5/1/23 New Bern to Plymouth NC

Woke up to a beautiful, cool morning and a very promising forecast.  That was well received because we knew it would be a longer day of riding. Today ended up being 76 miles on mostly very rural roads with a breeze typically at our backs!😁

On our way out of town we passed this 1000 crane artistic structure. 

Several times we’ve seen a geese with their goslings.  So cute! 

The small town of Vanceboro doesn’t have a lot of shops, but it does have this pawn shop complete with Sasquatch and  Superman in a phone booth!  Vanceboro also had the only diner we found between our starting city and 50 miles out. We enjoyed our breakfast (after 17 miles of riding) at Vera’s Diner.  It has been in business for 83 years. The current owner has been there 37 years;  30 years as the owner.  The place is set up like a school cafeteria and she,  and the other ladies working there remind me of school lunch ladies.  They were very friendly, yet used their time very efficiently. The owner asked if she could take our photo in front of her diner. 
Not long after breakfast… Tim got a flat!  His 3rd one. It was a small shard of glass. Countryside was beautiful. We saw an eagle 🦅 but couldn’t get a good photo. The side of this barn says Wilmar Flea market.  
At 11:11 I was fixing my 9th flat!  I repositioned the rim tape, replaced the  tire and tube with brand new ones.  I better be good for a while! 
We did have a detour again today …for roadwork.  We backtracked a mile to a gas station to find out our options.  A local couple suggested we go through the construction zone over the bridge … so we did!  👍🏻 Yay… it worked… what a relief! 
The weather warmed up and the jackets came off. 


We finally arrived at our hotel… yay. It is truly in the middle of nowhere. There is a small Pizza Hut across the street (that doesn’t serve beer) and a Bojangles southern fast food restaurant right in front. Other than that it is mostly rural land. Our first focus was laundry… they had the machines, but no quarters. It costs $2.75 to wash and the same amount to dry.  That is 22 quarters! Tim went into the Bojangles, but was told there is a coin shortage but he could go to the credit union (that was hidden behind a slice of forested area. ) Hooray… he returned with a full roll of quarters! There would be clean cycling shorts for tomorrow! 
We decided to try out Bojangles…  they were locking up the doors when we arrived, saying they were too short staffed to open the dining area, but we could use drive thru.  So that is what we did! 

We ate  our chicken sandwiches in the breakfast area of the hotel lobby. Tomorrow is a new day. 😃