I woke up with another killer sunrise in Emerald Isle. The campsite was on the water, so I crossed the dune to check the waves. There was a little bump coming through, and the sun was shining and I had a heated bathroom with warm showers right down the way, so I figured I’d go for it. There were a bunch of people already on the beach fishing, but I found a spot without any lines around and dove in.

The water felt great, and swimming around in the salt water was the perfect wake up. I body surfed and actually got some good ones–as you can imagine, the crowd was going wild. I wanted to perform for my audience, so I went for some late take-offs and a few “SoDel El Rollo’s.” It was cool: all those people came to the beach that morning, brought coolers, set up chairs, and waited for me to perform in the waves. If you can’t tell, all this alone time is making me a bit delirious.

Reminiscent of a Bethany workout, I sprinted from the water and up the dune…and then straight to the shower. I warmed up, and took my time packing up. From what it looked like, I only had a 45 miler today, and I was planning to head to another beautiful campground in Surf City.

I stopped by the campground office to settle up from the night before. Because I showed up after hours, I never paid for my site, and I figured they’d be waiting for me to hand them some duckets. Well, the nice lady had no idea I had stayed there the night before, so I basically turned myself in. Hey, lady, I wanted to make sure I gave you that $30 dollars! Nice work, unemployed kid. But I figured it was the right thing to do, and maybe it’ll earn me some good karma for later in the trip.

I swung into town and found the nearest diner. I forgot to take a picture, but it didn’t disappoint–I learned that a good meal is so important before riding, because once I get going, I really don’t like to stop and eat. And I came to realize the night before, no matter how far I’ve ridden, I never get hungry. I guess all that exercise suppresses your appetite, but after almost fainting, I always remind myself to fuel up every 20 miles or so.

I finally hit the road around 10:30. I crossed the Emerald Isle Bridge–pretty cool view, but there was no shoulder, so I kept truckin’.

I had researched this route that would take me around Camp LeJeune to the south, and it would be a super easy shot to Surf City. Well I made it about half-way around Camp LeJeune, and then I was greeted by a military checkpoint. It was Veteran’s Day, and he was in a great mood. We chatted about my ride, and he was totally diggin’ the trip. He said, “Great, man, all we need now is your military ID and you’ll be on your way to Surf City.” I laughed and told him that I didn’t have one. He laughed for a second and then realized I was serious. Then he apologized–he couldn’t let me through, so I had to turn around, go back the way I came, up and around Camp LeJeune from the north side, and then back down towards Surf City. Out of all of the research I had done, I totally missed the fine print on this part. My day also just got about 20 miles longer.

So I headed to the northern route: Route 24 to Route 17. On my maps, I saw a ton of cut-through’s, but they were all blocked by big gates and more guards. Because of my late start, I was beginning to stress that I’d make it there before sun down.

This route was basically a big thoroughfare with a wide shoulder–definitely not my favorite type of road, but at least I knew it would get me there in  a relatively straight shot. Plus, I wouldn’t miss any turns because the signs were pretty much in your face.

I got to the intersection between 24 and 17 up in Jacksonville, NC. Up to this point, my little highway experience near Bush Gardens was my only scrape with sketchy biking. But here, there was nothing I could do. All of the safer side roads were blocked by guards, and I was losing daylight–I had to keep going. The junction was the most daunting thing I’ve come across, and there was literally no way around it. I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out what I should do, but at a certain point, I figured I had to charge right through it.

I had to cross about 6 lanes of high speed traffic to get to the shoulder of 17. Then I had to gun it up an on-ramp and hope there would be wide shoulders. There were nails, shredded tire, and shit everywhere. Then there were cars merging onto 17 from my right side, so I had to sprint over to the new shoulder. This happened three or four times. It’s tough to keep yourself exactly straight when your turning your head all the time. My heart was pounding and racing at the same time, but I don’t think I’ve ever kept that trailer so balanced. I would jump out of a plane another 100 times than do that again.

17 finally calmed down into a two lane road with a wide enough shoulder to ride in, which I was very thankful for. But of course, the wind had switched to directly in my face, and the clouds got darker and darker.

Normally, with no wind I’m holding about 15 or 16 miles an hour–I had about 30 miles to go, but I was barely going 11. Every stroke was tough, and there was no such thing as coasting, even downhill. At one point, I was literally cursing at the wind. For a while.

Then it started raining. With about 8 miles to Surf City I pulled out my phone and searched for closer campgrounds. I found one about 4 miles away, so I gave them a call and reserved a tent spot. At this point, I didn’t care about a flippin’ sunrise on the beach.

I pulled in to the campground and headed into the office. It was more of an RV park than anything, but the people were super nice, and they took me into their home. I was greeted by three little dogs, and they chatted with me about the cruise they just got back from. They told me I was lucky I had called, because they were on their way out to visit their grandkids, and no one would have picked up if I had called any later.

They told me I could sleep under their pavilion to stay out of the rain. He walked me over to the pavilion and show me the area. When he saw my bike, we got to chatting about my trip. When I finally told him what I was doing, he looked at me, handed me back my cash, and said don’t worry about it.

They headed out to see their grandchildren, and I put my bike and non-sleeping gear under the roof. The cement floor wasn’t what I was looking for, and I figured my tent wouldn’t melt, so I set her up on some grass. I waved goodbye as they drove past.

He had no idea what a long one it had been for me, but that literally made my day. I know it’s only twenty-five or thirty bucks, but when it seemed like everything was going against me (especially the wind), and life had been pretty damn hard the past 48 hours, it was just what I needed.