Cycle North Carolina 2009 Wrap Up

Memories

• Riding with Chris and Doug. Sometimes we were five but a lot of the time the three of us stuck together
  
• Meeting Don, who I hope to ride with again sometime next year
  
• The continuing soap opera in the indoor camping area
• The best overnight stops: Lenoir, Dunn and Kenansville
• The worst overnight stops: Sanford and Statesville -- (bad bad indoor camping both nights and a horrible breakfast in Statesville
  
• The wonderful views from the Blue Ridge Parkway
• Second Fret in Statesville
• The neat rest stop in Warsaw and the stop in Seagrove

Overall results for the week
24:11:58 ride time, 18.5 average speed, 447.70 miles

The Mayor of Indoor Camping

Don, who rode to Surf City with us on Saturday, is another indoor camper. He's from Charlotte and we ran into each other a lot this year. I finally got his name in Sanford and it turns out he is friends with Crash Eddy from Oh Melo Velo. I really knew that Don was one of us, though, when we talked about about The Mayor while we were in Dunn.

The Mayor

There is rider that we nicknamed The Mayor last year. We called him that because he thought he was The Mayor of Indoor Camping. Apparently he has been participating in Cycle North Carolina for years. He would come in and try to boss us and, on top of everything, he snored.

We suspected that he was sagged in a lot last year and sure enough, we saw him get off the SAG wagon in Lenoir this year. Don made some comment about the various personalities of indoor campers and I said something about The Mayor. Don asked who I was referring to and I described him. Don said, "Oh, Big John!"

Apparently, The Mayor complained about how tired he was when he got to Sanford. When the coast was clear, Don then wandered over to The Mayor's bike and toggled through his bike computer -- 23 miles. Of the 75 miles on the short route, he had completed 23 miles that day! We later confirmed with our insider at CNC that he sagged in every day!

That's how I knew that Don was one of us.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 7

CNC Day 7
Kenansville to Surf City
21.9 mph average speed
28.1 mph maximum speed
2:25:21 ride time
53.02 miles
about 675 feet of climbing

The five us us before our final day of CNC 2009

The day was fun and fast and flat. The Gang of Five -- Tim, Jon, Doug, Chris and me -- rode together. We made a micro stop at the first rest area, saw that it was really busy and decided to go on to the next stop for a final PB&J and we picked up a sixth rider, Don. Tim and Jon wanted to do most of the pulling and keep the speed up. We all rode to the next stop.

The final rest stop: Chris, me, Jon and Tim

As we approached Surf City, the pace picked up to 26 mph or so and we started to string out. We all met again at the park where the ride ended. What a week!

Cycle North Carolina - Day 6

CNC Day 6
Dunn to Kenansville
18.9 mph average speed
27.9 mph maximum speed
3:14:08 ride time
61.20 miles
about 1400 feet of climbing

The route from Dunn to Kenansville went through Spivey's Corner, Clinton and Warsaw. Spivey's Corner is a tiny little town with a population of under 500 people. The town is famous for hosting the National Hollerin' Contest. It kind of makes you wonder what the Cycle NC organizers were trying to tell us -- corn hole on Thursday and the home of a hollerin' contest on Friday!

We joked around a bit that the people who developed the route went looking for hills in Sampson county. It was pretty darn flat out there but then suddenly we'd come to a hill. Were they looking for hills?

The town of Warsaw hosted a rest stop for us and they really did it up. There were tons of signs along the side of the road leading up to the town -- Party Ahead, Cookies and Lemonade and so on. When we got to historic downtown Warsaw, we were greeted by bouquets of balloons. The rest stop was located at the Duplin County Veteran's Memorial Museum and they really did have homemade cookies and lemonade on the front porch for us. What a welcome!

We reached Duplin County Events Center, our home for the evening, about 12 miles later. The events center is located near the county extension office and I was able to touch base with a few coworkers. There is not much else within walking distance. Our host towns of Kenansville, Warsaw, Rose Hill and Wallace provided transportation to area restaurants and Duplin Winery.

