Day 25: 8/2 - Camp LeJeune=Can’t LeJuIn

Today started with great weather and sleeping in (until 7!!). And also one of those southern kids riding around on his bike with his leg stuck through a cereal box. God they were fun to watch.

Nothing worth talking about occurred until we hit Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base. Our maps showed us taking Route 172 through the base, which is fine because we met a guy in the grocery store the day before who actually worked on the base and said it would be a good ride. So we figured no issues. Then we arrive at the gate, the Marine asked for our ID's...we hand them over and he repeats, "No, your DOD ID's". Well, I'm not exactly privy to this scheme of things...but I guess I should have brought mine with me. And Esmith as well. And that was pretty much that, no ands, ifs, or buts. There was no way we were going to talk our way onto a military base (though I wish I would have tried...the M16 in the guy's hands was a deterrent, though). So we pulled our bikes off to the side and made some phone calls trying to figure out what we were going to do. I was looking around and saw a sign that said, "Civilian Access Denied Due To Forced Protection Condition Alpha", which is pretty much self-explanatory. Good old Forced Protection Condition Alpha.
About the time we were realizing there was an addendum to our maps we should have read which stated this exact problem (and a solution of riding AROUND the base, adding an extra 20 miles to the day), a DOD contractor and his wife pulled out of the base (being fellow bike riders, they were stopping to see if we needed any help). They gave us some advice which consisted of going down to the gas station 3 miles down the road and watching for trucks with the Active Duty Marine sticker on them, then asking if they would take us through the base. I was all for this idea because that would just be awesome. So we said our goodbyes and headed toward the gas station, trying to stop trucks coming in the opposite direction along the way. We must have looked ridiculous because no one seemed to care.
We ate lunch at the gas station and after about 2.5 hours of asking people, we decided it was time to give up and take the reroute (it was supposed to be a really short day to begin with, so it wouldn't have been too bad, but out of principle, I refused to give in). Just as we were about to leave, I approached a guy in his truck who had the sticker, gave him the sob story, and after a few seconds of considering it, he said was heading pretty much to the other end of the base anyway, so we could throw our bikes in the back and he'd take us through. His name was Zack and he'd been in the Marines for about 5 years. We traded some stories as we rode through the base (had we had to bike this thing, it would have been so boring) and he dropped us off a couple miles from base. Great guy and really saved our asses (literally).

We made it to camp pretty early, so we set up, met our neighbors from Jacksonville, NC who hooked us up with some folding camp chairs (so nice to sit on something not a bike seat or a picnic table), and then we rode to the beach and relaxed in the waves for a bit. Got dinner, rode back, and cooked up some hunter's stew (old family favorite of ground beef and alphabet vegetable soup) and other goodies. The ants we disturbed while cooking attacked my feet and the mosquitoes got a little too frisky as well. Our neighbors had left for the evening for a Shrimp festival or something, but they said we could use whatever was outside the camper as if it was ours, so we relaxed in our Dale Earnhardt chairs outside the camper with our crap scattered on the table having a Busch Lite. God it's easy to be Southern.

Another super hot night. Hooray.