Crisfield Maryland.

This post is for November 4 and 5

It was cold this morning and never really warmed up. The high was 46 and it was very cloudy. The chilly temp kept my breaks short though. Anytime I stopped the slight breeze would freeze my back due to being sweaty. After packing up nd making coffee I was on the road by 8. About 2 miles down the road I passed a coffee shop. They served me the best latte of the trip! Maybe the best one I ever had. If you like coffee and ever near Cambridge MD stop at Rise Up Coffee!

After drinking my latte I brought my water bottles in and they filled them for me. Around 10:30 I stopped for lunch. It was cold enough a hot meal sounded better then my usual peanut butter tortillas. At a rest area I cooked some 4 cheese pasta. Rummaging around in my food bag I found the cheese I bought in Brunswick. Somehow it had got on the bottom and I had forgotten about it. So I turned my four cheese pasta into 5 cheese pasta.

It was really good. Unfortunately the water I got was not good. It was nearly undrinkable due to a very sulfur taste and smell. Even though I was already loaded up on caffeine I made a cup of coffee with it to mask the taste. I don’t know what’s freshwater or what’s brackish this close to the Bay so I can’t really filter right now.

When the weather is cool I don’t drink enough water. I stopped at a conveinance store to buy water and chapstick. Between the wind and being dehydrated my lips are really chapped and cracked. I have been rubbing olive oil on them, but other then making them shiny and taste bad, im not sure it did anything to help. As I was getting back on my bike a lady asked about my trip. I told her I had been a bit over 4000 miles. She said that after all those miles my legs were probably strong enough to stomp a mud hole. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. I have never heard that odd expression before. However when it comes to oddness she probably had her own story to tell about me when she got home. I had needed a comb for my beard for quite some time. It gets so bushy I see it in my peripheral vision and that bothers me. Somewhere near Annapolis I found a hot pink one on the road. The road provides but not always in the right colors. I stopped and grabbed it. It’s big the longest comb I think I have seen. Probably 10 inches. It had been on the road a while and has tar and tiny pieces gravel embedded in the handle part. After all this time on my bike I’m pretty comfortable and do a lot things while riding. I will even get into my front panniers and get out my tortillas and peanut butter and make a wrap while pedaling. I also comb my beard while riding and if I need two hands I just leave the comb sticking out my beard. Yep you guessed it. I had gone into the store and then talked to the lady for ten minutes with a tar speckled hot pink comb sticking out of my beard. I didn’t notice until I was putting my helmet back on as I was leaving.

I got into Crisfield a little before dark after a 67 mile day, mostly on Route 50.

Crisfield is a tiny fishing town on the Tangier Sound part of the Chesapeake Bay. Population is 1500 according to a sign. I was hoping to take a boat to Smith Island. I was told you could catch a ride on the mail boat at 12:30 and return at 6. I packed up my gear this morning and rode around the town. Not really wanting to have to ride out of town and set up camp in the dark I got a motel room. Also nobody could tell me for sure if I could take my bike or not. So I checked into the motel early and left my bike. I had planned on getting a room so this one doesn’t come out of my budget. (The motel cost $66 dollars) It was about a mile and a half walk to the city docks. It was sunny but real windy. At the dock I learned the boat would only except cash so I had to find an ATM. There were none close. I must of walked 2 more miles finding one. I was getting pushed for time so I had to really hustle to get back to the dock by 12:30. After finding the right boat I was glad I didn’t have my bike. It was pretty small and the deck space was being filled with doors,windows and several trees. I guess somebody was building a house and doing some landscaping. When I went to purchase my ticket I was told because of the wind there was not going to be any return trips today. If I went over today there was a good chance I would be there until Monday. That didn’t sound appealing. So I headed back to the motel to get my bike. I had done enough walking!! At least I got my steps in for the day. Haha. To be honest I wasn’t terribly disappointed. Crisfield is an awesome place to have a zero day! A really cool fact: the Chesapeake Bay has the last fleet of commercial fishing boats that still use sails. The wooden boats are called skipjacks and are used for harvesting oyesters.

After getting my bike, I rode around town a few times trying to decide where to eat. I thought a big plate of seafood would make up for not going to Smith Island. Not surprisingly almost everything was closed for the season. I finally found a little restaurant right on the water. Fisherman’s Grill. My order was pretty large and in the middle of placing it the waitress started to look incredulous. I explained that I had biked 4000 miles and had a huge appetite. I could hardly believe my ears when she said…. “well we have all you can eat shrimp and BBQ ribs! Every knows that so we don’t even put it on the menu”! That sounded awesome. It also came with corn on the cob and hush puppies.

After a full rack of ribs and about a pound of shrimp she realized just how big my appetite was. I think her and the cook decided to clean out the refrigerator. Soon she brought me out a bowl of green beans a bowl of mac n cheese 12 fried oysters a saucer of fried potatoes and more hush puppies. Maybe she was worried I would eat all the ribs! Haha. As I was waddling out of the restaurant a person I never saw before asked if I got to the atm and back on time this morning. And they had heard I couldn’t get to Smith Island. I guess that constituted as news and it traveled fast.

Riding my bike without a load was really nice. It felt so light and fast. But on the other hand, I was not recognized as a cyclist on a tour. I was just a guy on a bike. I had kind of lost my identity and not one person went out of there way to start a conversation.