Normally the host towns provide shuttle buses starting at about 3:00 in the afternoon. Chris, Kevin G. and I wanted to go for coffee a bit earlier than that. We found out where to go and went to the local information booth to ask about a shuttle to Kenansville. We said that we wanted to go to Kenansville and they said, you are in Kenansville. We explained where we wanted to go. Apparently downtown was not on the shuttle bus route but one of the county tourism employees offered to take us. All three of us got a vanilla latte from A Change of Venue Cafe. The latte was surprisingly good (not Second Fret good but good). We hung around the cafe for nearly an hour and then we called for a shuttle back.

The same person came to pick us up. Apparently he has a place in Bryson City. I said how much I enjoyed Bryson City and asked him how he came to have a house there. He replied that the grandkids are there and said, "We had quite a summer. " He went on to tell us that his son was a stay-at-home dad and that his daughter-in-law had always provided the income. She had been working as a jailer in Jackson county and she ran off with a prisoner that she helped escape. They were both caught after a letter that the prisoner had sent to his friend in California was returned to the jail due to a bad address. That letter had apparently spelled out exactly what was going to happen. If this sounds like something from America's Most Wanted, that's because it was on the show -- twice! Yikes!

It turns out the caterer for the evening meal was A Change of Venue Cafe. After dinner service started about 30 minutes late, we found out that this was their first catering job. While most of the 1100+ cyclists go out to restaurants, about 250 people have the evening meal plan. Let me tell you, it is not a good idea to be late serving 250 hungry cyclists! As the week goes on we get hungrier and hungrier. By the sixth night, look out! The line was so long and so late and moved so slowly that I actually called Pizza Corner while I was in line (they do not deliver). Once we finally got the food, it was good. The oatmeal cookies were amazing and I have asked for the recipe.

The Duplin County Events Center was a nice place to stay. The only problem was that the eating area and the sleeping area were adjacent with no barrier between them. That meant that when they started to set up for breakfast, it woke up a lot of people. I think that some people were wound up on Saturday morning anyway since it was the last day.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 5

CNC Day 4
Sanford to Dunn
18.1 mph average speed
35.1 mph maximum speed
3:16:09 ride time
59.20 miles
about 1480 feet of climbing

Dunn was a pleasant surprise! The indoor camping was great and the site is really well prepared. It's like the Hilton after last night! They have vendors on site including pizza and ice cream and downtown was within walking distance.

They also had games set up -- paint ball and corn hole. A lot of cyclists commented on the name corn hole (I did not realize that there is an American Cornhole Association with official rules!) Tim and Chris played a game of pool in downtown Dunn and I played a few rounds of corn hole at the camp ground. The paint ball sounded fun but wasn't really popular. I don't think that most of us felt like running!

Like the other overnight sites, they had music downtown for us in the evening.

The route went from Sanford to Raven Rock State Park and then through Erwin. From there we went to a Civil War site -- Averasboro. The road to that site was not NC DOT's finest moment. Especially since earlier in the day I hit a major pot hole and my front wheel came out of true.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 4

CNC Day 4
Thomasville to Sanford
18.1 mph average speed
35.5 mph maximum speed
5:21:24 ride time
96.77 miles
about 3,742 feet of climbing

Today we had an option of doing a 75 mile route or a century route. I opted for the long route and rode with Chris and Doug.

Both routes went through Randleman where we had a rest stop at the Richard Petty Museum.

The long route was through Seagrove which is an area that I really like. I did a ride called Rolling in Randolph a few years ago so I knew what I was in for. As it turns out, we had more climbing going from Thomasville to Sanford than we did on the Blue Ridge Parkway day. Of course, the first day was a lot fewer miles so it was more climbing per foot.

A lot of riders commented that maybe it should be called Tour de Smell. We passed a lot of chicken houses and saw several "Pigs 4 Sale" signs.

Doug and Chris had not been to Seagrove before. The century rest stop was at the North Carolina Pottery Center where they have examples from many of the area potters. I made both of them go inside. I particularly wanted to show Chris the Fat Beagle section. Chris' daughter has a beagle and he does good work. I also pointed out some of the Kings Pottery -- especially their trademark red glaze.

Doug and I did the century in White Lake last year and practically no one did that route. I think that it was because the route was 75 miles to White Lake, where we were spending the night, and then an additional 25 mile loop beyond that. This year you had to pull off for the century loop at mile 36 and rejoin the regular route later on. A lot more people seemed to do the century route this year.

