Team Dawn Patrol. These lovely ladies start riding about thirty minutes before the pack. Ilze, Beverly, Barbara, and Jan.
Jan, Beverly, and Amy at the NC state line.
Welcome sign at our lunch stop.
The Wright Brothers Memorial
Jack, with a mock up of the Wright Brothers' plane.
Once again, it was cold enough (47 degrees) to put on our cold weather gear. Although it had not rained overnight, dark clouds threatened rain. As luck would have it, we did get sprinkled on, but not enough to get wet. The sun broke through the clouds later in the ride and evoked comments like, "What's that light in the sky?" Hank pointed out last night, we have only had one day of riding where it didn't rain at some point!
Team Big Dog, complete this day with Peter the Wuss, headed out of the hotel and braved rush hour traffic getting out of Virginia Beach. It seemed like we stopped at every traffic light; they were long lights. At mile 22, we crossed the North Carolina state line and stopped for pictures. Our route then took the riders off busy SR168 to a very quiet country road for about twelve miles before taking us back to the highway and the only SAG stop of the day. We were fighting a moderate head wind and, once again, team captain Jack organized the Big Dogs into a rotating pace line. At some point, Mike had a flat and was forced to drop off the back of the pack and wait for a support car.
The group stopped for food at mile 62 and to flirt with a cute, redheaded waitress. At mile 65, the road turned East onto a 2.8 mile bridge to the Outer Banks. With a strong, West wind at our backs, we touched 35 MPH on the flat! It was then a short ride down the island to the Wright Brothers Memorial and on to the hotel.
Kill Devil Hills, NC (1953)
Population 5,897; elevation 7'
Name derived from an English term for rum, "kill devil." Locals would salvage shipwrecks for their cargo of spirits and hide it in the sand dunes.
Site of the Wright Brothers National Monument where the first powered, air plane flights took place on December 17, 1903 (Kitty Hawk).
80.8 miles; 4:39 hours; 502' climb; 4,136 Calories
Keno numbers-hit all six with a 1000 dollar bet-my usual minimum. Give me a address where I can forward your 1%. How many more days on the road?
ReplyDeleteTeam Bitey (after consultation with Johan Bruyneel) questions the wisdom of your decision to allow Peter the Wuss back in with the Big Dogs. We suspect he'll stop taking pulls as soon as you hit a light mist. We say cut your losses and leave that wheelsucker behind.
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