CNCDay6
By Gary Gilbert
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The sixth day of riding was 62 miles from Dunn to Kenansville. We were excited to come to Kenansville. Joe Keenan wasn't able to join us for CNC so we mailed a Cycle North Carolina cycling jersey to him from Kenansville. We told everyone that they spelled the name of the town wrong. Despite that, we made sure that the package had a Kenansville postmark. Spivey Corner rest stop was very nice. Spivey Corner is home to the annual hollerin' contest. The 41st annual event was in June http://www.hollerincontest.com/
The route description for the day:
Day 6 will be short and sweet with just 55 miles of riding through the coastal region of North Carolina. You won’t find too many hills here, just the never ending views of tractors, tobacco farms, corn fields, and cotton fields and so much more. Have you ever heard of a Hollerin Contest? We’ll be passing right through the Crossroads of Spiveys Corner (population 49), the location of the National Hollerin’ Contest that’s been going on since 1969 and attracts crowds from 5,000 to 10,000. The route will pass through the City of Clinton, which was named for American Revolution General Richard Clinton and the Town of Warsaw before making it to our final overnight stay at the Duplin County Events Center in Kenansville, NC. It’s time to celebrate as the final day is just hours away and the finish line just 55 miles down the road.
Spivey's Corner.
During the week, we passed many family cemeteries. This particular one, sat in the midst of a cotton field and seems to be abandoned.
Cotton fields. We stepped into the field only to realize that the area was full of fire ant hills.
I stopped to talk with people who sat by the side of the road watching the bicycles roll by. One man challenged me with a question about how many people were riding. He claimed to have counted over 1000 by the time I had stopped. At this particular site, I stopped to talk with a couple from Spivey Corner who were videotaping the ride for their own enjoyment. One of them pointed out the old tractor sitting in front of the new farm buildings.
There was a slight detour today. One of the roads on the cue sheet had been removed due to reconstruction. We stopped at a church to rest before taking the detour and this insect was sitting on a cement post. It looks like something one would see in a 1950s sci-fi movie. Scary isn't it?
One of the highlights of the day was a stop at the LP Best House and Duplin County Veterans Memorial Museum. The house dates to 1894 in Warsaw, NC. The townspeople had baked hundreds of cookies and I sampled quite a few varieties. On the way into town, the skys began to get cloudy. It turned to a heavy rain which lasted about 30 minutes. We were lucky that the rain was so short. I called John in CA when it started to rain to check the online weather map for us. The storm looked like it was large and would last quite a while.
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