4-01-08 Biscuits and Sausage

Today we got woken up at 6:00 AM from our cabins.  Way too early for me, Im still tired from the trip out.   We got the bikes out and went for a test ride around the park.  It was kind of drizzling and a little cold but other than that nobody fell or anything so I guess it was a success. We then biked up to the Stanton River Park Ranger office to meet with Joshua Ellington, the Park Ranger and from there we biked, with a Park Ranger escort, to South Boston Elementary School.  When we arrived the District Superintendent and school principal greeted us and invited us to eat breakfast in their cafeteria. When we entered the lunchroom all I could see were some biscuits that didn’t look that appetizing, along with a bunch of grade school kids staring at us. It kind of felt like we were on stage or something.  Anyway, they said they made biscuits and chicken, or biscuits and sausage for us so I kind of felt like we had to eat them, even though they looked weird.  When we ate the biscuits, they were delicious.  They were so good that we took the leftovers and ate them throughout the day.  After eating, we toured the school, and had a meeting with the Mayor, Superintendent, Principal, and other dignitaries from the community.  We talked with them for about 45 minutes and then the Mayor presented us with gifts.  They were all really nice and very hospitable, even though its hard to understand what they're saying.  Ive never heard an accent quite like that, so it was kind of difficult for me. As we were riding out of town I looked over my shoulder to say something  to Tyrone and promptly fell off my bike.  Both Thomsen and Jeff have told us to keep our heads focused on the road ahead but we were going slow and I didn’t think it would matter.  Luckily I fell into some mud and grass so I didn’t get hurt, but it was pretty embarrassing, and I had to ride the rest of the day covered in mud.  We rode into Winston-Salem to have a meeting with one of the City Council members, Dan Miller.  He was pretty cool and seemed to be really interested in our trip and what we are doing.  I think we all are getting better at asking questions and at taking notes, so Thomsen seemed pretty happy with our meeting.  Once the meeting was finished we started biking to Durham.  We met with the mayor in his office and he didn’t really seem that interested in talking to us.  We talked for probably half an hour before leaving for Raleigh.   The mayor’s secretaries were very nice, and very funny.  They made us feel really special and I would have rather talked to them, oh well. Right after the interview we rushed to the bikes and went to Raleigh for the night.  We slept in the Best Western hotel there, courtesy of Ally.  Thanks Ally.  My butt's sore and tired.