JACKSONVILLE to NEW BERN, NC  50 MILES, 13 MPH, 3:50 MIN BIKING TIME  8:45 to 1:00  BridgePoint Hotel $85    Up later, good  bkft-waffles. Short day today-OR does good job getting out of town. See 2 runners-Chris & Paul-nice enough to stop. Paul is planning to RUN east coast in a few yrs-maybe biking doesn’t sound so hard. Back to Adventure Cycling map-back rds very little traffic-some rd very bumpy. 30 miles in Pollocksville-stop at Dollar General for ch mk & apple pie. Man tells us broke his arm biking on rd we plan to take-terrible rd. 2 ladies tells us bikers on rd all the time-other choice 17 w/non stop traffic. Take map rd-100 yds rough-rest of 15 m great. Wind at back, farms, trees, mail boxes-hard up for pictures-nice houses at end. Bike over bridge into New Bern-stop at visitors center. Tell us about BridgePoint Hotel back over bridge & points of interests. Looked way out of our price range-suprised. As OR is checking in-group of 7 bikers from OH come in. They are going south & have been fighting the wind for days. Glad we’re going N-have long bridge & day tomorrow. Clean up & walk over bridge to town. Go to mansion $40-last tour at 4:00-don’t have time to see other houses. Only us for tour-very interesting. 1st 2 gov were appt by king-all materials & craftsman sent from Eng. Burned & rebuilt in 50’s. Near 6:00-getting hungry & whiney. Don’t have time for Pepsi tour. Good dinner of veggie burger & fries. OR wants to see the desserts-wants to get triple ch cake-NO-that’s even too much for me. Brownie comes-start talking to Ben & Judy at next table-I talk-OR eats most of brownie. They bike 15 -20 m a day-that’s a lot more than we bike at home. Walk down to water & back to hotel. Hope to talk to other bikers before ride tomorrow. My favorite town so far.