Raleigh

Somebody a while back, in Georgia if I remember correctly, that North Carolina was going to be cooler. For a few days earlier in the week I indeed had a bit of respite from the sun, and I thought that whoever that person was might have been right. But now it's a hundred again, and not really scheduled to cool down, so oh well. The humidity, I think it's safe to say, has gone down some from Georgia.
Made it to Laurinburg the night of my last post, then stopped just before Raeford the next night and slept next to an old church. In town Thursday morning I found the library, and was treated to breakfast by the librarians. Also they had me dig through some books to find something that I liked. The second one that I pulled out was Seabiscuit, and though I haven't been doing as much reading lately as I was at the beginning of the trip, by the next afternoon I'd finished it, and left it at a closed library in Lillington Sunday morning, after spending the night in town.
Sunday afternoon I stopped to roll out my pad in the grass next to a Methodist church for a power nap, and didn't wake up until the pastor walked by and invited me to the church's 4th of July picnic across the street. So I got a big meal, met some nice people, and left by six. Not too much later, anxious kids started lighting up firecrackers, and all through the evening I walked to the sound of hisses and pops, and glowing bursts of crumbling night lit up above the treeline.
Sunday night I stayed outside another church in Fuquay-Varina, and then walked well into Raleigh by Monday night. Yesterday I didn't get far, and didn't even manage to find a library all day even though I was in the city the whole time. Took most of the day off, was interviewed by a local paper, and got myself a hotel for the night.