“Dog right, broken leash!!” I looked back and saw a pit bull in a full sprint, dragging a broken piece of rusted chain around his bulging neck. That got a quick response from us in the morning, as we did manage to get away from this escaped lethal weapon. Spring is here and it's time for another 24 hour adventure. We rolled out from Greensboro on Good Friday, with great weather and excitement. We were anticipating a 40 degree temperature swing, with highs in the mid 80's, and lows Friday night in the 40's. We were really cruising in the morning, all in tow behind Dan and Will on the tandem. Will knew the first half of the route too, which helped. We were around an hour ahead by lunchtime. We figured having some time in the bank would be good.
Our first control was a Subway near Sanford, which was 68 miles into the ride. I think we were around an hour ahead of schedule, arriving around noon.
We stopped in Lillington, another 30 miles down the road, for our second lunch. We also visited with our buddy, Rich Bruner, who is taking off in a couple weeks for a 6 month adventure on the Appalachian trail. 15 or so miles from Mt Olive, we stopped at the Buckshot Grill for anther quick break. Joel wasn’t having the best of days, and my knee was aching a little.
Mt Olive was our dinner stop at mile point 150, arriving around 7:30. We went to Pizza Village, which we found great food and hospitality, even allowing us to drag our bikes inside. The restaurant was quite large, and was quiet since the local college was out for spring break. After dinner we got ready for the night with our reflective gear and lighting. After getting back on the road, we realized a good dinner break must have been what Joel needed, as he seemed to be feeling much better. My knee was coming around too, after making a minor saddle height change. Onto Jacksonville.
We made a couple additional stops to slow our pace, as there are rules to a fleche event. There is a 22 hour stop, from which you still have to navigate another 25 kilometers to successfully complete this event. Another significant rule is no stops can last longer than 2 hours. The picture below is a stop in Pink Hill. A fellow visiting this store while we were taking our break asked where did our bike ride start? We told him Greensboro, which sort of surprised him. His next question was where were we going, so we told him Atlantic Beach, which also caught him by surprise. His last question was, are you then going to ride back home. Joel’s reply was, “no way, you think we are crazy?!'” That got a good laugh by all.
We arrived at our Jacksonville Waffle House control around 1:30am, and stepped right into a party. It was a happening place. We met two brothers and their buddies, and told them what we were up too. They had some cycling stories of their own to share, along with telling us about the celebrities that has frequented this establishment. They were lots of fun to visit. After about an hour, they wanted our tables, so we headed across the street to a Wal-Mart for a more quiet break.
We arrived at the Island Inn in Atlantic Beach around 6:40am. We ended up with just over 250 miles. My ride time was just short of 15 hours 30 minutes. Thanks Will, Dan, Joel, Steven, and Carol, for a great ride.
Jimmy
