour of Fort Macon later in the morn after a filling breakfast with lots of coffee at Carla's.  Fort Macon is now an informative state park and we could have spent all day there.  It was a key fort in the civil war. We decided to have lunch in Beaufort, NC, home of a lot of history and sights. We were reminded that it is not a good idea to be strolling through the neighborhood during a hurricane!! Later in the day we moseyed to New Bern and bicycled across the long bridge over the Neuse River to the old town. There we had to partake in the birthplace of Pepsi Cola with more paraphernalia than you could imagine.  They even displayed their closely held recipe...with a disclaimer! New Bern is noted for all its bears and they are guarding the ice cream shops as well as chocolate-covered bacon!  We slipped in when the bears weren't looking an...

Sarah, Randy, and I started just after lunch riding over Bogue Sound on Hwy 58, another busy highway but with a decent shoulder on the bridge.  Great views from the bridge. We picked up the Emerald Path trail shortly after descending the bridge and proceeded along the Emerald Isle about 30 miles to Atlantic Beach.  It was a fun trail for 11 miles but then we were back on Hwy 58.  Fortunately, it was lightly traveled the closer we got to Atlantic Beach. Sights along our ride. After arriving at Atlantic beach we met Sandy's college friend Carla who owns a condo on the first floor of the building above and has great friends who allowed us to use their condo on the third floor. The view from the third-floor patio ( above left in picture) gave us a great view of the Atlantic. My digs inside her friend's condo. There were rooms for all of us.  Her friend's collection of sand dollars was impressive! A walk on the beach was relaxing with lots of catching up about life o...

  Sunrise at Myrtle Beach After leaving Myrtle Beach, we headed toward Supply, NC to visit with my brother-in-law Don and his wife Kayteen.  We had a great visit sharing stories and lots of laughs.  Their home backs up to the Intercoastal waterway, much closer to the beach than I remembered.  We also determined that the East Coast Greenway passes within a half-mile of their home! After leaving Don's, we took the ferry from South Point to Carolina Island.  At Southpoint, bikers disembarked the ferry first and headed toward town. On Carolina Island, US17 had a much better shoulder but we didn't ride it until later in the day.  Lots of color on the beach houses tickled our eyeballs! At midday, three of us biked to lunch then continued to a Carolina Beach city trail that is part of the East Coast Greenway trail.  We continued southward to Ft Fisher, one of the Civil War forts with lots of action. On our return toward our campground, we walked to the beach ...