We had PB&J at the Pottery Center. We had our next rest stop after rejoining the shorter route. More PB&J! Heck, that makes up for yesterday.

The camping situation in Sanford was not desirable. Tim kept on saying that we were sleeping in the pig stalls. We were actually in the old exhibit hall at the Lion's Club Fairground but it wasn't a good situation. While there was plenty of space, a lot of people woke up with swollen eyes. There must have been something in the air.

Thankfully, we were able to get away from the campsite that evening. One of our Team CBC captains lives in Sanford and invited us for dinner and to spend a few hours at his place.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 3

CNC Day 3
Statesville to Thomasville
19.1 mph average speed
35.6 mph maximum speed
3:15:30 ride time
62.21 miles
about 2320 feet of climbing

Today's route to Thomasville was really nice. Tim was loving it and Tim and Jon raced each other, dusting me. The unfortunate thing is that while Tim and Jon raced on ahead, Doug, Chris and I got split up and ended up riding solo.

The course had several hills but was much more rolling with about 2320 feet of climbing. We did run into a construction project that held us up and nearly 100 cyclists ended up waiting at the intersection. Since we all trickle out of the campsite at various times and then get further strung out as the day progresses, it's unusual for that many cyclists to be at any one spot that far into the ride -- even at a rest stop.

Cyclists line up at construction zone at NC801 and US64 (top), Chris at construction zone (middle), Doug at construction zone (bottom)

The one bad thing that happened on the ride is that I broke my perfect record. All last year and until day 3 of this year, I did not miss a single CNC rest stop. Three or four miles after the construction zone, there was a rest stop. Tim and Jon raced ahead out of site. I could see Doug and Chris. Neither of them stopped. It was a PB&J stop too! There is only one PB&J stop per day! Oh no! So much for my perfect record.

When we arrived in Thomasville we felt truly welcome. The Baptist Home for Children hosted us and they did a great job. They had good vendors at the finish -- pizza, burgers, nachos, sandwiches, etc. The indoor camping was great and much more appropriate than the cobble together camping in Statesville.

Every overnight stop has some sort of entertainment. Thomasville had High Point University do some entertainment for us. We saw a solo artist, whose name I did not catch and then she played with her friend Caleb Lovely, who was quite good. Finally, the Genesis Gospel Choir sang for us.

Bobby Labonte rode from Statesville to Thomasville with the CNC riders and he did a little presentation in Thomasville.

The mayor of Thomasville had a proclamation and invited CNC to come back. Ragan from CNC said that he hoped to return every three years.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 2

CNC Day 2
Lenoir to Statesville
17.5 mph average speed
36.8 mph maximum speed
3:13:43 ride time
56.52 miles
about 3000 feet of climbing

We started the day with a climb out of the parking lot and it just kept coming for the first ten miles. By the time we got to the first rest stop, though, the grade started to improve so it was closer to rolling.

Our gang of five stayed together well. The scenery was not as dramatic as yesterday but we got some nice views of the Piedmont at times. We almost had a crisis at the PB&J stop because the port-a-pots were delayed (driver got lost) -- thankfully the church hosting the rest stop let us inside. We saw the port-a-johns arrive as we were leaving.

On our way to Statesville, we passed Fort Dobbs, a French and Indian War site. I did not see a fort per se so did not stop. I understand that there is nothing standing and nothing has been excavated at the site.

After we arrived at our temporary home, we had two unpleasant surprises (1) indoor camping was sparse and (2) the shower trucks were not working. Apparently the church hosting us for the evening was expecting 1/2 to 1/3 the number of indoor campers that there are. We were able to get a spot in an alcove because we arrived before most of the other cyclists. After some scrambling, our host was able to house everyone -- sometimes in unexpected places!

Tim after securing an indoor camping spot and then finding out that showers were unavailable.

The story with the shower trucks is less clear. Apparently the shower truck company hooked up to a fire hydrant. This is common practice and typically there is a water meter on the fire hydrant. They hooked up as usual but the Statesville fire marshall came and threatened a $1000 fine so they unhooked. It seems that some phone calls were made and some money exchanged hands and after a delay of an hour or so, the shower trucks were up and running.

