Me, Phil, Mike and Christine before leaving Charlotte

This morning Phil and I walked down the street and around the corner for breakfast at a trendy place called Zada Janes.  I had an omelet with spinach, goat cheese, caramelized onions, tomatoes, basil, roasted garlic and mushrooms, and Phil had amaretto French toast.  On the way back, we stopped at a bakery to buy a spinach scone and chocolate chip muffin for the road.  After packing up, we said good-bye to Mike and Christine and got a bit of a late start to Boiling Springs.

Going through downtown Charlotte was rather slow with traffic, but once we got out of the city we made fairly good time.  We stopped a few times, but for no longer than 10 minutes until our last stop, where we indulged in Reese’s peanut butter cups and dark chocolate dipped in peanut butter.  One memorable moment was when we rode by the airport just outside of Charlotte.  Mike told us we would be able to see the planes fly very close to us if we were to go down a certain road, and we did indeed find ourselves on that road.  Another nice place our route brought us through was Belmont, a small town that tempted me with bakeries, dessert bars and cupcakes, but I managed to get away with only a stop in the Belmont bike shop to buy some spare tubes.

When we finally reached Boiling Springs, it was almost dark.  Our hostess, Danielle, lives on campus with three roommates, Taylor, Caroline and Anna, at Gardner Webb University.  Nobody was home when we arrived, but they left us a guest key so we could move in and shower.  When Danielle returned from church, she and Taylor walked with us to the Chik-Fil-A on campus, and they used points on their student ID cards to get us food.

We plan to stay in Boiling Springs on Thursday as well, since we both could use a rest day and it’s supposed to rain.

Even though we got to sleep early, I didn’t sleep very well, and my legs were feeling sub-par all day.  Not being able to move around or stretch my legs out in my cocoon-like sleeping bag is something to which I have yet to adjust.  We packed up our camp and had hit the road by 9:15, and it was another beautiful, warm, sunny day.  While not very steep, North Carolina has some long and persisting hills, and I felt sluggish for the better part of the day.

After 15 miles, we came to a breakfast place called The Breakfast Nook, where I sampled fine Southern diner food: biscuits and gravy.  It was interesting, but probably not something I would order again.  The pecan waffle was very good, but I really miss real maple syrup.  French toast, pancakes and waffles are just not the same without it.

We stopped again to celebrate riding 1000 miles (a few miles too soon) at a restaurant called Louie’s Grille.  We had misremembered how many miles we had left that day by 10, so we really celebrated at mile 990.  When he heard what we were doing, the restaurant owner came over and sat with us to chat.  He showed us photos of Greece and told us how beautiful it is.  He also had plenty of questions for us, including how we were planning to get into Charlotte.  He adamantly argued that we should stay on route 49 the whole way instead of following the back roads that Garmin wanted us to take.  Once escaping the restaurant, we did follow his advice and stay on route 49, saving us perhaps a mile or two and probably a good twenty minutes.

Karen, me, Phil, Mike and Christine at Akahana

Mike was home to let us in when we arrived, and we went upstairs to shower.  His girlfriend, Christine, was at work until 6:30, at an art gallery a few minutes away, so we drove over there before it closed to take a look at some of her artwork.  From the gallery, we walked to a bike shop next door to look around before going to a pub called Growlers where we waited for Christine to get out of work.  There, we celebrated our 1000 mile mark again with good beer.

We were all getting hungry, so we decided on a sushi restaurant called Akahana that has buy-one-get-one-free rolls.  Karen, another couchsurfer who was staying with Mike and Christine, met up with us towards the end of our meal.  She drove up two days ago from Florida for a glass fusing class, and was staying in Charlotte one more night before driving home.  We all went back to Mike and Christine’s house, talked some more there, and then said good-night.

John, me and Phil before leaving Sanford

Phil made breakfast in the morning – poached eggs and oatmeal with apples and blueberries in it.  John was extremely generous and offered us pretty much anything we could have ever needed.  He also made us promise to get in touch with him if we run into any trouble or need any help or supplies along the way.  Every day I am touched by how nice everyone we meet really is, and I hope we get to see these people again some day.  It’s a little sad not knowing whether we will run into them again, but fortunately we can keep track of everyone more easily through technology like e-mail.  And, of course, everyone can keep track of us through the website for now, so you’ll know where to find us!

After we left John’s house, we stopped briefly to shed our outer layers and adjust our equipment, and then rode on until we hit 20 miles.  We have generally been stopping about every 20 miles for a quick snack or a stretch, or occasionally, a long lunch break.  The weather was absolutely perfect, but with more hills to contend with, our average speed was a tad slower than it has been over the past week.  A few miles down the road from mile 40, we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for a long meal and stocked up on food at the Food Lion next door.

