Day 026 – Jacksonville, NC to Wilmington, NC

The wind. My god the wind.

I was hoping to get 100+ miles today to make it to Charleston by Friday, but after 9 hours of hard pedaling I just made it to Wilmington only 40 miles away. It was a constant 20mph wind no matter was direction I turned every second I was on the bicycle. It was really demoralizing. Bring back the hills. Really!

I stopped in Holly Ridge for lunch at a little cafe. Karrie (pic) made sure I had a constant supply of sweet tea and said I was the coolest guy she had met today 🙂 I had stuffed cabbage, hushpuppies and fried okra along with chili cheese fries for lunch. It was a nice break from riding into the wind. I also was reading the local paper (pic) and saw that a woman that also owned a gun shop writes for it. I think the picture is too small to read the article, but an add for her gun shop is below. I liked her column, Things That Make Me Go Hmmmmm, even though I didn’t agree with everything she wrote because she was thinking. And also because her gun add below the column says, “Check out our Ladies Department!”

I think she would probably be an interesting person to talk to and get on video. It was too far out of my way to go to, especially with the wind, but it reminded me about how I want to check out local papers online before I get to the town so that I can identify people to talk to.

A few hours later I stopped in for a few cold beers to lift my spirits and calm my nerves after riding next to so many fast moving cars on the two lane highway. There was a wide enough shoulder to be on the other side of the white line most of the time, but still I was feeling a frazzled.  The bartender was this nice guy named Chris (pic) that was a chef on movie and television productions for 10 years, feeding the stars and production crew. His parents owned the restaurant, Jebby’s, and he helped put the menu together. I wish I was hungry because I would of tried a few things, but stuck to a few beers. We got to talking about Wilmington and highly suggested that I stick around for a few days to check it out. I had no idea it had so much television and film production going on. It has the largest indoor stage west of Los Angeles and one of three water tanks used for filming in North America. Parts of Iron Man 3 were filmed in Wilmington! He also said I should check out Wrightsville Beach and the downtown area.

I called up Matt and asked if he was okay meeting me in Wilmington, he said he was so I no longer have to kill myself getting to Charleston.

I also found a place to stay with Lisa and Robert on warm shower. A good end to a tough day.