Day 22: 7/29 - The Outer Banks are in our sights!!

The destination for today was Currituck, NC which is just before the entry to the Outer Banks. Originally our plan was not to bike the Outer Banks, but we've got the time and figured why not take a nice ride down the outer coast. The day was really hot with long...straight...roads...that went on...forever. Luckily, the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was to our left while we rode. I swear, it's a little bit more interesting than its name implies. Blue herons and white egrets had roosts all throughout the swamp as we rode by and we were able to snap a few shots. I ended up riding most of the day without a shirt because it was boiling hot. After a point, a shirt that's saturated with sweat really isn't doing any good because the evaporation can't keep up with how much sweat you're putting into it. When you can wring out a cup or two of liquid from your shirt with little effort, it's time to just give it up. Unfortunately, even with several reapplications of sunscreen, my back was a little burnt by the end of the day.

Just a few miles before we hit camp, we stopped out "Powell's Packing Shed", a farm "stand" that is packed with fruits and candy. We helped ourselves to peaches, strawberries, and some soda (cream for Esmith and peach for me). There were two teenagers tending to stand, TJ and Erica. TJ was a high schooler who plans on enlisting in the military when he finishes high school and Erica was a recent high school graduate who will be attending UNC Wilmington in the fall and majoring in chemistry with a minor in math (good luck having fun in college, Erica!). They let us cool off in the deep freeze walk in freezer, which was amazing and probably 80 or so degrees cooler than the day itself.

Camp was between Currituck and Maple NC right on the North Landing River, so we took a dip before dinner, which resulted in the discovery of clams! We collected two dozen or so and decided we would supplement our already purchased dinner with some steamed clams (we made sure from the camp owner that they were safe to consume). Just as dinner was finished being cooked, a huge storm rolled in and we ended up spending the next hour or so eating and reading in the tent. So much fun!! But the storm let up after a little while, leaving us with a little day light to use for more swimming and showering. It was another long day of 80 miles, totaling 251 miles over the last two days. To make the point bluntly, our butts were sore.