Date: 2007-06-05
From: Nolichucky River

To: Greensboro
Miles today: 0.0

I spent the morning kicking around Uncle Johnny"s and waiting for Jim Hall to pick me up. All the hikers were slow getting out so I got to spend time with them while waiting. Jim showed up a little after 11:00 and we headed to downtown Erwin where I was going to treat him to lunch at the Erwin Burrito which is famous among hikers for quality and quantity. Unfortunately it was closed! We went on to a BBQ place in Spruce Pine and then dropped by Jim's house where I got to visit with Bonnie.Jim dropped me off on the ASU campus about 3:00 after we had scouted out where the PART bus stop was. I was going to walk around downtown and campus but didn't want to haul my pack around. I went over to the Political Science Department building and Dr. Marvin Hoffman was in. Marv was a Poli Sci professor when I was in grad school here and now heads their MPA program. He was counseling a student so I dropped my pack off and went downtown. I got back and had a nice long visit with Marv before he left about 5:30. The bus was to pick me up at 6:30 so I waited at the bus stop until it arrived.PART (Piedmont Area Regional Transit) is a regional transportation effort by the Piedmont Triad. The bus service to Boone has been an experimental route for about a year. I was in on some of the initial discussions about forming PART so was really interested in seeing how this was working. There were only two passengers headed out of Boone - me and a salesman for God. The salesman explained to me that he was trying to start a business which would allow him to spread God"s message. He told me that it had been proved beyond a doubt that God existed and if you didn't accept that the Devil had you. The Salesman"s business was artificial turf. He had been out in Las Vegas trying to sell golf courses out there on replacing their grass with artificial turf. He talked about the amount of water that could be saved if they converted. He said the Devil was doing some powerful blocking action on his business plan out there and he had no success. He was traveling around here trying to convert people to artificial turf and was going to Wilkesboro as part of his mission. When he got off the bus in Wilkesboro I was reluctant to tell him that I thought the Devil was probably going to be blocking his artificial grass conversion in Wilkes County.At Wilkesboro we picked up two passage rs one of whom was a high school student from High Point who was visiting his mother in Wilkes County. The other passenger was an older man who was going to Yadkinville. He lived on Centre Road, had an 80 acre farm and was not married - he said it was too much trouble. He had ridden the bus to Greensboro last Thursday and partied down there until Sunday when he caught the bus to Wilkesboro and partied Sunday and Monday night. He said he was going home to rest up. He did look a little rough.I couldn't make this stuff up!I talked with the bus driver after dropping off the Salesman and the Partier off. We talked about the route and the usage they were getting. He said that when ASU was in session they had a large ridership with students going back and forth from home to school. They pay half price so a round trip from Greensboro to Boone is only $10. He thought the service was going well. I guess today was just a slow day but I really enjoyed the ride.