Maybe we should have trained!
I said to Tina about 2/3 of the way through todays ride, maybe we should have trained? Her reply (with a bit of an attitude) I’m doing good!!

Maybe I should have trained!

When we were planning this trip I didn’t feel the need to train because I thought to myself, I’ve done this before, I can do this, it will be a piece of cake, no problem. What I forgot was it’s been four years since our last tour and now I’m four years older and Medicare eligible. The other thing I forgot was just how heavy that damn bike is once it’s loaded down with all the gear.

So here’s what hurts. My right foot, my left knee, my lower back, my right elbow, my shoulders, and my neck. And, some other parts of my anatomy that I will not mention here.

So I say to Tina, Any aches or pains? Nope, doing fine! Damn her!! This is why women can give birth.
Maybe I should have trained🤔

Anyway, it was a good day. Cold in the morning and headwinds throughout the day but overall a gorgeous day. We are camped tonight at lock 15 in Fort Plain, NY. Tomorrow we have 60+ miles. We hope to break camp early but it’s supposed to be around 40 degrees early on so not to sure when we will leave. Below are some photos of our arrival yesterday and our ride today. If I’m smiling the picture was most likely taken on the first half of todays ride, If i’m frowning, well, you know.
Ibuprofen, out

Finally!…..Video is done and posted on YouTube. East Coast Greenway trip from Philadelphia, PA to New Bern, NC

East Coast Greenway Video link-CLICK HERE

Or, search youtube for 2greenbikes.com.

2019 Bike the East Coast Greenway Philly, PA to New Bern, NC

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Today was going to be a bit hotter so we wanted a 5:30 AM start but didn’t get on the road until 5:50 AM, still early enough. The day started out wonderful until about the 6 mile mark where we once again ran into a road closure, our third one on this trip. You would think it isn’t a big deal but on a bike out in the country it’s hard to find a way around because a lot of the roads dead end and sometimes the detour is putting you out on a highway which is not intended for bicycles. After a little research on Google Maps we found a way around which once again took us back from the direction we just came. Total detour was probably 5 miles so not too awful. After that we had two lane country roads with very little traffic and then got spit out on a highway that was the total opposite. Speeding cars, logging trucks, semis and lots of it, oh, an no bike lane to speak of. We did have a major scare today as a car was passing us on a blind curve and to do so went into the opposing lane. Yep, you guessed it, a car was coming in the opposite direction and they literally missed hitting each other head on by what appeared to be inches. They were a mere 20 feet from us doing about 50 MPH. The guy should never have passed but it seems they don’t know how to use their brakes. We are so grateful they didn’t hit because we would have somehow felt we caused it. Once we got closer to our destination town we turned onto main street through town which provided more room to ride. Had lunch at a fabulous burger and beer restaurant and then it was just a few short miles to our hotel. After arriving at the hotel I immediately started looking at tomorrows ride (like I always do) and seeing the roads we have tomorrow looked a lot like today. We also have a big long bridge to go over with not much of a bike path. When I mentioned this to Tina she confessed that for the last few days she has been extremely nervous and thinks we have been lucky to have not been hit. She jokingly said we could rent a van to finish the trip. I said “you’re not serious” and her reply was Enterprise has a SUV for $238. So…..the discussion ensued and finding out how scared she is to continue we are ending our ride here in New Bern, NC.. I am a little disappointed but DO NOT want to do something that she is nervous about and not enjoying and like I said in yesterdays blog, she is always right. I am riding my bike tomorrow to the local airport to pick up a vehicle and we will find something else to do for the next 3 days. We are only 3 days from our original destination and for 15 days we have made some good memories.

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Short day so we slept in until shortly after 6 AM and had breakfast at the hotel. Took our time getting ready and hit the road at 8:45 AM. Weather was cool and traffic light. On top of that we had a slight tailwind so the cycling was a breeze (pun intended). Had lunch at our destination town at a burger joint and the food was really good and so was the chocolate shake. Thank god we are riding everyday or I would weigh 500 lbs. As we were leaving the lunch spot two police officers that were having lunch there asked us about our ride. After giving them the details they wanted to know where we were staying.  I told them the Fairfield Inn and when I did they gave me their approval. One of them said “we have two good hotels in town and that is one of them”. Whats funny about this is we forfeited our original booking days before we left Arizona because we zoomed in on it on Google maps and Tina said “Oh No!”. So, when the cop asked me where we were staying I said how about the (name withheld) and the cop said “Oh No!”. This is really hard to admit sometimes but Tina is always right. Hotel is really nice and with some time to relax we have done just that, even used the pool. Dinner was at a Japanese fast food place next door that was good and now its time to pack up and get ready for an early start tomorrow. We have about 57 miles tomorrow to New Bern, NC and the weather is heating up……..

