Day 4, 58 miles, Sat. August 28, 2010

(My odometer: 60.2 miles, 14.6 avg mph, 4h 5m 57s, max speed 29.8 mph)
Emporia, VA to Rocky Mount, NC

Up at 5:00, 6:00 continental breakfast at hotel (3 orange juice, raisin bran, 2 danish, scranbled eggs, sausage patty, bacon, :), 7:15 Load luggage, 7:30 on the road. Today’s forecast was the same as yesterday - mostly sunny with temps in the mid 80’s.

Today was a short 60 miles and everyone was aware that it didn't make sense to ride fast, get to the hotel by noon and not be able to get into our room because it wasn't ready. Also, ABB policy usually is that the luggage van wouldn't arrive at the hotel until most riders were in. I kinda took my time, a little over 4 hours, about 14 mph, tried to find ways to eat up some time, like photo ops. There were only a few hills today, flat road cycling, and we're told that the days ahead will be getting flatter as we get further south. But it will also get a lot more humid :( . The long range forecast is for sunny days with temps in the 90's.

The communities that we are starting to pass through often have run down, poorly maintained homes and buildings, and we are seeing many abandoned properties. We are seeing larger plantings of soybeans and cotton. Today we saw several peanut plantings. We continue to see historic markers and I try to include some pics for readers and hope you all will find them interesting.

We had a very nice dinner at Denny's tonight. I continue to interact with fellow cyclists and learn about some of the wonderful involvements they have in their lives, other than cycling. It makes me feel good to be around such sensitive and caring people.

Tomorrow is a 100 mile ride to Warsaw, NC. The roads are flatter and in pretty good shape and hopefully I will be able to finish the ride by 4pm.

(Click on the images below for a larger view of each photo.)

Topping off tire pressure	Loading luggage	Cotton field
Peanut planting	Crossing state line	Virginia history
Virginia history	Eagle Tavern	A local Colonial Pub
A meeting place	Colonial corporal punishment	The "stocks"
Local history	Soybean farm worker dwelling	? ? ?
Tobacco	Tobacco harvest	Our hotel Best Western