Once we were situated, Chris, Tim and I took a shuttle bus downtown. (Unfortunately, the church was not located within walking distance of downtown.) We visited the Museum of Mountain Bike Art and Technology, The Second Fret and a music store that I need to tell my dad about (they had high end banjos). After all of the turmoil at the campground, The Second Fret was awesome!

We did not feel particularly welcome in Statesville -- especially after they sent us off with a breakfast of still cold frozen Lender's bagels and instant oatmeal.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 1

CNC Day 1
Blowing Rock to Lenoir
17.3 mph average speed
40.2 mph maximum speed
3:25:37 ride time
59.33 miles
about 3500 feet of climbing

The rain cleared in the nick of time! When we went outside to get breakfast, we could see the stars so we knew that it was clear.

All of the riders were excited about the first day of riding. A few were nervous about all of the climbing. I think that the Blue Ridge Parkway intimidated some of them. I later heard that some people walked the hills.

Tim (in black) and Doug (in yellow) climbing the Blue Ridge Parkway. Note, that they did not stop for me when they saw me taking this picture!

We started off by climbing to the Blue Ridge Parkway entrance an then did a climb on the Parkway including the Linn Cove Viaduct. I stopped a few times to take some pictures and managed to get back to my riding group. We got off the Parkway and passed Grandfather Mountain making our way toward Lenoir. The route was nice and the views from the BRP with the fog below were gorgeous -- especially from the viaduct. Some of the descents were a bit nerve wracking because it looked slick from the rain the night before and there were wet leaves scattered in some places. I had no problems on the descent but I was nervous at first. Once I found that it looked slick but was not, I settle down.

Tim, Jon, Chris, Doug and I rode together.

Lenoir was a great host town. Kevin G., Chris and I went downtown to check things out. They had a Biergarten set up for us, several musicians played and some restaurants that are normally closed on Sundays stayed open. The music was really good and they had plenty of shuttle buses. I do wish that more of the shops were open for us.

Outdoor camping in Lenoir (top), Chris near the outdoor camping (bottom)

Several of us had the meal plan and ate together -- Kevin G., Doug, Chris and I had dinner together each night. The dinner in Lenoir was good -- lasagna and other pastas, salad, yellow squash and chocolate cake.

Tomorrow, we head to Statesville.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 0

We arrived at Cycling Spoken Here before 8:00 in the morning to load our bikes on a truck and get a bus to Blowing Rock. The buses were not there yet but I needed to get my pedals taken off and loosen the handle bars on my bike before loading it on the truck. Note to self, put the bike on last so that it comes off the bus first.

The day was overcast and I was very nervous about rain. A week of riding is fun. A week of riding in the rain, not so much.

Riders are limited to two bags per person. One bag was for my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, pillow, Crocs, etc. The other bag was for cycling clothes, street clothes and toiletries. I had a problem with what to do with my helmet -- normally I transport it on my head but for the bus ride I needed to put it somewhere. I finally shoehorned it in.

This year we checked in at the bike shop before getting on the bus. That really streamlined things once we got to Blowing Rock. That is handy since I felt the need to dash to a camping spot. It was raining when we arrived and I planned to indoor camp like I did last year. Since it was raining a lot of the tent campers wanted to indoor camp as well. We were tightly packed that night!

Doug, Chris, Kevin G. and I rode the bus. Emily drove Jon and Tim up to Blowing Rock and we met there. Tim, Chris, Kevin G. and I were all indoor camping and Tim saved a spot for us but he called me and said to hurry, he was not sure how long he could hold our spot on his own. Doug stayed in hotels during the trip and Jon and Emily tent camped with Bubba. Five of us planned to ride together throughout the week -- Doug, Chris, Tim, Jon and me. Four of us planned to camp together all week -- Chris, Tim, Kevin G. and me. Kevin G. rode with another group. Emily provided sherpa service for Jon and Tim, meeting us at each overnight stop with her Honda Element.

After we staked out an indoor camping area, we went to get out bikes. They were still on the truck so we helped unload them. This was a good. We were able to keep our bikes relatively dry and also help out.

As the day worn on it started to rain harder. We kept on looking at the radar and the hourly forecast, obsessing about the weather.

