At the Table with First Baptist Church in Marianna

Thursday is the shortest day of the week, 34.4 miles from Marianna to Helena, and I'd like y'all to spend some of the time it gives you at breakfast.

Breakfast is at First Baptist Church, on the square, from 7:00 to 9:00. When Pat Audirsch heard the Graveler was coming, she offered to bring some of her neighbors to sit down with us. That means on Thursday morning you'll be sharing tables with people who call Marianna home: Nancy Apple, Ora Barnes Stevens, Clyde Noel, Mark and Lucy Smith, John Jones, Nancy Blount, Terry Sandefer, and Pat herself. Steve Moore, Adam O'Neal and Meagan O'Neal will be at the door to welcome you in.

They'll be wearing name tags, and that's all I'm going to tell you about them. Every one of them has a Marianna story, and those stories are theirs to tell, not mine. Find a name tag, introduce yourself, and ask what they'd want a visitor to know about their town. Then let them talk.

Pat has also put together a display inside the church on some of the people, places and stories Marianna is proudest of. Give it a few minutes before you go back out to your bike.

You'll see the rest on the square. People here have been working together to get the town ready for Thursday morning. Take a slow lap around it before you head for Helena.

Thursday afternoon belongs to Helena and the King Biscuit Blues Festival. Thursday morning belongs to Marianna, and to the people who came out to meet you.

Thank you, Pat, and thank you to First Baptist and to everyone giving up a weekday morning to sit down with a room full of cyclists. We can't wait to meet y'all.