4-01-08 It was such a lovely day

Today is going to be a very long day. When we woke up this morning we all got dressed, cleaned up the cabins and began loading up the truck.  All of the cyclists were riding on the roads, for practice, surrounding the cabins - called Staunton River Park, in South Boston, Virginia. After the truck was loaded, the bike riders rode their bikes to the ranger station to meet up with Joshua Ellington (the park ranger), which was about 2 miles from the cabins. After a brief meeting, he then drove ahead of us to show us how to get to South Boston Elementary. As soon as we got to the school, the superintendent, Paul Stapleton, the principal of the school, Beverly Crowder and the mayor greeted us. We went inside their cafeteria for breakfast and had homemade biscuits with either chicken or beef.  It was really good and we had a chance to talk with the mayor and other dignitaries.  Everyone was really friendly and treated us like celebrities. Some of the information we got about the school was that they've recently created these different academies that work within environmental studies involving ecology, biology, and research about natural resources.  These academies work with all students at all grade levels, and, according to the Superintendent, seem to be raising all of the grade levels as well. Our next stop was Winston  Salem, North Carolina where we met with one of the city councilmen.  It was a nice meeting and I think we did better with our presentation. After our meeting In Winston Salem, we left for Durham, North Carolina and met with the mayor.  His name was Mayor William Bell and we told him about our project and we asked him what they were doing to help improve the environment. His answer, which seemed very reserved, was they were getting ready to launch their new hybrid buses, and change most of the electrical work in the city.  I got the impression he wasn't too interested in our project and left feeling kind of bad.  Oh well, we tried.