100 miles and Moore

Earlier this year I participated in the Tarwheels Bikefest Rural Hertitage Tour 100 mile bike ride. Last year I did this ride for the first time and I remember saying to my friends, "I hate Person county!" OK, I really don't hate it but the route this ride takes through Person county is awfully hilly for people who have already gone 75 miles. It was hand to remember that because I saw the sign to enter Orange county and then got the the rest stop about 82 miles into the ride and I felt like I was home free!

The Bikefest crew! Fred, Doug, Chris, Me, Jonathan, Chuck

After the ride

Bikefest is one of several rides that I have done as part of my training for Bike MS ride next month. In addition to our regularly scheduled Team CBC rides, I have one more organized ride before MS -- my first ever Tour de Moore on Labor Day. The Tour de Moore is also a 100 miler. I'll have to let you know next month if it is insane to do a 100 miler on September 7 and then another one on September 12 and a third on September 13th!

Fundraising for Bike MS has been harder this year with the economy and all. I'm really looking forward to first Tour de Moore and then Bike MS and then Cycle North Carolina.

Cycle North Carolina Wrap Up

Memories

• Tim's rear wheel. I saw a lot of it!
• Gary in his tri jersey, no matter what the temperature was!
• Brian who was a 17-year-old high school senior traveling with his family. Brian's dad was riding a tandem with Brian's younger siblings. For the first three days, Brian's 7 -year-old sister was on the back of the tandem and for the final four days, his 8-year-old brother was on the back. The night in Concord, both of them were a part of the indoor camping sleepover. I cannot imagine doing those climbs on a tandem -- especially with virtually no help from the rear.
• The soap opera in the indoor camping area and the comment afterward. "I'm with my new friends. Dudes. They're safer."
• Les saying that there was a cock roach sighting at Laurel Hill. Fortunately, he told me this after we were already in White Lake. In retrospect, I suspect termites. The floor at the front of the gym was kind of sketchy.
  
• The look on peoples' faces when they realized that they could have whatever they wanted in the Wingate University cafeteria.
• Lake James is really beautiful and a lot larger than I thought it was.
  
• The Reed Gold Mine rest stop where there was someone with a nugget of gold. The first memory is that they said that in it's heyday the Reed Gold Mine was worth more that Wall Street. Someone said that it was true again! The second memory is a few rest stops later someone -- Jon or Tim -- said we could have taken the guy with the gold nugget, what would he have said, someone in tight black shorts with a really colorful top who was on a bike robbed him?

A typical day

Several people have asked me what a typical day for me was on Cycle North Carolina.

5:55 am - Alarm goes off, beat the 6 am crowd to the rest room. Put on sports bra, brush hair, wash face.
6:00 lights on
6:00 Pack sleeping bag and sleeping pad.
6:00 - 6:45 - breakfast
6:45-7:15 - change into riding gear, pack sleeping gear and other items, bring bags to luggage truck
7:15-7:30 - pump tires, head to designated meeting place
7:45 - 12:30 ride bike

12:30-1:30 - locate bags, save a space for sleeping, shower and change
1:30-4:00 - find food, explore the town, talk to the area representatives, talk to my friends
4:00 - Doug usually showed up from his hotel about then. We would talk, see anything interesting
5:00 - Dinner
6:00 - 7:30 explore the town, hang out with Doug and other cyclists
7:30-9:00 social time
9:00-10:00 head back to the gym if not already there, hang out and talk. A big sleepover
10:00 lights out

If I do CNC again

• Buy coffee by the day instead of getting a mug for the week
• No Bubba towels - use camp towels to dry off and bring one regular towel for modesty
• Consider bringing a power strip to ease recharging congestion
  
• Less/almost no first aid stuff. Mostly bring band aids, Benadryl, etc.
• Packing bike gear in individual bags, a one gallon bag per day, was a good idea!
• Consider bringing instant oatmeal, bowl and spoon as a backup breakfast. I'm glad that I had the food plan though.
  
• Set up a core group to ride with before signing up. The group that I was with was great but I got lucky this year. Next time, do some more coordination up front.
  
