Today’s Date: August 4, 2024

Today’s Start Point: Suffolk, Virginia

Today’s End Point: Elizabeth City, North Carolina

Today’s Miles: 50.90 Miles

Cumulative Miles: 4,698.92 Miles

I woke up looking at the weather report first and it looked like it would not rain until the afternoon. I expect this to be the pattern until I finish with Hurricane/Tropical Storm Debby creating some havoc along the eastern seaboard.

Today’s route would take me due south to Sudbury, North Carolina at which I would take a left and go east toward the Outer Banks. I would be stopping in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, which is about 50 miles west of the Outer Banks. When I cross into North Carolina, it will be the 15th and final state on my trip. My only disappointment was that there was no sign on the small rural roads to indicate when I entered the state.

I have mapped out my distances and lodging until the end of the trip, and picked shorter routes of about 50 to 70 miles so that I can take cover during the day if required. I am also trying to leave as early as possible to give myself more daylight if I need to take longer to cover the mileage.

All of this sounds good in theory, but when the weather is good for cycling, it makes for a short day. I left before sunrise and went back out onto the Virginia country roads. The temperature was the same as yesterday but much less humid. As the morning went on, increasing cloud cover spared me from the sun and I had a tailwind. All of these conditions allowed me to finish by 10:30 am.

As it was Sunday morning, there was little to no traffic. The scenery was pretty standard so I had no great desire to stop to take pictures. The road was flat and I think my days of substantive climbing on this trip are over (I am not shedding a tear). I wanted to keep moving due to the threat of thunderstorms in the afternoon (which never came).

Long story short it was an uneventful day (which isn’t bad every now and then). The hotel had a room ready for me when I arrived, and with the cloudy weather and nothing interesting nearby, it was a good day to take a long nap. In the Tour de France, they call these “transitional days”, a day that gets the riders from one interesting spot to another.

It looks like the effects of Debby will be coming closer each day, so I anticipate more “exciting” times ahead.