 

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Boring….our ride today was just that, boring. Just more country roads and farmland. A few sketchy areas like most days but nothing too bad. The most exciting part of the day was crossing the Chowan river out of Edenton and our dinner. We ate a a local restaurant where they don’t skimp on portion size. The scariest part of the day was down the East highway into Williamston. It was the only route in and we had probably 3 to 5 miles of fast cars and no bike lane to speak of. If the cars did not move over from the right lane we had to quickly ride off the road into the muddy grass or risk getting hit, not so much fun. Not much to write about so I will post the pics we took today to keep you entertained. Tomorrow is what we are calling a rest day. We only have about 25 miles to the town of Washington, NC.. We have decided to go for coffee in the morning and get a later start…..

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Well, it was another almost perfect day. We only had 43 miles of flatlands and the weather was cool and rainy. Since it was going to be cool we decided to start out a bit later than usual and take advantage of the FREE breakfast at the hotel. OK, the word advantage is probably a bit strong of an adjective, lets just say it was there so we ate it. We are both tired and today was a great day to get some rest, the ride was actually restful as we had very little traffic and at times a pretty strong tailwind so we just chilled out and rode at a leisurely pace. Not too many photo ops and nothing too exciting. We did break out the drone and got some aerial videos. Made it to the hotel so early that our room was not ready so watched TV in the lobby for about 1 1/2 hours. The hotel knew we were traveling on bicycles so made a great effort and got us into the room early. Tomorrow we head to Williamston, NC…………….

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https://www.relive.cc/view/rt10007741636

Well today we achieved 2 goals, we have traveled over 500 miles and we crossed over into North Carolina. What a beautiful day! When we left our smelly hotel at around 6 AM there was a little bit of rain falling and the temperature was around 70 degrees. The route today was pretty simple, east on a busy highway for about 8 miles and then a right turn south that traversed the great dismal swamp. About 2/3 of it was a cycleway and trail that was really nice, then we got spit out onto the highway with no bike lane once again. It was a 2 lane highway and 99% of the cars and trucks moved over into the fast lane to allow us some room to maneuver. The 1% that did not got some choice words from me thrown their way. Once off the highway it was once again back country roads the rest of the way that were not much better, less traffic but only one lane each way. About 20 miles out from our destination it started to rain hard enough for us to get out the rain gear. Tina was actually getting cold! Today was by far our easiest and most enjoyable day as the weather stayed cool (high around 75) and the roads were flat. We will hope for more of this as we travel south…….

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https://www.relive.cc/view/rt10007705899

Up again before sunrise and headed out around 4:45 AM in the black of night but had cool weather. We knew we were not going to have many fuel stops today because of a lot of country roads so we loaded up on water and snacks at 7-11 before boarding the ferry to cross the James River. Ferry ride was in the dark so not many photo opportunities but it was about 20 minutes across and the cool breeze off the water was refreshing. After debarking we were faced with really dark streets through the woods. We only had about 45 minutes of this before the sun came up. The majority of the day was on back roads without bike lanes or shoulders. Country roads+no bike lanes+speeding cars and trucks=NO FUN. We got into Suffolk around 1 PM which was probably our earliest arrival and we attribute that to less hilly roads. The ride was actually pretty boring as it was the same view almost the whole way, Country. What a difference 24 hours makes, once we arrived at our room for the night we realized we went from best (last nights stay) to worst( tonights stay). Let me just put it this way, THE ROOM STINKS! Tina got creative and used the ice bucket liner to wrap the TV remote to prevent us from unknown bacteria. Tomorrow brings us to a new goal, we leave Virginia and cross over into North Carolina…Yay. This will give us flatter terrain for the rest of our trip which will now start skirting the coastline. There are some severe thunderstorm warnings in the area for tonight with winds up to 60 MPH and it continues until the early morning hours. We have decided to get a later start tomorrow to give us some rest and let the storms pass and according to our route we will have a pretty flat ride. Also, temperatures tomorrow are supposed to be cooler with highs around 75 at our destination of Elizabeth City.