Nothin' Could Be Finer than to Be in Carolina....

Day 17

Whiteville, North Carolina to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
55 miles, 550' climbing---ha ha, still not begging for hills.

Seemed like a very short day, lovin' those flatlands. We made it to the hotel by noon-ish.

Our SAG stop was in the parking lot of a little grocery store. If the van didn't have quite what you wanted, the store had options. Such as:

Anybody got any good recipes?
What do you serve them with?

Seems like a good price. And they are farm fresh.

Fortunately, the SAG had everything I needed.

Love the big, round hay bales.

This kind of view makes the miles zip right by.

Would you let these two into your state?

At last! This trip is starting to look like a vacation!
The view from our room.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

Day 16

Warsaw, North Carolina to Whiteville, North Carolina
73 miles

With all the farmland we've been seeing, I was hoping to see some cotton or peanut harvesting. Early in the ride this morning we came upon this truck of Spanish speaking sweet potato harvesters.

It looked like very hard work.

We've seen quite a few churches with catchy sayings on their marquee signs. Wouldn't that be fun if the LDS  churches did this in Utah? What message would YOU post?

Name them one by one....

This sign was in front of the cash register at our lunch stop in Elizabethtown, North Carolina.

I wonder if it works.

I'm learning a lot on this bike trip. We are being taught safety tips for riding; we learned some bike riding skills in the parking lot one afternoon; and today, underneath a tree, we were taught bike cleaning from Mike Roon.

The maestro cleans and lubes.

One more day of riding, then a day off in Myrtle Beach.

The Dog Days of Summer

Day 15

Rocky Mount, North Carolina to Warsaw, North Carolina

100 miles! 1,875 "climbing"----we are told there really is no more climbing. Only flat. We are, also, told that we will be begging for hills, just so we'll have some variety in the terrain. I'm not convinced that I'll be begging. We shall see.

Even 100 miles of flat-as-a-pancake is still 100 miles of pedaling. Also, 100 miles of reading our cue sheets and watching for the next turn, and dodging the usual number of hazards. It makes for a pretty long day.

Let's just say.....I was glad to see the Holiday Inn Express in Warsaw, North Carolina.

The only photo I took. Honestly, if a horse would have come by, I would have hijacked it.

Thanks everybody for the great tips for dealing with the naughty dogs. We've had some terrific success, but don't just take my word for it. Check out Mary Kay's blog---scroll down to the Aug 29th post; and Carl's blog, too. I think we have these cranky dogs handled.