So we did our interview with Heather this morning, I think it went pretty well.  She also brought us breakfast, which was really nice.  From there we headed to Asheville NC for lunch.  It must be the hippy capital of North Carolina.  There were hippy kids all over the place, makes for a pretty cool place.  The coffee shop was cool, complete with four or five different trash containers, for the paper trash, the compostable food, cans, and so on.  I am sure it will not be too long before more places have trash receptacles like this.  The main problem for me was I got a little confused, I think I through my food in the paper disposal.

From there we went on a lot of windy roads to our campground for the night.  I know most bikers are supposed to love windy roads, but I do not.  They can be a little fun, but you have to focus so hard, it is not nearly as relaxing as I would like my biking to be.  Tomorrow we are going to ride the Tail of the Dragon, which is this road with 318 curves in 11 miles.  People will probably get ticked if they are behind me, cause I do not plan on going very fast.

Anyway we rolled into this campsite that is supposed to be primarily for bikers, and at first I was not impressed.  First off it was expensive, and secondly the roads were made of gravel.  Now why do you have gravel roads if you are a biker campground?  Bikes slide around on gravel.  Any way, we paid for the site after waiting at the register for probably 20-30 minutes.  It was a slow process to get someone checked in.  We set up camp, and then started exploring.  It is actually a pretty cool place.  There is a rec room complete with a pool table, shuffel board, poker table, dart board, and a projection screen.  We watched “Bank Job” with some other guys staying here as well.  There are a lot of bikers here with all different kinds of bikes, from all over the US, feels pretty cool to be here with them all, even if 90% of them are over 50 years old.  I will try to post some pictures of the place later.

First off I have had so much fun getting to know my cousins here in North Carolina.  They are all a lot of fun, and it was really cool that I got to interview my cousin Heather for this podcast.  I will post some pictures later, when the camera’s batteries are not dead.  But for now, you can check out their church website here.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (75)

Today we went to Linville Falls in North Carolina today.  It is about 50 miles from where we are staying in Lenoir.  We went for a short hike down to the falls, pictured in the top part of this first picture.  We went down to the water and had lunch there.  There is something really cool about cooking a meal out in the middle of wilderness.  Anyway, enjoy the pics.

So we had the privelege of meeting the staff from New Spring Church in Florence SC.  We got to do the interview with all four of their staff members (From Left to Right: Jamie Salmon, Michael Brown the campus pastor, Sam Mitchell the worship pastor, and David Hall the Children’s pastor.)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (118)

So today we left our hotel room, and headed to Florence for our interview at New Spring Church in Florence, SC.  We got their a little early, so we took advantage of the time by making some phone calls, and other business.  Their offices are actually held in an apartment complex, so as we were loitering in their parking lot, Sam, the worship pastor, came down and saw us.  He was on his way home, which was the apartment unit right next door, to get a water bottle.  Sam took us up to meet the rest of the staff, who were all really cool guys.  We will post their podcast soon.

Afterwards Sam took us out to lunch at Apple Annies Deli and Pub, a local favorite.  It was really good, but I think it may have given me slight heartburn, but that would not be the first time I suffered for good food, in fact that happens pretty regularly.

The rest of the day was spent fighting the wind going from Florence SC, to Hickory.  There we met up with my 2nd cousin, Heather Wood, whom I never met before.  She is also a youth pastor at her church in Hickory, and is who we are actually going to interview for North Carolina.  She took us to another delicious local pub with her friend Chandler.  Heather’s mom Deborah, my mom’s 1st cousin, met up with us at the restaurant/bar and so we all got to meet.  They are really fun people, and I can’t believe I didn’t even know about them till recently.  I knew I had family out here that I had never met, but how cool is it that I have a cousin around my age that is also in youth ministry.

After the pub we headed to Lenoir which is just about 2o miles northwest of Hickory to Deborah’s house where we are staying for the next couple of days.  I think tomorrow we might go for a hike, but we will see.  I guess it depends on how lazy we feel.

Miles today: 223, overall: ~4600

Well another day of waking up and riding.  Not much happened today, other than we rode on the 17, which is a small back country highway.  It was definitely a lot nicer than the highway, but not too much to see.  A lot of trees, and a lot of swamps.

We got another motel room because it is real cheap, $35, and the only campground we found was a total dump.  Tomorrow we press on to Lenoir NC, where I have relatives that I have never met.  I am pretty excited about meeting all of them.

Total miles today: 172, overall: ~4370.