(There’s some nice early evening sunshine on the map today)

Happy Yorkshire Day! The 1st of August is officially the yearly celebration of the great county of Yorkshire in England, where my eldest son Sam is living (doing his PhD at York university) and where he’s now on holiday with his mum, aka Susie, on Spurn Point, Yorkshire’s very own Land’s End!

• Today’s Distance (miles): 45
• Time in saddle: 3h 40
• Max/min temp – in full sun (°c): 38°/23°
• Climbing (feet) : 246
• Calories used: 1847
• Today’s 2nd Breakfast: Great big walnut and blueberry muffin and cappuccino at Muttigans Cafe
• Cafe time: 4h 08

It felt relaxing to sit having my motel breakfast this morning whilst listening to the TV weather news announce ‘below-average temperatures’ for a few days. It’s still hot, but this news is just fine by me. Sorry, UK, if you’re all thinking ‘Are you mad? Give me some of that heat!’

I made a quick decision as I packed up, to drop down from the mainland where my motel was, over the Atlantic Beach-Moorhead City bridge…

…down to Atlantic Beach itself, for a morning spent cruising along the various peaceful routes that make this strip of land, called Emerald Isle, such fun to explore. The vast majority of people I met were on holiday.

Within just a block or two I saw a sign for Public Beach Access and decided to take a swim. I parked the bike right by the shower and ran through my now-familiar routine of ‘having a quick swim’, which is more complicated than you might think! The sea was wonderful, only a gentle swell compared with OBX, warm, and very quiet (at 9am).

Back on the bike wearing nice cool, wet clothing was great. My coffee stop at Muttigan’s Cafe was such fun. It’s a place that combines a Pet Shop with great coffee. The tables have a different game set up at each one, checkers, chess etc. First I met Tom, who is a big fan of lighthouses and has bike-toured the entire coastline exploring every single one in North Carolina. He told me that a few years ago the sand erosion forced them to do something about the one at Hatteras, where I passed through a couple of days ago, so they lifted the whole thing up and put it on one of those massive vehicles and moved it inland. I told Tom about the book The Lighthouse Stevensons, about four generations of a Scottish family that built every Scottish lighthouse – and yes, it’s the same family as the author Robert Louis.

Then I got talking with Aaron and Lisa who know the area really well, and who even ended up making me an incredibly kind offer of hosting me for a night at their place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but the dates don’t work (again!). Thanks anyway guys, very much appreciated. The coffee stop just stretched and stretched again, so I ended up back on the road at midday with 30 miles still to go – which is not ideal.

After passing a Go-Kart track,, I started thinking about how far the Go-Karts might be able to travel on a full tank of gas…and whether panniers might connect to the chassis…no reason.

Then the highway took me over another road bridge back to the mainland. I stopped at the far end of the bridge to sit down in a swing seat and to see a young lad proudly catching his first crab, then hand it to another fisherman for some reason. The filming isn’t great because the sun was so hot and bright that I couldn’t see a thing. Just after I stopped filming, another fisherman told them all very sternly to throw the crab back. ‘You can keep the claws, but you gotta throw him back!’ Anyone out there know why? It sounded awful to me.

After a lunch stop in Swansboro, where I had a lovely video call with the whole family, I knuckled down to the last, hot 15 miles to Jacksonville, and my motel for the night (I’ve been picking up some great midweek deals that are cheaper than camping in many cases.)

So tomorrow I’ll be cycling over to Wilmington, next stop on this romp down the coast of North Carolina, and another motel. I could get used to this. Bye for now.

CYCLING SOUNDS: Here are three almost completely interchangeable sounds, which are very hard to tell apart when cycling.

• 1. Rattle of an important loose item somewhere on the bike / a waterbottle stuffed full of ice cubes, that then melt a bit and start rattling
• 2. Cicadas suddenly starting up right by your side as you ride along a highway / a garden sprinkler system suddenly starting up as you etc etc
• A noisy flock of geese passing slowly overhead / my handlebar bag creaking because I haven’t attached it properly

THE MOST USEFUL ITEM IN THE UNIVERSE?: Douglas Adams said in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy that it was a towel. I propose the red handkerchief, or bandana, as used on a cycling tour like this one. Here’s why:

It’s a face mask in dust. It’s a Covid/colds face mask on planes/buses/trains. It cleans sand off your feet. It dries your feet. It wipes away sweat when you ride. It wipes off sunscreen that can make you look a bit disturbing when you enter a diner. Soaked in fresh water and wrapped around your head on hot days, it becomes your saviour. It’s a great signal, or waving-aide. It washes quickly and easily each evening and is dry within minutes. The bandana.

SIGNS THAT GOT FORGOTTEN BUT THAT ARE STILL FUNNY:

SIGNS THAT ARE FUNNY: