Today was a relatively easy 45 mile day to the Merchant Mill Pond State Park near Sunburry, NC. The day was overcast with fast moving dark clouds which looked ominous. We had some moderate headwinds but no rain until early afternoon when we stopped for lunch. The rain stopped and started again several times but we ended up only riding about 5 miles in moderate rain. The rain stopped when we arrived at the campground so we were able to set up the tents without getting wet. Overall, we were fortunate today because the weather report had included dire predictions of heavy rain, high winds and a tornado watch. In the early evening it finally started to rain heavily so I am sitting in the campground bathroom charging my phone and writing this blog entry.

The above frog is sharing the dry bathroom with me.

We met two women cyclists at the campground who are our age. They are from Georgia and have completed a 6000 mile loaded touring trip on TourEasy recumbents. They started on the west coast following the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route to Maine and then continued south on the Adventure Cycling Atlantic Coast route - pretty impressive!

The weather report is for heavy rain tonight but sunny skies for tomorrow and the rest of the week.

The Adventure Cycling Atlantic Coast route has two options out of Sunburry, NC. We can continue inland to SC or we can opt to cycle to the NC coast and cycle south on the barrier islands (called the Outer Banks) which will allow us to ride adjacent the Atlantic Ocean. The Outer Bank option is slightly longer but as of now it is the route we plan to take.

One thing I have noticed since crossing into SC is a much more pronounced southern accent making it hard to understand some locals when we converse with them. Southern accents were significantly less pronounced in VA.

We also learned from some locals why we have not seen any tobacco growing. We were told that government subsidy programs were used to get farmers to grow peanuts in lieu of tobacco.