Outer Banks Ride
June 10-11, 2010
A word about our bikes. I am riding a 1987 Suzuki Savage. It is a 650 single, basically stock with just a few modifications. Dewayne is riding a 2000 Valkyrie, 1500. It is dressed out with the chrome and plenty of goodies.
Dewayne Liebrandt and I left home about 7:30 and took Jared to school in Bath. We stopped at Bonner’s Point for a couple of quick pictures. We then rode through Belhaven on our way to Swan Quarter.
We then rode through Belhaven on our way to Swan Quarter.
I lived and preached in Swan Quarter for about five years. We took a look around the village, visited the church I used to preach in and the house I lived in. We then turned and rode around Lake Mattamuskeet.
Lake Mattamuskeet is the largest natural lake in North Carolina, about 18 miles long and 7 miles wide. Early in the 20th century (1910’s through the 1930’s) an attempt was made to farm the lake bottom. The world’s largest (at the time) capacity pumping plant was built and 130 miles of large, navigable canals were dredged to drain the 50,000 acre lake. The attempt failed. The stories around the community speak of men hired to farm the land meeting up, playing cards all day, draining the fuel from their tractors and then returning at the end of the day. The lake and some of the surrounding area was sold to the federal government and Mattamuskeet Wildlife Refuge was formed. This quickly became a haven for ducks, Canada Geese and Tundra Swans. The pumping station was later converted to a hunting lodge and people came from all over the eastern seaboard for the waterfowl hunting. The lodge fell into disrepair over the years, the building has been condemned and now efforts are underway to restore the lodge for use as a convention center.
We rode on to Englehard, where we stopped for gas and a bottle of water. My Savage’s tank is only 2.8 gallons, so at 50 miles per gallon, I try to stop every 100 miles for gas that always leaves me plenty in reserve. Besides, there is NOTHING between Englehard and Manteo. We saw plenty of turtles crossing the road and a deer or two as we rode through the Alligator Wildlife Refuge. It is mostly a straight shot there, big canal on one side, woods on the other and not much else.
When we arrived at the beach, we went to Henry’s Restaurant and met runwyrlph. I met here when he asked for prayers concerning cancer that had been discovered in this thumb. I sent him a private message, offering a listening ear, to add him to my email devotion list and letting him know I would be praying for him. We have communicated a few times since them. When we discovered we were going to be in the same place, we decided to meet. Dan is a super nice guy, a pharmacist from the Pittsburgh area. We talked for a couple of hours, he bought our dinner and Dewayne and I headed south.
The Bodie Island Lighthouse was being repaired and the access was closed. We did see it from the road, with scaffolding all around. We then stopped at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. There were plenty of boats there, but no one was cleaning fish. I think we hit at the wrong time, the half-day charters were already in and the full day had not gotten back. However, there were not a lot of boats out, or so it seemed to me.
We continued south, over the Herbert C. Bonner bridge. I had already thought about this bridge; long, high and subject to severe crosswinds. But before we got there, we had to cross the bypass bridge at Manteo. It too is big, high and subject to high crosswinds. I could tell the wind was blowing, but it was not too bad. There were several other bridges that we needed to cross that were like these, over the Intercostal Waterway and other rivers. But the bridges proved not to be as bad as I expected. The Savage is a light bike and I was concerned, but I guess I weighed her down good enough. I wanted to stop at the top of these bridges to take a picture, but there was always traffic behind us.
Across Oregon Inlet is Pea Island and the Pea Island Refuge. This was a beautiful ride as we could mostly see the sound on our right and occasionally catch a glimpse of the ocean on our left. As we road through the dunes, we saw many birds overhead and could smell the ocean breeze. We passed through Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo and stopped at Buxton for a milkshake at Uncle Eddy’s. There we met Turk-eye the parrot. We talked and whistled to him, but he would not respond. He just looked at us like we were crazy. When we left and walked by the end of the building, then we could hear him whistling and talking. Dumb Bird!
From there we went to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This is actually the second Cape Hatteras Light; the first was completed in 1803. In 1860, it was reported the lighthouse was in need of repair however, the outbreak of the Civil War caused the lighthouse to be neglected and in 1862 it was reported the lens and lantern was destroyed. The second light was completed in 1871 and was the highest brick lighthouse in the world at 193 feet above the ground. It is recognized by the National Park Service as the tallest lighthouse in America.
From there we went south to Hatteras and caught the ferry to Ocracoke. It was a nice 35-40 minute ride across Hatteras Inlet. Many people come to fish for big red drum fish along the inlet. Once on Ocracoke, it was about 15 miles to the village. We stopped by the hotel and then rode to the British Cemetery.
During World War II the HMS Bedfordshire was sent by the British to help patrol the coast of America from the danger of U Boats. On May 10, 1942 the German U Boat U-558 scored a direct hit on the Bedfordshire off the coast of Ocracoke, the ship sank immediately with the loss of all 37 men aboard. Four of the crewmen, two identified and two unknown, eventually washed ashore on the island and were buried in what came to be known as “The British Cemetery”. Eventually, two more bodies washed ashore along the beaches, one in Hatteras and one in Swan Quarter. The US Coast Guard on Ocracoke takes care of the small cemetery.
After supper, we went to bed and prepared for Friday.
We got up early and caught the ferry at 7:00 to Cedar Island. This was about a 2 hour and 15 minute ride along the Pamlico Sound. We saw porpoises almost immediately as we left Silver Lake, on Ocracoke Island. In addition to our two bikes, a third guy showed up on his BMW. We talked with Chris for a while; he was from Georgia and on his way to Wilmington. All of his family rode and all rode beamers. He knew the savage well, having considered one when they first came out. I guess the family swayed him to the BMW.
Once on Cedar Island, we rode along NC 12 until it became US 70. We passed through a lot of little villages along the way; places like Lola, Sea Level, Stacy, Davis, Williston, Smyrna, Otway and Bettie. We stopped in Smyrna to get more gas and kept on riding. As we went along, we say a sign for Merrimon and I knew I needed to go there one more time. Years ago my dad wanted to go to Merrimon one day, so we loaded up and went. There is absolutely nothing in Merrimon, a church, water, trees and one road in and the same road out. Dewayne and I went to the church and took a picture, just to prove we were there.
We came back out and went to Cherry Branch. As we pulled up, the ferry was pulling out. There was a van already in line, so we figured we would not have gotten on anyway. We decided to wait; the next ferry ran in 30 minutes. But it was a quick thirty minutes. By the time we went to the bathroom and drank a Mountain Dew, it was time to load up. We caught the ferry there for the 15-20 minute ride across. A Harley guy was also on the ferry, but he barely spoke to us. I guess we didn’t quite measure up to his standards. Oh well, his loss!
From Minnesott Beach we went to Arapohe and then took the back roads up to the highway and went to Momma’s house. We ate dinner with her at Bojangle’s in Grantsboro and then left from her house to go to the ferry at Aurora. We were able to see our old friend, David Mason who now works on the ferry. After we left Bayview, Dewayne learned that when the fuel gauge on the Valkarie starts flashing it means business. We found a gas station, where Dewayne put his last $3 cash in and went to a modern station, one that takes cards! From there we came on home.
It was a great trip. The weather could not have been better, the bikes performed flawlessly and time was spent with a good friend. In all we rode 409 miles and had a blast. Would I do it again? No doubt about it! Anything I would do differently. Not really!
Sorry this is so long, but we really had a great time!
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