March22-25 North Carolina Ride

Hello fellow bikers and Beaglers. My friend Jerry Newman And I did a warm up ride from Jacksonville,NC to Suffolk,VA.
Monday March 22 55 mile Day
We started from Jacksonville, NC home to Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. After a
Waffle house gas up we started on our way destination New Bern, NC. This was a day
of good practice for riding in the rain.Needless to say getting to New Bern and good
food was high on our list.Had a great lunch in New Bern at Baker's Square Coffee House and Food store.After our late lunch onto the New Bern KOA .This CG gets an A+
in my book ,a very clean and well kept CG, stop in if your in the area.The rest of the day we dried out our cloths and ourselves.
Tuesday March 23 52 Mile Day
We left New Bern on Tuseday morning after a good brakfest and good advise from a local named Cory who help us navigate through back roads to pick up our Map plan to
Bath,NC and Goose Creek SP. We had the wind out of the SW for the first 2/3rds of the ride until we reached the Ferry at Aurora, NC. At some parts of the ride to the Ferry we reached speeds of 18-19 MPH.When your towing a trailer thats moving!Things
changed for us quickly once we got off the Ferry in Bayview. Now we were driving into the wind which was blowing at 25-35 MPH it sure makes a better person out of you. After a lunch in Bath were we meet two fellow riders who we had a great conversation with. We pushed on another 6 LONG miles to Goose Creek SP.The stay in the Park was pleasent. We were greeted by Park Rangers who had just opened up the
Park a week before for the season.I believe we were the first Campers of the season.
Jerry prepared a feast Fit for bikers, and the we slept under a clear night sky with
a half Moon looking through the tops of the Pines around our camp.Live does'nt get
much better then this.
Wednesday March 24 35 Mile Day
We left Goose Creek SP by 8:00 AM on our way to Plymouth,NC. Speaking for myself at the start of the ride I was off, my legs felt like they had lead weights on them.My mistake was that I had not eaten enough food before we started.When you are biking
with your trailer loaded you add about 40 pounds to your ride and your calorie burn
runs about 50 to 60 calories plus per mile of the ride.We stopped about 12-13 miles out and I eat a fair amount of my travel food, it was a very big help. I'll make sure not to do that to myself again.We reached Plymouth around noon and checked into the
Sportsman Motel, checked in then onto lunch. We came back to the Motel and met the owner "Mack"who walk into our room with his golf shoes on.He was a person who gave us a complete history of the Town and his Motel in half and hour, what a chracter.
At that point Jerry and I when into the Town of Plymouth for Ice Ceam at Norm's Ice Ceam Palor and Antique shop.Then onto picking up some food items at the local supermarket.The day was warm and sunny a dream day for biking.
Thursday March 25 84 mile day!
We pushed out of Plymouth at 7:45 AM on our way to Millpond SP. Little did we know at the time how the day would play out.The weather for that night and the following
day call for rain and winds out of the NW at 10-20 mph.we both started out very strong after a good morning full tank and a wind comng out of the SW at 10-15 mph.
We stopped for lunch at mile 47 and had a good meal to keep it going.we pushed on to
a cross road with highway 13 looked to our right to see a sign that said 32 mile to
Suffolk,VA.It took all of half a second to turn right, this was at about 1:15 PM.
Well before you know it we had gotten to Suffolk City limits which was at about 4:00
PM!So on we went by 5:00PM we were at the Suffolk Police Department Parking lot were we had left Jerry's car the Sunday before we had driven a rent a car to Jacksonville.
One sad note, as we were packing our bikes for the ride back to Jerry & Amy's house
we witnessed the Police in action.A young man his sister and Mom were deep in a discussing which two police offerces were overseeing. After leaving Suffolk onto the nearest DQ for an Ice Cream dinner.The dive back to Jerry's gave us time to talk about the ride, and what we could do to improve our gear, food stuffs and getting rid of items not needed.I enjoyed our ride and fell in love with my "Bike Friday"
Till next time ....Ted