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Riding The Wave
Oriental's Julia Tingle
September 2016

T
he bright yellow jersey or jacket is what you see first. Then, as the bicycle nears, you get The Wave, a snappy movement from the wrist. It’s Julia Tingle’s signature.

julia tingle
Julia Tingle.

Julia bicycles every day. Rain. Shine. She is out there. She is such a presence on the roads in and near Oriental that it’s odd to recall a time when her yellow shirted arm wasn’t giving that wave – imagine the Queen of England as pageant contestant – as she rode by. Julia got her start a dozen years ago when more than a thousand cyclists descended on her hometown. It was autumn 2004 and Cycle NC’s annual mountains to the sea ride, a weeklong event, was ending at the Neuse River, at Oriental’s Lou Mac Park.

What was a finish line for the visiting cyclists, served as a starting line for Julia Tingle.

“I saw all those cyclists coming into Oriental. I saw young people and old people. I saw skinny people and fat people,” she says. “They looked like they were having so much fun. I said to myself, ‘Hey, I’m old, I’m fat. I can do that. I want to have fun, too.’”

“Chuck Forrest had done (the mountains to sea ride) that year. I asked him if I could do it and he told me yes, but I would have to get a new bike. I had been riding a single speed coaster bike and he told me that would not make it over the hills.”

julia

Julia grew up in Oriental, the daughter of Raymond and Dorothy Tingle, niece of Hubert Smith (of Smith’s Hardware Store – most recently the Steamer Restaurant). Julia graduated from Oriental Elementary School in 1966 and from Pamlico County High School in 1970. She went to college at East Carolina University in Greenville. After majoring in Home Economics, her first teaching job was an hour and half away in Duplin County. After 3 years there, she worked 26 years in the Wake County school system, teaching Family Life Sciences.

“I was always home in Oriental in the summers and a lot on weekends. When I was working, I came to Oriental whenever school was out.”

It was during one of those weekends home, that she saw the Cycle NC cross-state ride end in Oriental. That stuck with her.

julia tingle
Tackling Oriental’s tallest hill.

“In the Spring of 2005, I decided to retire. I thought to myself, ‘So what am I going to do?’ I decided to buy a bike and ride across the state. After you say that enough times, you have to do it. You have to back it up.”

“I retired at the end of May. By the end of June, I had bought a Raleigh bike in Raleigh, and it was not a single speed. It had 24 gears, but it was not one of those $2,000 bikes. It was a low-end, hybrid road bike compared to the more expensive bikes. You don’t want to ride a road bike with the really skinny tires or a mountain bike for my kind of riding. My tires are larger than a road bike’s tires. My bike is also heavier than a road bike.”

julia tingle
Julia’s dashboard.

“I rode around a lot in Raleigh during July and August in 2005 right after I retired to get ready to do Cycle NC that year at the end of September from Asheville to Wilmington. Biking helps keep me fit, but that was not what motivated me. The group that came here in 04 looked they were having so much fun; I did it because I wanted to have that fun too.”

julia tingle
Julia manages to promote the MS Bike Ride, Ol’ Front Porch Music (button) and a two wheeled life… all at once.

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julia tingle

Spoke’s eye view

In August of 2005, just 2 months after acquiring her new Raleigh bike, just 2 months before her inaugural Cycle NC ride, “I got distracted one day and ran into the curb.” A medical seamstress tended to the consequences.

“It did not keep me from doing the Cycle NC ride,” Julia says. “I had told everyone I was going, so I had to go, stitches or not.”

“I also had to learn how to go downhill as much I had to learn to go uphill.”

Her first mountains to the sea trip left a lasting impression. “Some of the riders camped,” Julia recalls, “I stayed in hotels because I had never camped before and I thought one new adventure would be enough to try on this trip.”

“The first days were beautiful, but when we woke up on Thursday morning in Albemarle, it was raining. Our goal was Laurinburg that day. A rider from Seattle said she was tired of sun and was glad to see the rain. That got a few laughs. But on that day, even during the rain, we went through Rockingham and got to ride around the NASCAR North Carolina Motor Speedway track.”

julia tingle
On long treks across the state or across the village topography, Julia’s drive-train leaves no carbon footprint.

“At the end of that day – and it really rained hard for a while – those of us who were staying in hotels were met by the hotel managers with towels, for us and for our bikes. We figured out the managers didn’t want wet bikes in their hotels. Even though it rained for the the next two days, I was ready to go back the next year.”

Were there times she ever asked herself why she was doing this? She said that the going was never that tough. “One year I had a flat tire, but somebody helped me fix that. There was always a support crew along. There was only one time that I walked hills. It was around Pilot Mountain; the hills seemed like they were straight up.”

julia tingle
Her advice to those who think they want to try the mountains to sea: get out an ride for stretches at a time. “You should think of doing 10 or 15 miles in the beginning. In Cycle NC there is a rest stop every 15 miles.”

During the 8 years that Julia rode across the state, the journeys would start in different mountaintowns. She recalled Boone, Black Mountain, West Jefferson, and Asheville as starting points with a location at or near the Outer Banks for a destination.

Eight was enough. A few years ago, she stopped making those mountains to the sea treks, but she hasn’t stopped bicycling.

“I keep riding and now I do the MS ride in New Bern every fall. I have done that since 2005, the first year I did Cycle NC.”

julia tingle
To test her endurance, Julia tackled the Bike MS Ride in New Bern just prior to her first Cycle NC adventure.

This weekend will be her 12th MS Ride in New Bern. For many weeks now, her bike has sported a hand-lettered sign promoting the ride which raises funds to help fight multiple sclerosis.

You may also see Julia out riding in Oriental. In her retirement, she splits time between her hometown and her home in Raleigh. “I’m here in Oriental as much as I am in Raleigh, more in the summers. I’m here if I’m not in Raleigh.”

julia tingle
Julia has found most motorists share the road.

Now a veteran rider with thousands of miles under her tires, she says she finds most drivers coexist amicably with cyclists. Sometimes she encounters those who don’t share the road so well.

“Most drivers are good, but occasionally…… You can be riding on a straight stretch of road, no yellow lines, no oncoming traffic, and a car will come up behind you and not move over one bit passing you.”

It’s been almost a dozen years since she was inspired to ride. “I’m on my third bike now. I wear them out.”

She, however has not. It’s been great for exercise for one. And she hasn’t lost sight of that thing that first drew her to cycling. “I still do it for fun.”

Give Julia a bit of space on the road and a wave. You’ll likely get The Wave from her in return.

julia tingle
Julia’s shadow leaves a wave on the Oriental bridge.

Spokes. TownDock.net explores bicycling in Oriental - from Spandex carbon fiber to rusty village single speeds.