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Note: Looking for the Seagull Century homepage? They spell it "Sea Gull Century," so you might have trouble finding it if you search for "Seagull Century."
I'd been hearing about the Seagull Century for several years, but thanks to a fellow Tarwheeler's enthusiastic distribution of brochures, this year three friends and I actually made the trip. (Lori and some others were due to make the trip as well, but we never saw them, I'm sorry to say.)
Carol, Jeanne, Bruce, and I left Chapel Hill on Friday October 4 about 11:00 in the morning. We packed 4 bikes, camping gear for 2 of us, and luggage for all of us into and onto my still-feels-new Chevy Cavalier. Since I was driving, I got to choose the route to Salisbury, MD and since I'd always wanted to drive through the Great Dismal Swamp... Need I say more? I have to confess that Carol, Jeanne, and Bruce are terrific traveling companions. They never once complained (very loudly) about the stops and sidetrips I wanted to make. We started out on I-95 and ended up driving a road that runs along the northern border of North Carolina. We passed by a sign to Merchant's Millpond State Park and with my enthusiastic, "I've always wanted to go canoeing here!" ringing in everyone's ears, we drove to the canoe rental office and got out to walk along the short boardwalk. There were several canoes getting ready to put in, so I grabbed one of them (figuratively, of course) and asked if the snakes are *really* as numerous as I had heard. Do they drop into the canoes? Crawl in from the water? The man said his family had been doing canoeing trips on the millpond for years and in all that time, he thinks they've seen two snakes... both in spring or fall. Sounds like a perfect new location for a bike/canoe ride. Keep your eyes open!
After the millpond, we drove along the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp and stopped at the information office. My brother had warned me you couldn't see anything from the car, but he was wrong! We saw enough glimpses of water to make me glad we'd driven that way. Our next exciting scenic adventure was to drive under/over the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel/Bridge. We timed it so that we crossed over just as the sun was setting, which probably says something about how many times we stopped along the way.
We finally arrived in Salisbury, MD in time to register for camping places for Carol and me. Once we figured out that the map which was sent with the registration had its directions reversed, we even found the Salvation Army ball field where we were to camp. It took us quite a while to figure out the directions were wrong, though!
After arranging a place to stay, we all four traipsed out to find dinner. We settled upon the Olive Garden which was offering all-you-can-eat pasta. I'm ashamed to say we didn't eat enough to make a dente in their supply.
The Seagull Century is a *very* popular ride. Hotels and motels had bene sold out for months prior to our trip. Jeanne had found a motel about 20 miles north of Salisbury where she and Bruce were staying. So, after dinner, they dropped Carol and me back at the camping site and then drove my car to their motel.
The next morning, Carol and I biked to the start of the ride a little early since I'd lost my registration packet. I was concerned they would ask me to pay again, which I was prepared to do, but I was *more* concerned that Jeanne and I wouldn't be able to participate in the crab feast on Sunday since her ticket was with mine in the packet. However, the Seagull Century folks are *very* organized. They looked me up in their database, found out what I was registered for, and gave me new tickets withing 5 minutes.
Carol and I went ahead and began the century route knowing that Bruce and Jeanne would catch up later. The first rest stop was at a state park where people were playing live music on a dock. Riders took their snacks down to the dock and sat and listened and watched the water. Since the next rest stop wasn't for another 40 miles or so, I stuffed an extra apple in my rack pack before we headed out. Not too long after we left, Bruce and Jeanne caught up with us.
The next rest stop was at Assateague. Neither Carol nor I had ever been, so the driving force behind us riding the century was to be able to see the wild ponies. We fought a fierce headwind just about the entire distance to Assateague. We finally passed through a small community that had a teensy tiny restaurant. Carol and I decided to stop for a diet coke. When we walked in, there sat Bruce and Jeanne who had each ordered a little snack! We should have all known we would meet at the first available food stop. Carol and I also had a snack and set out for the last few miles to the ponies.
Assateague was a wonderful stop. There were several ponies standing around in the parking lot. I have pictures of Carol and me petting them despite warnings everywhere that the ponies bite. After we'd had our fill of petting the ponies, we went and sat on the beach where Carol fed the seagulls pieces of her muffin. We decided next year we'll take books and plan on staying for a while. The day had been pretty cool, so sitting on the sand in the sun felt really good.
Luckily, after Assateague, the headwinds died down a bit. Many of you know I prefer headwinds to hills, but 50 miles or so of a constant headwind was enough for all of us. Carol and I got back to the starting point, then biked back to the campsite just as it got dark. Jeanne and Bruce met us there so we could again have dinner together.
I'd been looking forward to the Sunday ride ever since registration! Sunday featured about a 40 mile ride to Delaware to pig out on an all-you-can-eat crab feast! I was surprised at how few bikers were on the road with us until we got to the restaurant and realized that a lot of people skipped the Sunday ride and drove straight to the eating place. We were seated very shortly after Carol and I arrived. (Jeanne and Bruce were waiting for us, as usual.) With Jeanne's crab-eating hints, we all dug into the piles of crab that were kept heaped on the tables. With crab, of course, you work off the calories as you eat them, so we had to eat a few hushpuppies and some corn on the cob to be sure we had the necessary calories to bike back!
When we all had gotten back to the starting point, we loaded the car, showered, and headed out to drive home through the DC metropolitan area. Jeanne's niece was having a birthday and we had somehow squeezed quite a large birthday present into the car along with all of our gear. It *had* to be delivered! We got stuck in a typical traffic jam, so decided to take a sidetrip to Annapolis since Carol had never been there. Jeanne used to live in Annapolis, so we had expert help navigating through the Naval Academy grounds. When we got back on the highway, we ended up right behind a truck we'd been behind in the traffic jam, so we were *especially* glad we'd taken the sidetrip.
After delivering the birthday present, we stopped at a Thai restaurant for dinner and then got on the road for home about 9 that night. (So much for getting home in time to get any sleep.)
I think we all agreed that riding in the Seagull Century should be an annual event. The route was pretty, well-marked, and flat. The food was good, even though the rest stops were far apart. The t-shirt rivals the Tour de Pig for quality. And that crab feast alone was worth the trip!