4-02-08 Such a crazy day indeed

Today was really stressful for me because Ally and I had a lot of stuff to do, like call the next city, which was Athens, and make arrangements for us to have a hotel to stay in, coordinate the police escort they were giving us and coordinate the event at the grade school. So this morning we woke up at 7 am, then got all packed and got ready to go to Raleigh, North Carolina for the bus ceremony.  Since we stayed here last night we weren't too far from the event so we arrived right on time. When we got there we met some people from the city, took some pictures with them, listened to some speakers speak about their transportation issues and then Tyrone told them a little bit about our project. Their goal was to have more hybrid buses in Raleigh and our event was a ribbon cutting ceremony for their first hybrid bus, the bus was really cool also. After the ceremony was over Mr. Thomsen talked with us about communicating with cities at least two days before we arrive and the importance of being able to talk with people.  After the ceremony we took pictures with the bike police and then took a tour of a Raleigh fire station, which apparently is the busiest station in the whole town. Afterwards the riders began their ride to Columbia, South Carolina.  The first two riders were Jennifer and Justin. Then Jacob, Mr. Thomsen and Ally rode for a while also. The riders were able to average 21 mph since the road is pretty flat and there is very little traffic.