February 11, 1998

THE ARTICLE

I got on the road around 8 a.m. It was a struggle to get across U.S. 17 to head eastwards because of the nearly continuous traffic in both directions. Also, there was road construction to deal with since they were turning the highway into a four-lane one.

I stopped at a convenience store to see if there might be an article printed in the "Star-News" from the interview yesterday in Wilmington, North Carolina. It was great finding the article on the front page on the local section. There was a small color photo and the article was extended onto the fifth page and it pretty well took up most of the page.

I was pretty glad getting out of the construction zone when I got to Vista. This section was about 2 1/2 miles long. The state was in the process of 4-laning U.S. 17 clear to Jacksonville. A couple of miles south of Holly Ridge, NC, I got stopped by a guy who told me that he had read the newspaper article. We talked for about a half hour. I got slipped $4 before he headed out towards Wilmington.

For the most part between Jacksonville to New Bern, I had a tail wind to push me along. This was the first one in about two weeks. The wind pushed me up to eighteen miles per hour. Before I got to the New Bern city limits, it started to rain.

I decided to stop at the First Baptist Church for the Wednesday night service. This was the new pastor's first week at the church. It was funny when the pastor introduced me to the congregation as being a bicycle evangelist during the beginning of the service.

After the service, one of the members slipped me $5. The eighty-six year old gentleman who had sat behind me offered to let me stay at his trailer but I would have to sleep on the floor. Instead, one of the elders, made arrangements for me to stay at a local motel. I was just given directions and it was a surprise to me when I found out it was the Comfort Suites that was right on the shore of the Neuse River. The room was one of the fanciest that I stayed in.