• Bring every charger known to man. I had car chargers and wall chargers for everything and I was happy about that
• The iPod with marshmallow earbuds was great for white noise. I used the iPod and an audiobook from LibriVox if I needed to block out camp noise to sleep.
• Beware of the October sun -- I got a bit more sun than I expected and I should have use more sun screen
  

The stats

• 480.76 miles
• 14,930 feet of climbing
• 24 hours 17 minutes of ride time

Cycle North Carolina - Day 7

CNC Day 7
White Lake to Oak Island
21.0 mph average speed
26.5 mph maximum speed
3:39:59total ride time
77.09 miles

The day was fun and relatively uneventful. The sunrise over the lake was gorgeous.

We left White Lake at about 7:45. We started as a group of six -- Doug, Tim, Jon, Tracy, and Judith. Gary left a little bit ahead of us. He wanted to get to Oak Island early so that he could start his journey back to Michigan. Judith stayed with us for a little while and Tracy found another group to ride with before the second rest stop. There was not a whole lot to look at along the route. Our biggest events occurred between rest stops 2 and 3. First, rest stop 3 was relocated and we only found out when it wasn't at mile 47 where we were expecting it. Several miles later, there was some chalk lettering on the road telling us that it was in two miles. Over three miles after that, we found it at mile 52. That's a big difference on the final day of a 7 day ride. We were not happy. Also, between rest stops 2 and 3, Doug broke a spoke. Fortunately, the REI mechanics had a spare wheel to loan him so that he could finish the ride. It would have been awful to ride for six days and have a mechanical problem prevent you from finishing the final 25 miles!

At the final rest stop, we had a someone take a group photo and we headed to Oak Island.

DH met me in Oak Island, along with the Girls. After a final good-bye to the shower truck and a finish line lunch, we took Hannah and Emma down to the beach to cool off.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 6

CNC Day 6
Laurel Hill to White Lake
21.1 mph average speed
29.4 mph maximum speed
3:38.46 total ride time
77.14 miles
less than 500 feet of climbing

Doug (in blue) and Tim (in white) at a rest stop on en route to White Lake

The century loop, solo at a "touring pace"
17.1 mph average speed
21.7 mph maximum speed
1:27:18total ride time
24.93 miles

Several cyclists commented that all of the stop overs should have been like White Lake. At White Lake there were food vendors, a wine vendor, free beer, aerial demonstrations, a bluegrass band, dancing, ice cream, canoes (not many takers after six days of riding). The indoor camping at the FFA Center was in 15 person cabins. My indoor camping buddies and I were able to vet everyone to create a no snoring cabin.

The best part of the route was a stop at Lu Mil vineyard. They had a tasting at the rest stop there but I stuck with the jams and jellies. I am not a big fan of Muscadine wines.

The route was 77 miles with a rest stop at the FFA Center and then another 25 mile loop if you wanted to do the century option. Most people stopped after the first 77 miles because, after all, we were there. I felt funny about stopping because the century was a goal of mine. I went to the luggage truck and claimed a spot in our No Snoring cabin. Then Doug asked if I was doing the century. I said no but then I put my bike shoes back on and did it. Earlier in the day I told Doug that I might do the century at a taking it easy touring type pace and I went ahead and did that. One of the volunteers at a rest stop told us how beautiful the century route was and how much we would like it. I beg to differ.

The century route was a little bit unnerving. It started out with signs that said "100" and after three or four of these signs, the "100" was not on them anymore. I saw almost no cyclists and I never saw a SAG vehicle. After a while I started to worry that I was on the Day 7 route. I was in a very rural wooded area with no cars or cyclists. I decided that at mile 20 of the century route, I needed to find a way to call if I did not feel like I was headed back towards White Lake. By this time, my hands were getting numb because the road was rough and I was getting a lot of vibration. By mile 21, I felt like I was headed in the right direction and I did make it back to camp. For those who did not do the century, the photo below shows what you missed.

When I got back, there were at least half a dozen food vendors set up so I had a snack from one of the Relay for Life tables. After cleaning up, I enjoyed the DJ and visited with CNC friends. We watched the aerial show and had a Carolina BBQ dinner. Then a bluegrass group -- The Boys from Carolina -- played and several people started to dance. Judith wanted to go out on the pontoon boat and I went with her. It was good timing too, since we were on the lake as the sun set.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 5

CNC Day 5
Wingate to Laurel Hill
18.4 mph average speed
38.2 mph maximum speed
3:56:25 total ride time
72.57 miles
2650 feet of climbing

When we were in Wingate, there were signs saying to watch out for fire ants. After all, it would be a bad thing to set up your tent on top of hill of fire ants. One of the people that I was indoor camping near was Brian, a 17-year-old from the Charlotte area. Tim asked Brian to ride with us and Brian backed out -- because an ant bit him. He claimed to have swelling but we could not see it. He laughed when Tim said, "I'm three times your age." Tim's efforts to goad Brian into riding with us were fruitless though. I can just imagine the headline: Ant Bite Stops Cyclist.

