Day 3 — 43.2 miles from Fayetteville to Elizabethtown

Today was all about getting to the charming Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery in Elizabethtown for lunch. No trails today, just mostly quiet roads, though generally without a nice shoulder. Chris and I flew, averaging more than 15 miles an hour. Nice tailwind too. I don’t know if I’ve ever been this consistently fast.

But the group is already starting to scatter. Cheryl and her husband, Mike, who was driving the U-Haul with all our luggage, decided to head home to Florida and their home, a catamaran moored on a floating dock a few miles inland but still in the path of possible hurricane destruction. Kenny from Charleston was picked up by his wife — Charleston could get hit badly. Steve decided to take the most direct route to Myrtle Beach and get on a flight home to Connecticut tonight; he has a wedding to officiate on Saturday. After lunch, Kim hitched a ride back to Raleigh and will start his drive home to Vermont. And Chris, now reunited with his car, will head out tomorrow; he’ll wait out the storm from his brother’s home in Atlanta.

Here are those who have been with the East Coast Greenway’s Week-A-Year ride from the start:

Now with those who have made up the missing Maine gap:

One day I will have closed my remaining gaps.

The winery, on the southern outskirts of Elizabethtown, is pretty quirky. Celebrity art covers the walls, even in the bathrooms. I smiled at the Dr. Suess section.

This miniature pony learned as a baby how to duck under the fence; he still roams free.