Plymouth, NC

We ate breakfast in the room at the Days Inn in Jacksonville. The room had a jacuzzi so Mr. Shingles took advantage of a morning soak beofre we left. There was quite a bit of traffic on US 17 through Jacksonville. Luckily we followed the Adventure Cycling route and was able to get on side streets away from the traffic. The weather is beautiful. Sunny and 70's. All of the riding today was on low volume side roads through rural North Carolina. It was beautiful. Lots of pine forests and a few farms starting to pop up. The forests reminded me of riding in Tar Hollow and Scioto Trails near our home in Ohio, but without the hills. Maybe we are getting close to home? We stopped for sandwiches at a little store for lunch. As we were sitting beside the store, all of a sudden a rooster crowed right behind us! Scared us to death! It was pretty funny. Wonder why he was crowing at 1:00pm? We arrived at New Bern on the Nuese River and where we thought we were going to cross the river the road was closed. We called the KOA and found that they were actually in Bridgton which was on the other side of the Nuese River. The lady said just come down US 17 you can't miss it! I hate it when they say "you can't miss it" The bridge over the river was really something. It was almost like 2 or 3 bridges coming together in the middle of the huge river. And of course all of them merged from 3 lanes down to 2 with no berm. It wasn't bad though everyone seemed to move over for us. Once on the other side US 17 divided off of another major route so we had to negotiate a busy interchange. After that we had our 2 miles on US 17. Now the cars and trucks weren't so happy. By the time we got to our turn, a car zipped up beside us, turned on his windshield wipers and finally went around. Hey Hap is it raining? The KOA was very nice. We set up camp and I went to do the laundry while Hap cooked. Beans, rice and green beans for supper. Thanks Hap!

The next morning we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. As it turned out, if we had ridden into town on the way to the KOA yesterday we wouldn't have had to ride on US 17. Once again the Adventure Cycling route we are following is on low volume backroads that are just great. We stopped and watched some lumbertrucks picking up trees. Who knew there was so much tree cutting being done in North Carolina? It is so nice not to have to keep watching for traffic. And it is so nice to have some piece and quiet while riding. We couldn't find a campground on the AC route so we opted to go into Chocowinity, NC to camp. On the way to the campground we stopped for dinner stuff at the grocery store. A lady came over to us, introduced herself and said "how would you like to buy some auto insurance?" What? "We don't have a car? "No, problem, you can still use it. They pay you if you are in an accident" Now she had my attention. "So what's the difference between this and my car insurance?" "Well, they pay you $10,000 if you die!" Ok, that's enough. She finished by saying "You can sign up anywhere, so if you are interested here is my number and I will come wherever you are and sign you up!" OK, so we're going to call her from every state before we get back to Ohio! Twin Lakes Campground was very nice. We cooked stir fry broccoli and caulifower for supper with rice. For entertainment we watched a DVD on the computer. It was a good night.

This morning we fixed oatmeal for breakfast before heading out. It was even warmer today, in the 80's. We also had a wonderful tailwind. The route was again backroads with little or no traffic. What a joy! This is what riding is all about. We stopped in Pineville NC at a church for lunch. We had our very own smorgesborg. We rode into Plymouth expecting to go another 8 miles or so to a B & B that we had found on the internet. But when we arrived in town we decided to check out the hotels. There were no campgrounds around. We stopped at Wendy's for a Frosty before checking into the Plymouth Inn. We had to walk down the street to do the laundry and Hap also got a beard trim. On the way back we stopped at the store for a barley soda.

The last three days of riding have been some of the best riding we have had in awhile. I think on this trip it is easy to get into the mode of just riding. Sometimes you just need that little nudge to remind you why you love doing what your doing. Thanks Lord for the reminder.

Here is the latest picture of Mr. Shingle. As you can see the spots are clearing up nicely. The three spots on the right are the original three that appeared. I have finished taking all of the anti viral meds. I am still having some pain in the area but it is for sure better than last week.