#92 Day 2 - NC Coast Bicycle Tour Part 1
Buttons Campground in Hubert NC to Surf City Campground in North Topsail NC
Brenda walks over to my camp from her and her husband Leon’s RV. I’m still whipping crud from my eyes and gaining my composure.
“Want some coffee?” she asks cheerfully.
“Always,” I respond through the rust in my voice, hoping it will help clear my throat.
“Give me your cup,” she says, pointing at the tin cup on my picnic table.
When she returns she tells me they’re staying here long term while he works on road and building construction projects. I hear her life story before she proudly shares, “I’ve won many awards over the years for my canning and baking.”
Leon drops by my camp as I finish breakfast. A classic production of Casey Kasem’s Top Forty from nineteen eighty something is just beginning to play through my little speaker on the picnic table. He spots my one-person tent and becomes very interested in its small size, its sturdiness, its comfort, its durability, water proof level, and on and on and on.
“Where are you from?” He asks.
“Currently Fayetteville, here in North Carolina,” I answer.
“I was born and raised just outside of Fayetteville!” he excitedly shares.
He shares about his life. He is retired but continues to oversees projects across the country, moving the RV wherever the job is. The giant RV is their home.
I turn the music back up when he leaves, then pack the panniers with gear. Leon and Brenda wave from their car as they pass by. I’m stretched out in a yoga pose preparing my leg and back muscles for today’s ride and wave back from my sideways position.
I mount my bicycle and strap on my helmet. What do you call a bicyclist who doesn’t wear a helmet? An organ donor!
What a beautiful spring morning! The sun is shining bright on this old country road. Trees shadows lay sharp on the asphalt. Old fences line the roadside. Old horses and goats line the old fences.
Families are in their yards doing what families do on Sunday mornings. People are out mowing their yards. Others are filling the parking lots of small churches. Me, I’m enjoying every crank of my pedals as I pass through each rural Sunday morning scene.
The GPS is set to bicycle mode to keep me off the bigger highways. It appears I’ll have an easy thirty mile stretch from Buttons Campground to Surf City Campground, so I settle into the music and the surrounding beauty, keeping an eye on my GPS, waiting for the left turn from Bear Creek Road that allow a straight shot towards the beachside campground where I’ll read and play in the ocean for hours and hours. I’ll have the wind to my back, smooth sailing all the way in. I can’t wait to……wait, what’s this?