October 17-18, 2016. En route to the Outer Banks of North Carolina

There are eight of us on this trip, but only 5 left our house Monday morning October 17. We did not have a photographer (hope you feel better soon, Pat) so we took our pre-trip photos in groups. Below you see me, Tom, Dennis and Diana. Then Dennis, Diana, Bill and Tom. Fred designed the shirts this year, and Tom bought them.

The 5 of us drove all day Monday, arriving in Kernersville, NC about 9:30 PM. In our original plan, Dianne was to fly from Florida and Kathie was to fly in from Rhode Island and we would pick them up at the Raleigh-Durham airport Tuesday morning. Alas, Dianne had a serious bike crash and had to cancel.

We picked Kathie up at the airport and drove to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the beginning of our bike tour. We stopped at the Visitors Center at Roanoke Island for information on the area. Hurricane Matthew wreaked havoc here a couple of weeks ago and we wanted to make sure the roads were open!

Kathie had sent her bike to us in Michigan and we put it in our trailer for the trip down. She assembled it in good time, although she had a little trouble with the rear derailleur. She had taken it off when she packed the bike in the box. Fortunately her bike is identical to mine so we were able to compare it to mine to get it attached exactly right.

We are staying 2 nights at the Colonial Inn in Nags Head.  There was a glitch checking in--I had paid for all the rooms in advance and the money from the third party reservations company only came in for 2 rooms. We finally got it straightened out and walked to dinner at the Nags Head Fishing Pier Restaurant right next to our hotel.

We sat outside over the water, with waves crashing up under us while we enjoyed our food and drinks. People were fishing on the pier while we dined, and this restaurant will cook the fish for you after you catch it--what a deal!

Here we are at dinner: Kathie, me, Bill, Diana, Dennis and Tom. Don't we look happy? We are!

Fred and Doris arrived at about 8:30 PM, very tired from driving all day. (They drove from Michigan in one day). A group of us walked down to the beach to watch the moon rise--it was spectacular! It was almost a full moon, very large and very orange.