Bicycling on the Great Loop

“So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act.”

― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

It is great to travel by boat. The scenery is fabulous. The pace is relaxing. The rolling of the boat can lull you to sleep at night.

But – life needs to happen. Groceries need to be bought. Laundry needs to be done.

Many loopers either walk or take a loaner car from the marina.  Those options work if the stores are close. Often they are not.

We, like other loopers, have brought bikes along with us. They are fastened to the bow rail while we are under way. When we arrive at a marina we take them down to shop, do laundry or explore.

Because of the exposure to water and salt, bikes will rust out pretty quickly. The advice we got was to pick up cheap bikes at Walmart and throw them out when we are done. I know how bad those bikes are at Walmart and really didn’t want something so cheaply made. Babcock Bicycles in Endicott, NY sells used bikes. We were fortunate to get some vintage bikes.  They are outfitted with baskets, racks and panniers. We love them. They ride nice and they were built to last.  Everywhere we go people comment on the bikes!

It is however, a constant battle against rust. I am constantly cleaning them up and putting protective coatings on them to keep them from developing cancerous rust. But, they are so much fun to ride it is worth all the work to keep them working and looking good.

Our first try at a big shopping trip to stock up the pantry loaded up both Mike’s and my bikes. Mike looked at our cart at check out time and said “are you sure we can bring this back to the boat on our bikes?”  Acting confidently I said “of course”. But I wasn’t really sure at all.  I did know that my daughter who does everything by bike carried a lot of things at once so I was hopeful. As you can see by the picture we did manage to get it all on the bikes and ride about 2 miles back to the boat in Portsmouth, VA.

I tried to do a big shopping trip just before we left Kent Island by myself.  I bought way too much to carry home.  Balancing such a load is critical. First I put too much weight in the front basket. That led to not being able to control the bike. Rearranging the load to balance all the baskets out and having a light load in the front basket gave me control of the bike.

The bikes also bring freedom to explore the areas we are visiting.  When we arrived at Cape May, NJ we took the bikes out to go to the beaches. 

We would not have been able to do that if we had to walk. The beaches were several miles away. We also used them to go down the boardwalk at Atlantic City. Mike used his bike to return a rental car we used to go to family events in Pennsylvania.

Next up – Maryland to the New York Harbor