36.3 mi / 13.6 mph / 118 ft. climbing
Home: Abbe’s AirBNB Room

As the wind whips over the hillside
Twenty knots over Kill Devil Hill
Steady wind blows over the sand
Twenty knots over Kill Devil Hill
As the breeze went straight as an arrow
It begun over Kill Devil Hill
Gasoline and the wind in the wires
Kill Devil Hill and the way to the sky

“Kill Devil Hill”, a song about the Wright Brothers by Iron Maiden singer (and pilot!) Bruce Dickinson (emphasis added)

I had known that the Wright Brothers had traveled from Ohio to the Outer Banks to perform the world’s first powered flights, but I wasn’t really thinking of them when remarking on the unusually steady, straight-as-an-arrow winds that we’ve experienced over the last couple days. And while I surely could learn from an informational sign at the Wright Brothers National Memorial (or, from the Bruce Dickinson song!), nothing could drive that truth home more than living outside (especially on a bicycle!) and experiencing that uncanny, almost-unsettling constant airflow running across my skin for days on end. And of course the Wright Brothers ran a bike shop, and maybe that’s what helped them have more-awareness of wind that most people!

It’s been “only” 121 years since the Wrights launched their first successful flights from the sand dune of Kill Devil Hill. At the time the Outer Banks were a somewhat “secret” place where they could conduct test flights, and they could just fly off and land in whatever direction the wind blew them. So while there is now a preserved area around the Memorial, it’s a bit crazy that if they flew today they would be crash landing into a hotel, a surf shop, or most-likely, one of the tens of thousands of residences that have packed the entirety of the dunes, from sound to sea, in this area.

We rode south through Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head, where billboards mark locations by the mile post rather towns/addresses, mostly on the “outer”, quieter NC-12 road. When the development ended and the National Seashore began, the roads all merged down to a single pathway flowing down the islands. We made our first “island hop” at Oregon Inlet, where an elegant curving bridge floated us into the sky, launching from Bodie and settling down onto Hatteras. On the right we had the endless blue sound, on the left, the endless blue ocean, and above the endless blue sky. For miles we hovered in between, like birds on the wind. Rett declared it the best bridge we have ever gone across, and I would need to do more research than I care to in order to prove her wrong.

We settled down into the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge, where the blue on our sides was replaced by the tan of free-flowing sand, helped into dune-form by bulldozers lest the grains slowly bury the road. This was a miles-long section where we could pull over at any point, cross a bit of dune, and have an entire ocean beach all to ourselves. So we did, and enjoyed our packed lunches.

As we neared Rodanthe, we hit another bridge that I didn’t particularly remember from my 2010 ride with Dennis, though there is a whole lot I no longer remember! It wasn’t even a “necessary” bridge; the land continued straight ahead, but the road swept inward over the water on the sound side, before returning to land at Rodanthe. Looking it up later showed my memory was correct, and it was only completed a couple years ago! Apparently keeping the oceanfront roadway cleared of sand and water must have been more costly than building this elevated platform where water would always be flowing beneath it anyway? Regardless, it nearly-equaled the Oregon Inlet bridge for putting us into a magical space, with the late-October sun causing a million sparkling fairies to glint off the surface of the sound (the homeowners in Rodanthe who previously had an unobstructed sounds-side view might not enjoy it quite as much as we did though!)

Last night we watched ‘Nights in Rodanthe’ (with Richard Gere and Diane Lane). I had actually read the book on the train before our 2010 ride through here, but this time we would actually be staying in the town. The “inn” in which the movie takes place still exists, though it’s been moved and no longer sits directly on the beach as depicted in the movie, with its front stairs literally descending into the surf, because what insane person would actually build a house there? But we went to see it in its new site, checking yet another movie-location off of our list.

Unfortunately Rett’s excitement quickly devolved into pain. We have a stupid thing where, despite having not seen bike touring as an athletic endeavor for many years now, we (and it’s not just me!) still care about the average speed recorded by our bike computers. The side road leading to the ‘Nights in Rodanthe’ house was crumbling and sandy, so Rett was wisely taking it slow on the way out. I instead powered through mountain-bike style, saying something about our speed. Even though I use my computer to record the (meaninglessly) “official” number, and thus didn’t intend for her to catch up until later, she accelerated similarly, hit a patch of deep sand, and whacked her calf and ankle hard with her pedal as the bike slid out from under her.

Luckily we only had a few blocks to go to our AirBNB, though we hit up the store first for beer. Our room was ready a bit early, and we were able to get into the hot tub before the official 3pm check-in, and that helped sooth all of Rett’s aches. After passing thousands of these iconic raised Outer Banks houses and wondering who lives in them and what they’re like inside (after climbing up at least one story to get to living space), I was excited remember “oh yeah, Rett had booked one of them for us to stay in! In Rodanthe!” Inside, the house was surprisingly “normal”, but the high wraparound deck (on which the hot-tub sat) was enough to make me feel like one of the special people who lives in these houses (or, at least rents them).

Near sunset I rode back out to pick up tuna burgers from a highly-rated food truck back by the grocery store. On the way there, not a single car was going down the main highway, so despite all the houses, Rodanthe really had the quiet, remote atmosphere that you feel in the movie.