And we're off!

Day 3: Our first day of biking. We had a great opening ceremony for the trip right on the beach at Nags Head, behind the Gallop Funeral Home, where we stayed. (Yes, we stayed in a funeral home, no it wasn't really that weird =). There was a whole procession planned out, including bringing our bikes across the beach to the water's edge, where we dipped our back tires into the Atlantic Ocean! AND we'll be dipping our front tires in the Pacific, once we make it there. IF we ever make it there. Boy, there's a looong way to go!



At 9am, we set off on our 64.5 mile ride from Nags Head to the 'village' of Swan Quarter. We even had the mayor present and police escort too! It was quite an affair! Setting out, the NC roads proved to be flat, moderately trafficked, and WINDY. Our 30 bikers naturally split into groups, and I was able to spend the day biking with various different people. We stopped along the way for a lunch break, several snack breaks, and naptime in a park before arriving at Soule United Methodist Church at around 3pm, where we were greeted by Joe, who caught and fried catfish for us, and Pastor Ken, who was an amazing host! That evening, we had a feast of food prepared by various members of the community, and it was wonderful meeting people. In particular, I enjoyed having dinner with the Youth Works crew (a Christian service organization that sends college students to different communities around the country)--Anna, Heather, Avery, Lindsey, Cory, and Ang (sorry if I spelled your names wrong..)--they were a great & fun bunch!


Hyde County / Swan Quarter in a nutshell:
County population size: 5800 people
# of stoplights: 1 (for construction)
# of doctors: 0 (closest health care is 30 miles away in Belhaven, where there's a PA. Closest doctor is 60 miles away in Greenville. crazy huh?)
Famous food: Seafood
Memorable for: Their amazing hospitality



Day 4: Swan Quarter to Belhaven, NC (34 miles + detour around Swan Quarter)
Boy, it was hard to get on my bike this morning!! You don't realize just how sore your butt is until you have to climb up on that saddle again. I wonder how long it will be until it doesn't hurt the next morning anymore. Oh well, I'm just glad nothing else was too sore! We had a shorter ride today, to help us recover from the long ride yesterday. We had a short excursion around Swan Quarter, including stopping at a church that was moved by Hurricane Isabel! (People wanted to build a church on that plot of land, but the owner/city(?) didn't want to give up the deed, but then the hurricane came, somehow moved the church, and the rest was history...)

Belhaven has been a pleasure to be in this afternoon. Our afternoon here included laundry (yay!), going for a swim in the bay, napping in a hammock (wonderful!), and hanging around. I'd have to say, I'm not very good at finding things to do, now that I'm not supposed to be studying. It's hard to go from studying all the time and having your life planned out in school to not having any constraints at all. You're always left wondering if you had something else to do.. But you don't =) The people here in Belhaven are equally hospitable, and we were able to share a bike clinic with some of the kids in the community! A lot of families came out, and it was fun to talk with them.

Well, it's past my bedtime, so I better get going! But thanks for checking out my progress, and I'll post again soon!