The Brothers’ Bike Ride

After driving to Wilmington, NC on Saturday, to avoid a 76-mile ride against a head wind, we explored the downtown area, including their River Walk, on foot. Tim and I went to the Basilica of St. Mary for their 5:30 PM mass, in a congregation that was more heterogeneous than that of St Mary, GA where we went the previous Saturday evening. It was the celebration of the Feast of the Assumption, as you can see from the church bulletin I have included below. Apparently mass must last more than an hour south of the Mason Dixon line, but that was fine.

Church Bulletin from Basilica of St. Mary, Wilmington, NC

We went to the Copper Penny restaurant in downtown Wilmington for dinner and had a very nice meal. It’s owned by two guys from the Philadelphia area and it had Phillies and Eagles pennants on the wall, so we felt at home there, and I bought one of their beer glasses since I know Nancy would want me to .

Today’s ride was about 68 miles and it was mostly on empty roads. Tim and I rode next to each other for a lot of the ride. He told me about his book “Shadow Divers” which describes the discovery of a WWII U-boat that sunk in early 1945, and the trials the divers had in figuring out what the boat really was and how it was sunk. I told Tim about my book “Against the Ice” and how hard it was for the two Danish explorers to travel in and map out NE Greenland in 1909. It helped make the ride feel shorter. 

We got to Jacksonville, NC and our hotel by 3 PM, met up with Beth, watched some of the Phillies game with her while having a beer, and then took showers, naps, and walked to dinner at a local restaurant. 

Here are two pictures I took at our 2nd and 3rd stop today. 

Photo of Tim at our 2nd stop today. Note the empty road, which was fairly common today.

Photo of our bikes at our 3rd and last stop today.