Realizing belatedly that our Verizon was about to be shut off because we forgot to pay the bill, and with no signal at the campground, Chelsea came up with the brilliant solution of finding a local library.
That seemed very unlikely, as we were going through a series of very small towns, and it was only about 8:30 on the morning. But so help me, it was only about 10 minutes later that Chelsea spotted one, with lights on and a car in front. The library was closed, but the librarian spotted us looking through the door, and actually opened the library early for us (we love small towns)! The heat and humidity were already oppressive and it was heaven to be in the cold air conditioning, even at 8:45 a.m.
That was a temporary high spot to one of the worst cycling days I have ever had. The heat and humidity were so intense that I had heat exhaustion early on. We were riding through the Great Dismal Swamp (yes that really is the name) and there was no shade anywhere. In fact, there wasn’t much of anything anywhere except swamp – low flat scrub and marsh. We were so desperate for a rest in shade that we stopped in the line of a utility pole and stood sideways in the little shade it produced until I felt like I could go on.
I still have no idea why the heat exhaustion was so extreme for me, but it was. You’ve heard the expression “limping home”? I was near to crawling. I’d go a mile at the most and have to stop, then another mile and have to stop, and then it was only a few hundred yards before I’d have to stop. There was no traffic, no shade, and no resources anywhere. We had enough water – it was just the heat and humidity.
By the time we finally limped into a small town near the ferry, I was having clammy chills and was quite nauseated. I have never been so happy to see an air conditioned store in my life. I was so ‘ill’ that I all I could do was sit while Chelsea scoured the store for something I could eat and drink.
After a blessed half hour rest, we made it over to the ferry where we found a patch of shade in the corner of a building, waiting for the ferry to load. One of the downsides of being on a bicycle on a ferry is that we are the last to load and the last to get off. It makes for long waits sometimes, like this one. Once on the ferry, I headed for the passenger cabin and sank gratefully into a chair. The air conditioning was so incredibly cold that we couldn’t stand it for long, however, so Chelsea and I spent the two and a half hour ferry ride alternating from inside to outside, inside to outside.
We love ferries, and we love being on the water, and that alone perked us up tremendously. We were also heartened by the knowledge that the campground was less than a mile from where we disembarked the ferry. We were also incredibly pleased to be on the Outer Banks, because for us that was one of the high points of the Atlantic Coast ride. Seeing the harbor at Ocracoke getting closer and closer was so exciting!