The Outer Bikes

I feel like most of my life can be summed up by the phrase "Better late than never." Another example happened this week, when the family and I found ourselves in the Outer Banks, NC. We'd vacationed there last Summer but due to some horrendous weather, our outdoor activities were severely limited - biking included. This time around, we were a little more fortunate:

We didn't bring our bikes with us on the trip, but luckily bike rentals are a dime a dozen at the beach. This time of year, most of the rental bikes are in great shape because no one has used them yet. I mean, check out this memory foam seat - no butt prints!

Anyway, after we geared up, we decided to head south from our location in Duck and just see where the path would lead us. Like most beach communities, the Outer Banks are very bike-friendly, with a trail paralleling NC-12, the main road in OBX:

This particular stretch is called the Duck Trail. Outside the town, I don't think it has a name. In any case, it's pretty much a flat ride mostly on pavement through some nice beach greenery:

You don't actually get to see the ocean from here, but you can hear it off in the distance and feel the sea breeze. In some cases, a little cover from the ocean wind is actually preferable.

We also spotted these markers on the ride, and I'm not sure what they mean:

At first I thought they were milepost markers, but every one of them is engraved with an "MV" symbol, so that clearly can't be the case:

I'm wondering if "MV" stands for "Motor Vehicle," because these appear near every intersection. The Outer Banks used to have a lot more sand roads (as opposed to paved), so perhaps these were used to mark motor vehicle routes. I'll dig into this more if I have time later. If you have any idea what these are, let me know.

At any rate, we had gotten about 6 miles down the coast before we decided to turn around, but not before stopping for a snack at a random place of our choosing:

We chose the Coastal Provisions Oyster Bar & Market. In addition to snacks, you have to try some authentic North Carolina beer too:

I'm not a big fan of the glass, but the beer was pretty awesome. After that, it was time to saunter on back to our temporary home. After we got back, of course we couldn't help but feel like we wanted to go further, but still grateful we had gone anywhere at all on a bike. Can't wait to do it again!

If you're wondering why you haven't seen Faith through all of this, she decided not to join us. I think she was still exhausted after we made her climb the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in the morning:

That was the best I could do with the wind. I made sure to show her the pictures of the bike trial when we got back. She'll definitely be joining us next time, which will hopefully be sooner than later, but always better late than never.