Day 25 Ocracoke, NC

May 19, 2019

Miles the easy way

After last night's huge feast, we had a lighter breakfast this morning. We said goodbye to Valinda, Jerry and David and rode the 20 miles up to the Cedar Point ferry landing.

It was an easy ride with a tailwind.

There was very little traffic on a Sunday morning. All the cars that passed us gave us plenty of space.

There were numerous uprooted trees like this. A hurricane or other bad storm, maybe?

Today's bridge climb - a little easier than yesterday's four big bridges

We got to the the ferry landing with lots of time to spare and sat around for almost an hour before we boarded. It was a little difficult finding a space for the bike, as the ferry guys were very particular about where we could park. We ended up leaning against the fabric barrier at the stern of the ferry. It rode fine there.

She had a great view all the way across!

The crossing takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was very calm and we enjoyed the ride. We put 25 miles on the Garmins without a single pedal stroke!

After we got to Ocracoke, we rode around the village a bit before we checked into our motel. Tomorrow we'll ride to the north end of the island and take a ferry to Hatteras Island. - Jeanna

After we checked into our motel, ate lunch and rested a bit, we got back on the bike to explore Ocracoke. For a few years in the 80's, Jeanna & I would rent a couple of houses on the Outer Banks and invite my immediate family and some other relatives down as our Christmas gift to them. The first year we did this, we rented houses on Ocracoke and I wanted to see if I could find our rentals. We couldn't.

We both remembered things about the houses and we knew the area they were in, but we just couldn't find them. Perhaps they no longer exist. Ocracoke has changed a lot in the intervening years. Back then, most houses had cisterns or wells and you definitely couldn't drink the water. In fact, you could barely stand to take a shower because the water smelled so bad. Now that the island has a new municipal water system, there are many more houses and the newer houses are much larger than what we remembered from the 80's.

Housing changes aside, it was fun to ride around and reminiscence. - Kerry

Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 916 miles (1,474 km)

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