Historic Edenton

Today we got off to a late start. Everybody was dragging at first, and we had a thousand little things to do that we hadn't done yet. Anne packed up - she said something about work - which was a little sad, and even with only four guys to get moving, we still took awhile.

It may have been a good thing, though. As we were leaving Greenville, we got a bunch of waves. A couple minutes later, a woman honked and pulled into our lane. We thought she was trying to run us off the road, but her daughter was holding money out of the window. As Austin grabbed it, she exclaimed, "I saw y'all on the news!" We said thanks as she sped off. After a brief stop at the Bicycle Post to get me a new helmet - the owner was awesome, giving us a discount and a free new easy load spring - we left the city.

Then we raced to get to Edenton before the thunderstorm we'd been hearing about hit. Unfortunately, thunder started roaring about ten miles outside of town. We pulled off for a few minutes, and when the storm let up a bit we biked in for an interview with the Chowan Herald, just in time for the storm to hit again. We finished at the same time as the storm, and we went off to meet our host. Al and Dabne were great, making us a big meal and introducing us to their neighbors, who let us use their pool.

And there we met our host for the night, Francis. People had told us that Edenton was a historic town, but I didn't realize how historic it was before I got to Francis's house. This place is amazing. Built in 1773, right across from a small harbor, the house may be the most interesting place we've stayed at yet. As we walked the grounds, Francis pointed out the old courthouse of North Carolina's first capitol, the first meetinghouse for the Methodists, Quakers, and Catholics here. And either in the house where we now sit or the courthouse across the street, there was a tea party protest. In the yard, an old cannon was buried with a teapot on top. The cannon was one of seven dropped in the harbor by an irate French captain (Benjamin Franklin had negotiated a deal whereby he would receive an equal weight of tobacco for the cannon, an amount Edenton did not have). The locals fished out the cannons, and Francis's father planted this one. As Austin said, "Those other houses were pretty cool, but this place makes you feel American."

~ Tom