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.
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