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DAY 14

Couldn't be better

DAY'S OVERVIEW: We've had some tough days on this trip, but this wasn't one of them...in fact, this may have been our easiest day for the entire trip.  The mileage was short, the weather was perfect, and they even had a tail wind.  Of course, I was in the van today.  The riders have already picked up on that point and have requested that I stay in the van for the rest of the way...sorry guys...it ain't going to happen...I hope.

We ate breakfast across the street at a Shoney's and loaded at 8:00...much later than we usually load, but there was no hurry today because of the route.  The day promised to be easy so I planned a clinic on drivetrain maintenance at 3:00 and rap at the earliest time ever at 4:00.  It was nice to have a little time in the afternoon to take care of some of our neglected things like laundry and bookwork.  It's also important to have an easy day once in a while anyway to allow for rest and recovery from the tough riding of past days and for upcoming challenges.  Tomorrow we ride our only century...I'm riding but don't tell the wind Gods until I get in.  The rest today and the tame terrain tomorrow should make for a relatively easy 100 miles...we'll see.

Shortly after loading luggage everyone was pedaling out of town eager to get into the back country just outside the city limits.  Long gone are the hills of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and northern Virginia.  We are getting into the fertile bottom lands now and are starting to see lots of farming areas...mostly soybeans, corn, peanuts, and mostly cotton.  At about the 14 mile point another state, Virginia, was a thing of the past.  Even though we were on a back country road, they had supplied a NC state welcome sign for our photo op session.  I've already lost track of how many states we've entered, but we chalked up another one this morning.  We only have 3 more before we finish in St Augustine.

Last night in rap I mentioned the fact we are entering the area where cotton is king, fire ants rule, and Kudzu can cover a rider while they are standing on the side of the road taking a drink of water.  Of course we all got a chuckle about that, but when the back group stopped to take a photo at the NC sign, Travis got entangled in the knarly vine and barely escaped before he became hopelessly knotted in its clutches.  The group was in tears laughing as he frantically tried to free his bike.

As I said it was a shortish day so several people had things on the agenda besides just riding.  About half way through our route today we came upon the historic hamlet of Halifax.  Today it's just a small village with a few restored historic buildings and a visitor center that displays the town's proud past.  In the 1700s, Halifax was settled by colonists who found the fertile bottomlands ideal to support large scale farming and eventually led to large plantations in the area by the mid 1800s.  At one time, this small area was the social, economic, and political center of the area...the first North Carolina constitution was drafted here during the country's movement toward independence.  But by 1790 the town started a decline as the political center was moved westward in the state.  Plus, when the railroad came through it bypassed the town.  Finally, when the plantation society was undermined by the abolishment of slavery, Halifax all but dried up.  I spent some time just browsing through a graveyard on a nearby hill where I found several stones dated in the mid 1700s.  It was hard to read them as the carvings had weathered so much over the years, but it was interesting to think that those people probably met George Washington when he came through here.

Even after spending time browsing through Halifax, everyone was in early today...all were in by 2:30 so we planned a couple of other activities to our exciting day.  I offered a drive train cleaning clinic to all that were interested and Travis used his guitar and entertained everyone with a few songs.  We also did our T-shirt swap in the shade of a nearby tree.  From what I saw, this group is past the polite stage as many of the shirts passed through many hands (were stolen) before anyone got to keep any of them.  We figured these activities would overcome the fact that there wasn't much to do where we were staying...a real flurry of activity here in the south.

The rest of the evening was spent on orientation for our new staff members...Karen and Susan.  It's good to have them along to help us finish this ride.  Since the Mississippi ride had to abort due to Katrina, they graciously offered to spend some time with us...you can bet I'll put them to work, big time.  Tonight they are fine tuning their veggie preparation techniques...no rest even for the newbys! 

Tomorrow we head to Warsaw...and the last time I looked, it's over 100 miles from here.  It's our only century but it's on a flat portion of our ride so it should be relatively easy...we'll see.  Hey, I just thought!  I'm riding!!!

HEARD ON THE ROAD:  "Today's ride was planned badly...the DQ was only 1/2 mile into the route!"

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