The sun beginning to set just before pulling into the woods

Because of the daylight savings time change, it has been getting dark an hour earlier.  It started to get dark on us around 5 pm, after we had only gone about 50 miles.  We were planning to camp in the forest between Sanford and Charlotte today, and we were already riding through the middle of it, so we looked along the road for a place to set up our tent.  Phil found a suitable location for us at just past 53 miles, so we pulled into the woods and set up camp.  It got dark quickly once the tent was up, and with little else to do, we got into our sleeping bags and settled down for an early night.

Jeb and Valentine, in Raleigh

Me, Tom, Brian and Phil, before leaving Raleigh

We had another lazy morning.  Brian and Tom took us out to a pub where their running club was having brunch after the marathon.  Yes, there was a marathon in Raleigh that morning!  Our host in Sanford, John, had actually run the marathon too (and did quite well despite being sick and not getting any sleep the night before).  I had thought about running the half marathon, but abandoned the idea when I learned that it started at 7am.  We all biked to and from brunch, and then Phil and I packed up and said good-bye.

The day was warmer than it has been in weeks.  After 17 miles or so, we came to a charming town called Apex.  We stopped because I spotted a bike shop, and we wanted to buy more tubes, but it was closed.  A group of people sitting outside at the restaurant next door started chatting with us, and told us that the bike shop guy is somehow connected to the ice-cream shop down the street.  My ears perked up at that, and we thanked them before pedaling a few doors down to the ice-cream shop.  The girl inside confirmed that the bike shop was closed, but that didn’t really matter to me anymore, as long as there was ice-cream.

We continued on for another 20 miles before stopping for a quick snack.  I ate my leftover salad from the night before, and Phil ate one of the cookies we had smuggled out from he brunch buffet.  Making good time along old route 1, we arrived in Sanford before dark.  John and his two dogs, Riley and Finnegan, were outside to greet us.  We brought our bikes inside and showered, and John made dinner.  Being a medic, John generously shared some of his supplies with Phil so he could update his medic kit.  He also outfitted my bike with an army green bag for the handlebars, which I had been wanting in order to keep my camera and phone more accessible while riding.

After dinner, Phil and I got busy online, finding places to stay in other cities along the way, mapping out the course for the following two days, and writing a few sponsorship proposals.  We are still looking for sponsors, although haven’t put a whole lot of effort into actively seeking it.  If any of our readers have suggestions for sponsors or would like to sponsor us, comment below, or contact us by e-mail!  Also, if you haven’t already done so, sign up to follow our blog by clicking the “follow” button on the right side of this page!  That will show our potential sponsors that we have an audience, and the more people who are following us will increase our chances of receiving support.

Ray, Phil, Annette and me before leaving Louisburg

The distance from Louisburg to where we were staying in Raleigh was only 38 miles, so we left much later than usual, knowing that our host would not be home until after 6pm.  Liz had already left for work, so it was just her parents (and Archie, the Jack Russel Terrier) to see us off.  Ray biked with us for the first 3 miles, until the end of the Louisburg bike path.

After we had biked about 20 miles, we stopped at a Food Lion grocery store in Wake Forest to eat, and then bike the rest of the way to Brian’s house.  Brian was at a wedding reception and had hidden a key for us to let ourselves in.  We were greeted by his friendly pit-bull mix, Valentine, who stood by, wagging her tail, while we brought our bikes and all of our gear into the kitchen.

After showering and relaxing for a bit, Brian came home and we all had a drink.  Then, we drove to Natty Greene’s, a microbrewery to where the wedding reception had moved.  Phil and I ate dinner and had some beer there before we moved on to the Oxford pub, where they were celebrating Guy Faulkes night in the street, with fire, masks, live music, outdoor drinking and hula-hooping.  Another local couchsurfer, Steve, joined us there, and we all walked over to Sitti, where Liz was still waitressing.

Phil, Brian, Steve, Liz and Me at Sitti in Raleigh

Back in the Lebanese restaurant, we were all too full to order anything but tea (except for Steve, who had beer).  Liz surprised us with a complimentary appetizer plate though, and of course I couldn’t resist digging into all the delicious food.

Completely stuffed, we departed the restaurant, said good-bye to Steve, and headed back to Brian’s house, where we watched a short documentary called Asiemut, made by a French Canadian couple who bicycled through Mongolia, China, Tibet, Nepal and India.  By the end of this, Brian’s roommate, Tom, and his black Lab, Jeb, had come home, and we were all about ready to fall asleep.

We spent another rainy day in Louisburg on Friday, and with nothing better to do, I wanted to go running.  It seems that I only go out running on rainy days.  Louisburg is a really small town.  Really really small.  I mapped out a route around the whole downtown area, and it was only two miles.  I decided to run to the high school track and do some speed work to get some more miles in.

