Leaving Plymouth we crossed the Albemarle Sound and headed to Edenton for a night. This picturesque town set by the water was an old Railroad town where trains boarded a ferry to cross the sound. The trains are long gone but the town has remained a cute small town with an electric boat tour of the harbour and some nice restaurants and bars. It almost felt like we were back in Europe! We really enjoyed our night here and managed to plot routes on back roads all the way back out to the Atlantic coast and the resort of Virginia Beach via a small German Rhine like ferry from Currituck to Knott Island.
Arriving at this highly developed holiday resort we were pleasantly surprised to find a cycle path running in front of all the hotels and along the beach with the road behind the hotels and away from the beach! Amazing!
We bumped into Kelly the Catman again – he has been cycling through the US for years on a converted cargo bike with two cats on the rear in cages. And we’ve seen him three times before. These cats are so well behaved and look so healthy they obviously enjoy the cycling too. They happily walk around whilst he stops and hop back in the cages when he’s ready to push on. We had a beer with him while the cats dozed and waited for another cyclist to turn up who was arriving after a cross country cycle on a recumbant. 60 days across the US. Very impressive for a 63 year old! His brother and father were waiting for him and we joined in the celebrations for his arrival much to the puzzlement of the holiday makers.
After a couple of days rest on the beach we started to head inland to Washington DC. Cycles are banned from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and you have to hop in a pickup with a fireman to cross it. It’s a 20 mile long bridge with two short tunnels in and as we crossed we took in the views of the Bay and the US Navys Aircraft carriers coming and going from Norfolk!
The other side of the CBBT we meandered up through the countryside on quiet lanes through farms and small woods. It’s the most European of Cycles we’ve encountered with little traffic and varying scenery.
The pursuit dogs, Confederate flags, food deserts and poverty of the south seem distant memories here and we’re settling in to enjoy the completely different north.
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