Elizabethtown NC – Exploring by bicycle

Final photos from North Carolina

A last look at our hurricane-shortened bike ride along the East Coast Greenway.

This is (most of) the group as we gathered in Raleigh. No sign of the hurricane yet:

And where many of us went to dinner in Elizabethtown three days later:

Which set of wheels?

Dennis showing off his yoga skills on a bouncing “bonding board” at Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery in Elizabethtown:

Chris’s bike matches the East Coast Greenway colors! (OK, also, Holiday Inn’s)

For another perspective on our hurricane-shortened adventure on the East Coast Greenway, read this blog. The wind and rain is fierce in North Carolina today — we all know the ride had to end when it did. Here’s to sunshine next October as we head from the Wilmington area to … Savannah?

Once again, thank you to everyone who supported the East Coast Greenway through my fundraising efforts. I hope you’ll go enjoy your own bike adventure.

A collard sandwich and, yes, I got a pig picking cake

My North Carolina food discoveries: a (fried) collard sandwich, a fried croissant and that pig picking cake.

This East Coast Greenway trip was surprisingly light on barbecue. Based on a sample size of one barbecue restaurant, the eastern Carolina style of vinegar sauce may not be my thing anyway. I did discover collard sandwiches, which apparently is what fieldhands brought for lunch. I’m hoping it’s usually better than what I tried.

The collards just felt really overcooked and a soupy mess. One of the riders from the Triangle area says you should want to eat that collard liquid, so if you didn’t, the collards probably came from a can. They were sandwiched between two pieces of cornbread — deep-fried, crispy cornbread. I could have seen pan-fried to help keep it together, but this…

On the side were two strips of fatback, basically pg fat. I think they were fried too.

So vegetables, yes. Healthy? Doubtful.

This is what the barbecue plate looked like — lot of meat (half a pound?), hush puppies (think cornmeal mixed with a few other ingredients and deep fried — yes, more fried food) and my two sides, in this case collard greens and baked beans. Chris had the candied yams and, no surprise, they were incredibly sweet.

And then there’s that pig picking cake that I have wanted to try ever since that bakery stop on the first day. I found it at Burney’s Sweets and More, whose reputation goes beyond Elizabethtown. I’m not sure it had mandarin oranges, but crushed pineapple was definitely in that frosting (not a buttercream frosting, so I am going with another rider’s guess — what he calls grease frosting.) The recipes I have found call for a box of yellow cake mix. I don’t know if this was a mix or made from scratch, but it was certainly yellow.

Interestingly, not all of the Carolinians on the ride had heard of it.

Was it great? No. (Of course, it lacked that key ingredient of deep dark chocolate.) Did we demolish it? Yes.

Here’s something else I found at Burney’s: I think it’s their fried croissant. I’m telling myself it was healthier than the doughnuts offered in that bare-bones Knights Inn breakfast. At least there was chocolate. And I only had one.

I don’t know when I last ate so much fried food. Should I be surprised that 30.1% of North Carolinians are obese, ranking the state 22nd in the nation?

How is Cody doing?

Here are some impressions of North Carolina — the generosity, the sense of community … and the poverty.

We saw this yard sign a lot in a wide radius around Elizabethtown.

He’s a kid who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2013 and seems to be doing OK now. I also saw a sign praying for someone else, and the local newspaper office had an announcement about an event to benefit a sick seven-month-old.

That sense of community is one of the impressions that North Carolina made on me.

Another part of that North Carolina generosity is the hospitality shown by the owner of the historic and oh-so-elegant Elizabethtown Inn, a new B&B. Our group was split into three places — the vineyard’s cabins, the B&B and the Knights Inn in town. Most of us met for dinner downtown, which was walkable for those of us from the Knights Inn. Chris packed his Honda Fit and made a couple of trips. And of course it could be biked, with lights. But the inn’s owner, Chris Adams, graciously offered the use of his Cadillac to those staying there. And we are talking a new car, not some old beater.

As for the inn, it dates back to before the Civil War. During the war, southern officers recovered from their wounds on the second floor. The first floor was for the horses. And today, bicycles were allowed in:

This, by the way, is what one of the rooms looks like. My room at the Knights Inn didn’t compare.

