Biking on a boat

One of the coolest things to do on a bike is ride a ferry. Maybe because it’s such a novel thing for me, coming from the mountains. A couple of years ago we went to Raquel’s hometown, New York City, for the Five-Boro Bike Tour. We rode the Staten Island ferry as part of the Tour. We also rode from Manhattan to Coney Island just to eat a famous Nathan’s hot dog and then took our bikes on the subway to get back. That was cool too; to me. Raquel was pretty blasé about it. It’s hard to impress a New Yorker, but for a country hick like me…I was excited, “Can we do it again, can we?”

We’ve ridden the ferries at the Outer Banks several times in the past few years. The OBX ferries are small and most folks get out of their cars and mingle. Sport fishermen drinking beer, families with kids and dogs, business people, UPS drivers and occasionally bike tourists, all crowded onto the deck. It’s neat to explore the coastline by bike, then ride onto a boat and explore in a different way, then hop back on your bike and off you go. I love that.

It’s also very inexpensive. What would it cost to charter a boat to sight-see for a couple of hours? You can ride the OBX ferries for just a few dollars. The ride from Swan Quarter to Ocracoke and the ride from Ocracoke to Cedar Island are each about 2 ½ hours long. That’s plenty of time to meet other passengers and have a nice picnic lunch before getting back on the bike.

As you can tell, I’m getting pretty excited about our Outer Banks trip. We leave Friday!

Jack