October 18

Today was my longest ride of the trip so far - 88.36 miles.  These Carolina coastal plains are really flat so you can rack up the miles fairly easily.  However, because there are no hills you have to pedal constantly to get somewhere - no coasting on downhill sections because there are no downhill sections!!  Anyway the miles passed by and I actually rolled into New Bern about an hour ahead of schedule.
Along the way I got chased by two dogs and it was an interesting situation.  I would swear they were working together!  The first dog (looked like an older Labrador Retriever) gave up the chase rather quickly but his barking alerted the dog at the next property.  That 2nd dog looked at me and then sprinted away from me to the end of its property and then went out into the road waiting for me (it looked like it was daring me!!) to pass.  Meanwhile cars had to stop because this nutty dog was in the middle of the road.  Well I had to get by so I got together all the speed I could and approached the snarling menace.  He gave chase for about 1/4 mile before falling back.  It's amazing how a bark and a mouthful of teeth can make you find a few squirts of adrenaline and give you energy you didn't think you had!!

New Bern looks like a wonderful town.  It's along the Neuse River and looks a bit like a beach town but without all the touristy trappings.
Here's the bridge crossing the Neuse River:

  Looking at the bridge from town:

This is another bridge (Alfred Cunningham Bridge) crossing over to the town of New Bern:

A little park at the base of the bridge:

"Bern" apparently is an old German word for Bear so the bear is the symbol of New Bern.  There are Bears all over town, many depicting the work going on inside that building.  As an example this bear is outside the local dentist's office:

This one was outside the hardware store:

The town is really clean and pretty with many fine looking buildings and streets:

Of course, one of New Bern's claims to fame is the birthplace of Pepsi:

This friendly trolley driver stopped to talk.  Turns out he has ridden his bicycle across the country a few times so we swapped stories until he had to move on.

A bunch of Spanish Moss hanging from the trees.  (Technically the plant is not a moss - it's an Epiphyte, which means it gathers nutrients and water from the air). (yes, I looked it up!!)

I stopped here because I was lured in by the sign of "homemade ice cream".  Well the ice cream was really good but it was the wrong thing to have after such a long ride.  It was so sweet that it just made me more thirsty.

After touring around town I headed for the home of my hosts for the evening, Bambi and Allen.

Also staying the night were two cyclists from Poland.  They recently started their trip in Brooklyn, New York.  They will be travelling down to Florida, then heading west to California, then heading south trough Central America, and ending in Argentina.  WOW - now that's a trip.  My little journey is just a warm up ride for these two!!
Bambi and Allen went WAY out of their way to make us comfortable - had a huge dinner, desert, breakfast - and other family members came over to check out the company.  A really fun time.  I would certainly like to come back again some time (in a car!!) and visit.