Mike hits Durham












Durham Bulls park










Yay Cosmic










Dinner 1 at COTC (thank you Jean, Peter, Bob and Mary!!)

Home Sweet Chapel Hill! (Chapel Hill, NC)

We arrived in Chapel Hill today after a pretty quick and easy 40 mile ride (words I never would have associated a couple weeks ago!). After leaving Wake Forest, we took a northerly route through Durham, and a few of us stopped at the Durham Bulls park to take pictures. The rest of my riding group took a visit over to Dook, but not understanding why anyone would choose that detour I headed on my own for Chapel Hill. It was kind of nice to ride on my own for awhile, pedaling hard when I felt like it and relaxing some too. It’s also really nice to ride with a partner or two to chat and keep company, so I imagine I’ll be switching up my riding style as we go along.

All of us arrived at the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal in Chapel Hill by noon, which gave us some time to relax in the afternoon. Chapel of the Cross has been my home away from home for the past four years at UNC, so it was great to be back with old friends. I went for lunch at Cosmic with Mary Olive and Jochem, and the garden burrito has never tasted so good. I’m amazed at how hungry I’ve been over the past few days…no matter how much good food I eat, I’m hungry again after a couple hours. Keeping a balanced diet is pretty tricky, and I have to admit the brownie sandwich I had for lunch yesterday was awesome.

The DeSaixs and Chases at Chapel of the Cross served us a huge dinner of chicken-broccoli casserole, salad, baked potatoes, DeSaix bread, deviled eggs and Texas sheet cake. For now, happiness is sweet Chapel Hill.

PS – My sister Liz, a sophomore at UNC, is studying abroad in Singapore for the summer and has just set up a super cool blog. Check it out at liz-gilliam.blogspot.com!

Bike odometer: 298.8 miles

Some pictures from yesterday:

Eric and CVH

The Emilies and me










Man were we tired...