East Coast Bike Tour Day 31 & 32

Day 31 – Carolina Beach to Wilmington, NC

Today my parents fly in from Colorado to hang out with for me for a couple days! When I was first planning to go on this trip, my mom wanted to meet up somewhere. She wanted to go to one of the Carolinas and so they decided on Wilmington.

Their flight was set to land at 9 in the morning and I thought my ride was only going to be an hour or about 15 miles.

That timing was based on Google maps, but I followed the East Coast Greenway route and it led me along the Cape Fear River before jetting across Wilmington and through UNC Wilmington. Ended up being a little over 25 miles, but made it to the hotel a few minutes after my parents.

We went out and got some wood fired pizza and then came back and did some laundry and took a nap. After nap time we went downtown and visited a WWII battleship. This was a self guided tour through the many levels and rooms of the Battleship North Carolina which was used for only a few years in the early 1940s.

This ship had been hit by a torpedo in the war, but didn’t sink thanks to the construction and water tight doors closing off every room. It was really cool seeing the ship and the crazy living and working conditions they endured.

We then went across the river and found Front Street Brewery. We didn’t see much we wanted in terms of dinner there, so we just drank a flight and had a delicious nacho appetizer with sweet pulled chicken on top.

We walked around town for a while playing the “I don’t care what we eat” game until we landed on a riverfront seafood place. We were able to watch a beautiful sunset followed by a plate of shrimp and grits for myself.

Day 32 – Rest day

My first real rest day in about 2 weeks where I didn’t even touch my bicycle. This was also the first day since I started that the weather was the coolest! Almost perfect biking weather at mid 70s and a light drizzle throughout the day. I could now tell my legs were quite sore and getting stiff. It was nice just walking and driving around, though.

Today was spent exploring. We went down to the beach and walked in the water which to our surprise was pretty warm. My mom collected sea shells, and I found myself a shark’s tooth!

After the beach we headed for downtown, but stopped at a brewery on the way – Waterman’s Brewing. Best thing here was their 50 cent wings as the beer was just okay. We made our way downtown so my mom could do some shopping. Eventually this shopping turned into sitting at another brewery!

Flytrap Brewing had the best beers yet in Wilmington with a delicious sour beer a really good IPA, and a pretty tasty nut brown ale. I wanted to play a game/boardgame here and my dad insisted on Trivial Pursuit.

I am not good with random knowledge stuff especially when it comes to movies, music, actors, and such. This trivial pursuit also seemed to be an old one made in the late 90s or early 2000s. All this to say, I lost by a lot. Dad won with 24 points, mom with 22, and I came in far behind at 8 points. At least they enjoyed it!

We still have tomorrow together in a different town but so far our time together has consisted of a lot of food, drinks, and ice cream. I’m definitely not complaining!

Stats:

• Day 31 – 25.04 miles
• Day 32 – Rest

Accommodation:

• Carolina Beach State Park
• Spring Hill Suites by Marriott

Breweries:

• Front Street Brewery
• Waterman’s Brewing Co
• Flytrap Brewing Co

Stats through the first month of my ride

With my trip a little over a third of the way complete, I thought it would be fun to compile some stats to recap my trip so far.

• Days on the road: 32
• Day on the road actually riding: 28 (3 rest days when I flew to Colorado for a wedding, and one rest day on day 32)
• Miles ridden: 1,213.43
• Average miles per day riding: 43.34

Accommodation:

• 4 families invited me to stay with them so far
• 2 stealth camping sites
• 1 time sleeping on a back patio
• 1 hostel
• 5 nights in a hotel
• 16 paid campsites

Breweries

• Total breweries visited: 34
• Total ounces of beer drank: ~608
• Florida breweries: 17
• Colorado breweries: 2
• Georgia breweries: 5
• South Carolina breweries: 5
• North Carolina breweries (so far): 5
• Brewery that I enjoyed the beer the most: 3 Sons Brewing

Money

A huge thank you to all who have given me money or gift cards, to those who bought me food, beer, or snacks, to those who made me food or let me stay with them! All of this has helped tremendously as I budget my ride. Through the first month, I am slightly under budget of $42-$45 per day!

• Average $$ spent per day (not counting the 3 days in Colorado): $40.66

Random stats

• Bike using: Surly long haul disc trucker
• Number of bug bites: 100
• Sun burns: 2
• Number of times my mom told me about ticks: 500
• Number of ticks found: 0
• Tuna packets eaten: ~22
• “Close calls”: 3
• Number of dead frogs on the side of the road in NC: 500
• Crazy people met: 2
• Friendly people met: too many to count