Another impression of North Carolina is less positive — the poverty as seen through some of the houses. You’d see nice, modest homes next to run-down or even abandoned places. This is one of three in a row. I’d be wanting them torn down if they were next to me … but paid for by whom?

You definitely had a sense that parts of North Carolina have been left behind. The state’s poverty rate is 17.2%, well above the national rate, and in Bladen County, home to Elizabethtown, it’s 25.5%. So probably no surprise that I saw far more signs on Thursday for Donald Trump than for Hillary Clinton.

Day 4 — Biking 39.1 miles from Elizabethtown to Moores Creek Battlefield in North Carolina

The ride is over after just 3 1/2 days and 200 miles, thanks to Hurricane Matthew.

This year’s East Coast Greenway ride is over early, thanks to Hurricane Matthew.

We ended at the day’s lunch spot, a Revolutionary War battleground, about 20 miles shy of Wilmington, NC, our original plan. I’m now home after about 200 miles on the bike in what I am calling 3 1/2 days. All to be continued next October.

Thursday was a gray day, and it felt like we were just a smidgen away from mist. The wind was in our favor until almost the end. But rivers are swollen from a recent storm, so there’s no place for all this hurricane rain to go. Wilmington is still coping from that, which is what kept out from a full fourth day. At the battlefield, they’re expecting to be waist-deep in water, which seems to be what happened after Hurricane Floyd in 1999. I’m feeling for everyone along the coast.

f=”https://exploringbybike.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ecg-pine-needle-mulch.jpg”> Bales of pine-needle mulch, spotted from the road[/capt

As for the route, this was another trail-free day. Flat, too. The roads were generally quiet and motorists respectful of cyclists, but North Carolina doesn’t seem to build wide shoulders. Perhaps it’s to save money. Perhaps we northeners like our shoulders as a place to dump snow in the winter, and they don’t have that concern. The lack of shoulders was felt more getting in and out of towns, as you’d expect. So while you might feel comfortable bringing a teenager on our route, you’d want to feel confident about an elementary school student’s ability to keep a fairly straight line, especially when there is traffic. I don’t know how runners feel about this. But given how rural this area is, it’s hard for me to see how any off-road route for the East Coast Greenway will be built.

Day 3 — 43.2 miles from Fayetteville to Elizabethtown

Today was a fast ride 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.

Among the other animals are a (free-ranging) chicken and some miniature donkeys.

Carolinas, here I come

I’m getting ready for my second big bike ride of the year along the East Coast Greenway.

This is the second big East Coast Greenway ride of the year. It’s 325 miles — similar to the fall rides of the past two years — but crammed into six days instead of seven. That’s what happens when hotels dictate where you can stop.

So I’ve got three days over 50 miles and one that is just under that. On the flip side, it’s mostly flat, unlike Maine, the hilliest section of the 3,000-mile route. I figure it will be cooler too — yay. There are 40 of us riding (plus staff and support), and I’m looking forward to seeing many people I know from previous rides. It’s going to be fun! Just hope we don’t have any big storms.

Here’s the itinerary:

Sunday, Oct. 2: We gather in Raleigh, NC, where we ended last year’s ride.

Oct. 3: 44 miles to Smithfield, NC.

Oct. 4: 69 miles to Fayetteville, NC

Oct. 5: 40 miles to Elizabethtown, NC

Oct. 6: 58 miles to Wilmington, NC

Oct 7: 66 miles to Ocean Isle, NC — after an early-morning boat cruise on the Cape Fear River.

Oct. 8: 48 miles to Myrtle Beach, SC and a celebration to mark a trail opening. Then we get shuttled back to Raleigh.

Any suggestions for sights I should see out? Places to eat? If Maine was about lobster, this ride may be about barbecue…

After this, I can say I’ve ridden from Philadelphia (really just outside, in Conshocken) to Myrtle Beach — about 1,000 miles. Plus, of course, there’s the Maine ride earlier this year as well as training segments in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

I’ll be blogging every day of the ride, so check back for tales from the road.

Finally, this is a fundraising ride for the East Coast Greenway. If you’d like to support the cause, you can donate here. All the money goes to the cause; I’m paying for food and hotels.

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