The high school was only a mile away, but by the time I reached it, my ankle was hurting me.  I keep forgetting that I hurt my ankle somewhere between Annandale and Fredericksburg.  I think I must have twisted it the wrong way when my feet were so numb from the cold towards the end of that ride about a week ago, and it had been hurting ever since about halfway through each day on the bike.  I am always so relieved at the end of each ride, and my ankle hasn’t hurt me at all off the bike, so I never think to ice it.  I jogged back to the house without even going on the track and iced my swollen ankle.

I did some web editing and some reading but promptly fell asleep after a few pages and remained asleep for a few hours.  Liz had left for work at 3pm, and I woke up at 6pm.  Liz’s parents, Annette and Ray, drove Phil and me into Raleigh, and we all had dinner at the restaurant where Liz works – a Lebanese restaurant called Sitti.  The food was actually some of the best Lebanese food I’ve had, especially the dessert: ashta.  Sadly, I forgot to take any photos.

Phil and I walked around downtown Raleigh after supper, and eventually settled at a cafe/bar called Morning Times.  We met up with Liz when she finished work, and she drove us back to Louisburg.

Me, Mary and Phil, outside of Mary's shop before heading to Louisburg

I slept very soundly in Henrico and woke up around 9am to eat breakfast before heading out. It was almost 11 when we finally left, but we only had 46 miles to go to get to Louisburg, so it was a relatively easy day. After Paul left, Phil and I packed up and rode about 4 miles down the road to visit Mary’s shop and say goodbye to her.

It was a beautiful day, but the lack of a tailwind slowed us down considerably. I do wish that technology existed to record my thoughts directly into a word processing software somewhere in the cloud while I’m cycling, because I always have such elaborate thoughts that I tend to forget as soon as I get off the bike or something else distracts me. Today, what I remember from the ride was that I had the Canadian national anthem stuck in my head for a while, and then I struggled to recall the lyrics to my own American national anthem. Also, there were a good number of dogs out on the course today, and they all wanted to chase the bicyclists. I don’t even remember seeing a single dog during the whole trip so far, but today it seemed like every house we passed had at least one or two (or more) dogs that barked at and chased us. Most of them were fenced in, but there were a few that were not held back by any enclosure, and I got to use the water bottle technique on the ones that had any chance of catching up to me. At one point, there were so many dogs barking from so many different yards, it brought to mind the scene from 101 Dalmatians where all of the dogs are communicating with each other throughout the city and beyond. I’m pretty sure there is a strong line of communication between the dogs from Henrico to Louisburg.

We stopped for a long break about 15 miles from Louisburg. There were no shops or restaurants anywhere on the route, so we laid our bikes on the ground on the side of the road, and sat in the sun eating snacks we had in our bags. Phil read for a while, and I inspected my bike to make sure everything was still running smoothly. We stayed there for about an hour, since we were ahead of schedule, and still we made it to Louisburg more than an hour before I had planned.

Liz wasn’t going to be home for another two hours, so we found a cafe (the Coffee Hound Bookshop) that was conveniently located just two blocks from her house and waited there until about 6pm. Liz is one of my good friends from high school whose parents moved to Louisburg just after graduation, and I hadn’t seen her since she was visiting Rhode Island three years ago in 2008. We brought our stuff inside and ate dinner, and Phil read his book again while Liz and I phoned our friend Sam reminisced about old friends.

Henry, Phil, Me and Steve

Henry had to leave by 8am for work, so Phil and I got an early start for a long day.  Thankfully, he gave me some hand warmers to put into my shoes so my toes wouldn’t freeze during the ride.  It was one of the coldest mornings thus far, but at least it was sunny.

We managed 65 miles at a pace of 15.6 miles per hour, stopping twice for long meals. The first stop was only 16 miles out, at a Denny’s off the highway, for breakfast.  We stayed until 11am, waiting for it to warm up a bit.  It had warmed up significantly by the time we reached Emporia, where we stopped for lunch at a small diner called Logan’s.  The people inside were very friendly and told us that two girls who were riding down south from New York had stopped by just two weeks ago.  They all told us to come back if we were ever in the area again, so we will have to remember to visit them again some day.

Cotton from one of the many fields we passed

Somewhere in between breakfast and lunch, we started seeing fields of cotton.  I had never seen cotton before, and Phil initially thought the fields were full of white poppies.  The amount of cotton was impressive, and for a several miles I had the song “Summertime” stuck in my head (“Summertime and the living is easy/fish are jumping/and the cotton is high…”).

We were mostly on the Blue Star Highway, a memorial highway for veterans from World War II.  This road parallels Interstate-95, but has much less traffic and is actually quite pleasant.  However, when we turned off the main road to approach our destination, the roads became much nicer.  As we neared Paul and Mary’s home in Henrico, we rode over gently rolling hills and right over a beautiful lake.

