We stopped at a Dollar store this morning and picked up some half price costumes. Riding down the highway we went, masks and all. We got honked at a lot, but this time, the cars weren’t annoyed with us, they were excited to see our Halloween spirit!

We are now on Topsail beach and it is beautiful. This will be a Halloween to remember.

This is how I spent my first evening on the Outer banks. I got off the ferry at 6pm and and rode in the dark, the glow of the horizon guiding me to camp. Don’t worry, it wasn’t dangerous, there were no cars. Read more about N.C. below.

Guess where I am? I’m camped behind a church in Jacksonville N.C. And yes! Magically there is a very strong wireless connection.

North Carolina has been great, wonderful, outstanding and beautiful. The fun started at the Wright Brothers museum in Kitty Hawk. These are the guys who invented the airplane, but more importantly, these guys made great strides in developing bicycles. On December 3, 1903 these adventurous brothers flew into the air for 12 whole seconds…and the rest is history. I owe a lot to these hereos , most of my travel would not be possible without the airplane, and my other travels would not be possible without the bike. Cheers to the Wright Brothers!

So, yesterday I was on the Outer banks, a skinny Peninsula in the north of N.C. Beach on both sides most of the ride, a tailwind behind me and a couple fun ferry rides connecting the little islands. The road was sparkling too, I may have just been hallucinating but I swear the road was sparking under my tires. Last night I caught up to Evan and Scott on a small island called Ocracoke. I was in Chesapeake for the weekend and they were at a beach house, this is why I was not with them.

The moonlight illuminated our camp like a spotlight, the sand beneath us was glowing white. The best camp spot yet.

Today our goal was to ride 100 miles to a friend’s beach house, this did not happen. At about 3:30pm and 75 miles down, a bad thing happned. All of a sudden, my pedaling was getting me nowhere. I frantically tried to get it going but nothing happened. It was like my chain had fallen off, but it hadn’t. My freewheel was shot and not engaging, no more forward movement for me. There are no tools to fix this, I wasn’t going anywhere.

Luckily, within minutes an angel came to save the day. Craig, a guy in a big white van and an even bigger heart stopped to help out. This guy doesn’t know anything about fixing bikes, but he does know about lending a hand. He threw my bike on the roof and away we went to Jacksonville to his favorite bike shop. I asked him why he stopped for me and he said, “I like helping people, my wife gets sick of me bringing people home, but it’s what I do.” We need more people like Craig in the world.

So, after $60 in parts and labor, I am good to ride again. We aren’t at a beach house, but at least we are safe and happy.

HI there,

I’ve been in Chesepeake for the past few days now, it’s too fun to leave.  Karaoke, face painting, good food and great friends have kept me idle.  I’m staying with Lilly, a friend of Melitza from Puerto Rico.  The truth is, I would have left earlier but Melitza came to surprise me this weekend.  Scott and Evan are on the Outer Banks of NC and tomorrow I will race down the coast to meet them.  No rain please.

be sure to check out this new video

there will be no post today.  boo rain.  I am warm and happy at the house of Lilly.  I started drinking bloody marys at 11am and this is the reason for not going anywhere. Maybe I will leave tomorrow, but I doubt it.

First of all, a HUGE thanks to little Connor for rescuing us from the Black Widow infested barn last night.  After his mom had offered up the barn and we got settled in, he came out to warn us of all the dangerous Black Widows, Brown Recluses and Copperhead snakes.  Nice.  Not 30 seconds after this warning, I found a big juicy black widow a foot from my legs.  Cozy.  Connor then told me this, “Those are 15 times more venemous than a rattle snake.” Thanks Connor, any more fun facts I should know  about?

Connor then offered up a warm room with a big screen TV so that we could watch the Rockies in their World Series opener.  Great game by the way, did they look as good on TV’s in Colorado as they did out here?  I slept well, knowing that the most venemous spider this side of the Mississippi was far from my stinky feet. 

More gray skies and more rain today.  Being a Colorado boy I need sun and I haven’t seen it in two whole days!  the South is going through a bad drought but you wouldn’t know it by recent weather.  We passed by many ‘fire ban’ signs along the highway today.  I bet you a million dollars you couldn’t get a fire goin right now.  Hooray for the South in getting much needed rain! Boo Rain for drenching a soggy Duzer:(

Todays highlight was eating.  After a long, wet morning, we found the most amazing Chinese Buffet in the whole world.  For just $5.99 we ate sushi, pizza, pudding in all different colors, ice cream, won tons, egg rolls, more pizza, fruit, noodles, french fries, some sweet crunchy things, donuts and jello.  It was the best meal of my life, I’ll never be hungry again. Riding 40 miles after lunch was a bit painful, my bursting stomach got in the way of my pedaling. 

Now we’re in Chesapeake Virginia, yeehaa.  Please wish for sun. 

Read the newest article and watch the new video in todays DailyCamera

First of all, I want to thank Carol and Jerry for their amazing hospitality last night. Very warm people with big hearts. And if anyone out there wants to challenge Jerry to a game of Ping Pong, he’ll gladly accept, and then whoop your ass.

Today started and ended with rain. And not just any rain, “Big old fat rain” as Forrest Gump would say. My fingers and toes are prunes, it looks like I went swimming all day, not biking. Luckily it is not too cold, so we are just wet, which is much nicer than being cold and wet.

We caught our first wild animal today. I was riding next to Evan when all of a sudden he screamed out, “Turtle!” We stoped and checked out a happy little box turtle, hanging out inches from the highway. Evan relocated him off the road to a safer spot in the forest.

I bet you wonder where we sleep on rainy nights eh? Well, in this particular instance, we are in an old tobacco shed off the highway. We asked for permission and a friendly woman glady offered up her barn. This is my first night in a barn, I feel like Huck Finn.

The morning started off with 18 miles of beautiful, leaf covered bike path. As I twisted and turned on its friendly corners, I dreamed that it went all the way to Florida. Unfortunately it doesn’t, but we did get from D.C. all to way to Mount Vernon. This is where George Washington lived in a huge mansion/estate.

From there we made what turned out to be a big mistake. Our goal for the day was to get to Fredricksberg Virginia. At 2:30 pm, on Highway 1 we passed a sign that said it was 32 miles away, a straight shot into town. A very realistic goal. I voted for this option. But Scott and Evan wanted to follow their ‘Adventure Cycling’ Maps and take a route that seemed to be less trafficked but would add another 20 miles. I was worried about this option but went along with it. 50 miles is a lot to cover at 2:30pm and my experience with these routes is that they are very complicated and we get lost a lot. We did get lost, and the bummer is that the streets weren’t much safer.

So at 5:30pm, we lost our way back to Highway 1. We now passed a sign that said we were 22 miles away from Fredricksberg. This means that we had just taken a 20 mile, 2.5 hour detour and it got us in pretty much the same place.

We rode on Highway 1 in rush hour traffic as the sun went down. Not too safe. Scott called his family friends and they came to rescue us in their pickup. Once again we cheat, but it was the only safe option.