The route from Wingate to Laurel Hill was still quite hilly. I kind of knew that but I was still hoping that the route profile was wrong. Tim took good care of me and saw me into Laurel Hill. I just had no legs for hills at all and Tim held up for me so that I didn't have to go it alone. I spent a lot of time looking at Tim's wheel. Jon rode with us from the rest stop on mile 49 to the end of the day's route.

I'm not quite sure about doing the century tomorrow. It's a goal and all but 100 miles is a long way and the route has us stopping at White Lake and then continuing for 25 miles only to circle back to White Lake. In other words, we could be done -- or continue on for another 25 miles. Ack.


Our final rest stop of the day was in Hamlet. I had not really been looking forward to it because all I knew of Hamlet was the fire but Hamlet is really a cute town with a really neat train station. Apparently it is the only Victorian Queen Anne train station in North Carolina.

After a long day on the bike, we arrive in Laurel Hill. The businesses in downtown Laurel Hill consist of Family Dollar, Pate's grocery, Pate's furniture, Pate's appliance along with a post office and a bank. Then, along US 74, is what we called The Strip BP, Citgo that sells pizza, used car place, home cooking type restaurant.

I am happy to report that despite the fact that the accommodations in Laurel Hill were less than luxurious, the caterer did a great job. We had hickory smoked chicken for dinner and the best biscuits of the trip for breakfast. They also found a nice band to play beach music on site. That helped the atmosphere a lot.

Cycle North Carolina - Day 4

CNC Day 4
Concord to Wingate
19.2 mph average speed
38.6 mph maximum speed
3:15:32 total ride time
62.35 miles

The photo above was taken at a rest stop along the route.  No, my bike is not in the picture.

When I got in I wrote the following in my notebook, "Tired. Hilly. Hard to paceline due to hills. Hope tomorrow is flatter."

That was a few hours ago and I am feeling much better now. Wingate is a very small town with not a whole lot going on other than the university which is where we are staying. After setting up "camp" in the gym and cleaning up (and getting a latte and the university library!), I walked around a bit.

I headed toward what looked like town and I stopped in the town hall and asked what there was to see in town. A woman with no eyebrows -- none, she had plucked them all and then penciled them in -- said, "Well, there's the university." pause "Oh, the Jesse Helms Center." pause "And we have a park by the elementary school!" I picked up pamphlet there and apparently there are 39 businesses in town (including home day care centers). I think that I saw them all!

One of many gas stations without gas. This one is on US74 in Wingate. I thought that it was ironic since we were biking across the state

Wingate University has a nice campus and everyone has been extremely friendly and helpful. Other than the somewhat clueless town hall employee, everyone has been so accomodating, I cannot even put it into words. After Concord last night, this was a welcome change.

Dinner was in the campus cafeteria. All you can eat. Like Golden Corral but with better food. You should have seen people's faces light up when they realized that they could get more food. They were in heaven!

At dinner, which Tim asked one of the students if their administration had warned them about our arrival. The students kind of laughed and said no. One of them spoke up and said that an e-mail was sent out this morning. Tim was serious. Wingate has just over 2000 students and 1000 cyclists arrived on their doorstep. Jon said that it looked like a group of angry wildebeests had been to the cafeteria and Tim kept on saying locusts. 1000 people coming would eat a lot. 1000 cyclists who have been riding for four days -- 1000 stinky, hungry cyclists that have been riding for four days -- that may be another thing altogether.  We pretty much ran Lincolnton out of food too.  One of the three restaruants downtown closed due to lack of food!

We are about halfway through with the mileage and we have three more days of riding. Tomorrow, the mileage starts to increase as the route flattens. Hopefully the extra food helps everyone ride well.