I was high and dry on route 24 outside of Beaufort, 4 weeks into a cycling tour down the Atlantic Coast, starting in Bangor, ME and ending in Key West, FL. A sheet of metal just punctured the last spot on my tire that wasn't already worn away. I was in dire straits, frantically trying to figure out if I should just accept that I'll probably blow out my last two inner tubes riding to Jacksonville, or if I should take the gamble on EJW Outdoors, a seemingly beach-cruiser-oriented surf shop. I swear I must have done something right in a past life or in the past 4 weeks because not only did Mike and his crew at EJW have but an hour left til they closed, they also somehow had a spare 700x38c tire, even though that's not at all a common tire size for beach cruisers in the outer banks. The story continues when I mistakenly was huffing southbound towards their shop on Emerald Isle and when I got their, called the shop, was told that they thought I was heading to their shop in Beaufort! Lo and behold Mike the savior, offered to drive out TO ME at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts closer to my final destination and hand deliver the tire (with 2 additional inner tubes). Night (and many more subsequent nights) saved because of these awesome guys.
You don't know how much long distance cyclists count on people like these, to many more adventures that pass through the outer banks
Thank you,
-John read more