Day 72: May 15th, Salvo, NC to Virginia Beach

Blog Post

We reluctantly left our cushy digs in Salvo early on Thursday morning and had planned to go about 105 miles to Virginia Beach, taking advantage of favorable winds. After cruising the first 33 miles, we stopped near Kitty Hawk for our customary gigantic pancake breakfast. Word of what we were doing spread like wildfire through the staff at the breakfast place and we felt like local celebs as we ate our pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit bowls, bananas and coffee (this meal may have been a new record for us). Not long after leaving the breakfast place we crossed a long bridge with gnarly crosswinds. It was terrifying. When we got to the other side Sophie had huge blisters on her hands from gripping her handlebars so hard. Aided by the best tail winds of the trip, we busted out the next 45 miles to get to Currituck, NC where we took yet another ferry ride.

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The scary windy bridge crossing

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Waiting for the ferry and consuming a typically gourmet lunch

 

Ferry rides continue to be the best part of any day because we get to make forward progress without lifting a finger. This one brought us across the Currituck Sound to a wildlife area just 10 miles south of the Virginia border. We had grand plans of another border crossing video when we suddenly realized that we had crossed the state line without realizing it. We continued on and despite the fact that we were generally heading north, the road was winding all over the place and the wind couldn’t make up its mind so our glorious tailwind ceased to push us along. The roads started to get more city-sprawl-like, meaning higher speed limits and many more cars, so we were happy to arrive at our campsite for the night and stop biking for the day. At the end of this 105 mile day, we were tired and hungry and ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches while barely exchanging a word, all we could do was space out.