On Tuesday morning when Sandy Baylor, Fran Adams, and I met Nancy Belosi, Fran's friend, who joined us for the ride, it didn't take long for our vote to be unanimous Nancy should be the one to lead the ride that day. Nancy, in addition to being a long-time resident of the Outer Banks, also is an experienced biker and long time member of Silver Riders, the OBX bike club, so when she volunteered to lead the ride around some of her favorite biking roads in the area, we jumped at her offer.
I cannot thank Nancy enough for taking us on a wonderfully interesting 35-mile ride around many roads in Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills that I personally had never explored. Many of the dead-end roads in Southern Shores are connected by small hidden paved trails through woods that only residents would know about....thus they were fun and exciting for us "come-here's" to ride. One path is named after a lovely calico cat who greeted us for ear rubs and scratches before we moved on. We "discovered" a rustic working industrial marina with little supply store where we stopped to chat with several interesting locals who were hanging out inside. We even "discovered" The Hope House where many other lovely cats and kittens are up for adoption. The location of this "cat house"is not published for general public knowledge but I'd heard of it for years so it was a real treat to finally see the place where so much good is done. I was not disappointed.
Nancy took us past Fran's former home in Southern Shores, and later we even stopped before the first little cottage my family owned in Kill Devil Hills way back in the early'60's!! In between we rode beside quiet beautifully treed canals, Currituck Sound, Kitty Hawk Bay, Blount Bay, and many unbelievably LARGE homes
Lunch was delightful, as always, at the Kill Devil Grill.......this stop for lunch was
my one contribution to the day. Nancy's bike group doesn't usually ride up to the Kill Devil Hills/Nag's Head Town boundaries for lunch. Since it is one of my favorite eating places in the Outer Banks, I was pleased to show it off. Thankfully no one was disappointed.
The day ended rather late for our usual Tuesday outings, with our arriving back at the starting point about 3:30 pm but we had had a wonderful ride with no wind, sun, mild temps, and we all agreed with Fran: "Today was the most perfect winter riding day, and I'm sorry it has come to an end.
Sandy C.