Shelagh and I are getting ready to leave Little Washington, NC. We had a lovely stay with my grandparents, Mike and Celeste, after a 61 mile day. I must say, it was a pretty easy 61 miles because it was so FLAT! Granted, we had some shifty winds – I think a tropical system was moving up the coast line – so that gave us a challenge here and there, but overall, a really pleasant warmup. We just finished getting our gear rearranged and organized. Time to hit the road!

I can’t post any photos until we get to Knoxville because I left my camera cable in the storage unit. oops! Sorry y’all!

I’ll try to update when I can! I might beable to do little posts with the smart phone.

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After 62 or so miles of riding through the coastal farmlands of eastern North Carolina, Shelagh and I arrived in Kinston. We stayed with the Classens and they were WONDERFUL! They cooked us steaks on the grill, with baked potatoes, asparagus, and concluded the meal with a peach and blueberry pie. It was a delicious and welcomed meal! Earlier in the day we traveled down a road called Jolley Ole Field Road; it’s a paved road that turns into sand. We thought, okay not so bad – well it turned bad. It was almost impossible to ride without the bikes fishtailing all over the place and we ended up having to walk the bikes for a while. At one point I was able to ride a quarter mile or so, however the joy of finally being able to pedal was soon sabotaged by a pack of dogs! As I turned the corner, one dog appeared. Ok – no big deal. Another dog appeared. And then another. And then eight more. I hollered for Shelagh and fortunately she was not far behind and we were able to call all 10 or so dogs off. For the most part, they stayed in their yard (except for the mama beagle – she happily trailed us for a short while). We finally found paved road and all was well.

We rolled into a small town called Grifton and found a little pizza place called Greg’s Pizza. We had a really tasty calzone and it was a perfect get away from the late afternoon traffic. Though we still found ourselves dealing with rude drivers. On the outskirts of Kinston a woman thought it would be a good idea to cut us off and then stop in the middle of the road before continuing her turn into a service station. I ended up shouting at her for the whole intersection to hear “I HAVE A MAMMA WHO LOVES ME!!!” You can’t argue with that. And all of the spectators were giving her a dirty look. Hooray for loud voices and disc brakes. We finally rolled into Kinston around 6 pm and the wine-ing and dining ensued shortly after parking the bikes.

Two days into tour. The adventure is just beginning!

Lauren