View of Lake Gaston on our way into Henrico

Phil and I happily contributed to Paul and Mary’s very first couchsurfing experience.  Paul was home to welcome us inside and show us our rooms.  Mary has been working as an interior designer and decorator for her own business for over 25 years, and their home is absolutely gorgeous.  The view of Lake Gaston is even more extraordinary.  As we sipped wine on the porch after showering, waiting for Mary to come home, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the lake.

Shortly after sunset, the four of us went over to meet some new friends of Paul and Mary’s for dinner at a restaurant on the lake.  Everyone ordered the fish and chips, except for me – I chose fish tacos.  The food and company were excellent, and after going back to the house and programming the next day’s route into Garmin, we were ready for sleep.

The ride from Richmond to Petersburg was our shortest yet – less than 30 miles – so we slept until 9 or 10am and had a leisurely morning.  After Dennis returned from an exam he had at school and Crystal returned from cleaning a house, we walked to Joe’s, a neighborhood bar/restaurant, for breakfast.  We ate and then walked back to Dennis’s dad’s house to pack up, and we were back on the road just past 1pm.

It was a sunny day, and warm enough for shorts and no jacket.  The first half of the ride went by very quickly, and we stopped to break at the Food Lion (a great name for a supermarket, in my opinion) less than an hour after we had begun.  We took route 301 the whole way, so it was a fast, straight shot to Petersburg.  Arriving at Henry’s house just before 4pm, we had spent less than two hours on our bikes that day.

Standing by a cannon on the battlefield on Petersburg

Henry welcomed us inside and helped carry our bags and bikes up to his 3rd floor condo.  He brought us to the Petersburg battlefield, where we walked around and checked out the trenches, cannons, and other battle equipment that was still there.  We also saw at least ten deer during our hike.

Henry had driven us onto the army base to get to the battlefield, and we had hiked through some woods.  It was dark on our hike back to his Jeep, and we found that we had taken the wrong path when we emerged from the woods on the outside of the base.  Phil and I waited outside the gates while Henry ran back in to get the car, since I had left my ID in the car.

When we got back to his house, Henry phoned his friend, Steve, and we all went out for sushi in the old downtown part of Petersburg.  We stayed up talking (mostly about traveling) back at Henry’s house for a few hours before going to sleep.

I know it appears rather lame that we seem to be taking more days off than not lately and only cycling one day before resting one or two days, but we decided to spend Halloween in a city where there would be entertaining ways to celebrate the holiday.  Since we were in Richmond and the next real city is several days away, we arranged to stay two nights with Dennis and Crystal before moving on to the small town of Petersburg.  It was an excellent decision, and we did have a great Halloween.

An appropriate place to spend time on Halloween

Phil and I made strawberry pancakes for our hosts back at Crystal’s house.  Afterwards, Crystal took us to Hollywood Cemetery, which was only a block from her house.  We walked around the whole cemetery, exploring, admiring, and taking photos.  The cemetery is known for being the resting place for thousands of soldiers from the Civil War as well as three former presidents and a few other famous people.

After the cemetery, we went back to the house, where Dennis had just sold his SWEET bus (Schoolbus for Wandering Exploring Everything Tight)to the neighbors, who plan on taking it down to Florida to live for the winter.  Then we walked to the 821 cafe for lunch, where I ate a delicious Union burger (with mushrooms, Swiss cheese, onion rings, lettuce and tomato).  Crystal let us try her fried artichoke sandwich, which was surprisingly tasty.

The quarry on Belle Isle

After some time back at the house, we went to the river and walked across a suspension foot bridge to Belle Isle, where we walked along the river to a quarry.  I never knew Richmond had such natural beauty.

On the way back, we stopped to buy candy for trick-or-treaters.  We sat, passing out candy and drinking wine on the porch of Crystal’s house with her roommate, Emma, and some of their friends.  Then came the parade.  I had never seen or heard of a Halloween parade, but there is one in Richmond.  Unfortunately, it started raining shortly before the parade was scheduled to start, so it was shorter than usual.  It was still amazing.

All dressed up for Halloween

Crystal let Phil and I borrow some of her clothing to dress up for the occasion.  Phil turned himself into a fine pirate, while I donned a traditional Bavarian dress to become a German woman.  Crystal made herself into a zombie.  We went back to Dennis’s dad’s house before going out to Sticky Rice, a restaurant that offers half off sushi after 10:30pm on Mondays.  There, we met Lauren, who has biked across the country twice – once with Bike and Build and then again two years later as a promotional ride for a vodka company.  She was excited for us and bought us a drink, as well as gave us a donation!  The bartenders, John and Sophie, were also very good to us.  Sophie was particularly interested in our trip, since she had done some traveling before and was saving up to do it again.  After having one last sushi roll, we walked back to Dennis’s dad’s house for the night.