jgc

My plan had been to do some camping and explore the western part of Croatan National Forest, but the rain coming in over the weekend made me reconsider. I decided to just make it a day trip on Saturday instead, and mostly to places I'd already been. The weather was cool, humid, and gray, and for the first time it felt like fall had properly arrived out here on the coast. The sycamore leaves had turned a tarnished bronze by the side of highway 70 down to Beaufort. I had decided to visit the marit...

Saturday was a nice lazy day. My parents had some motor oil in their trunk so I improvised a funnel out of cardboard and Kiddo got a top-up. We spent some nice time on the beach just sitting around, got a sprinkling of rain but not enough to make us pack up, and went back to the house where AP and GB grilled up some delicious hamburgers and fresh local scallops. I spent the afternoon reading and napping in a hammock chair and packed up most of my stuff because I had to wake up early in the morni...

I woke up Saturday morning at Oyster Point, and the rain had moved on, though it was still cloudy. Since I wasn't in a big rush to get to my next destination, I slept in a bit and packed up slowly. On a little walk down to the boat ramp, I met a van-dweller from California, who had just visited his son and newborn grandson in Statesville and was headed to the outer banks to see the wild ponies and properly finish his sea-to-shining-sea trip. We had a nice conversation and then I finished packing...

On Saturday morning I set off toward the coast, and although I knew I could make it all the way in one epic day of riding, I decided to break it into two parts and take a more leisurely pace. My route followed the path of the Neuse River, which starts just upstream of Falls Lake and empties into the Pamlico Sound on the northern border of Croatan National Forest. Just about midway in between is Busco Beach, a park for off-road vehicles encircled by an ox-bow bend of the Neuse, and they offered c...

On Saturday I loaded up my scooter Kiddo with an 18 gallon plastic tub strapped to each side and set off to the Rolling View Campground at Falls Lake State Recreation Area to camp for the week, work, and test out all my new gear. Kiddo handled fine with the extra weight, but was noticeably slower going up hills. I think whenever I wind up heading away from the coast I might should get a more powerful bike to handle the mountain slopes without slowing to a crawl and pissing off the cagers even mo...