My stay at the Holiday Inn in Moncks Corner SC reenergized me.  Parkie, Ron, David, and Fred made me feel like family.  Thank you guys!  The South Carolina roads and the drivers were wearing me down.

What can I say? 

Ron and I had long talks about bikes and their recent recumbent ride event. 

Parkie was so helpful and nice to talk with. 

I was stunned that David had comped me the room.  I’ve never had that experience.   

Fred and I had a long talk about our lives and our views.  I so often have a chance to inspire people.  I think it’s my “If not now, when?” philosophy.  As Fred was leaving he said “Well, I gotta go.  I’m late for work.”  In jest, he said “Who knows I might get fired.  Hey, that might not be such a bad thing.”

This has been happening all along the way.  It’s wonderful.

Today’s ride was a challenge and I’m so glad I started off this way.  The weather was cold so I put on everything.  I was comfortable for a while, and then I started getting hot. 

I stopped to take things off and Henderson stopped to say “Hi.”  We had a nice visit.  I’m afraid I cut it short since I had to make it to Charleston before rush hour.

Pretty soon after that I came upon the “Francis Marion National Forest”.

The road was quite pleasant.

It was interesting to see the controlled burns.  Here’s the right and left side of part of the road.

 The railroad goes through the forest.  I stopped to get a photo of a train as it was going by.  Unfortunately, I had the camera set wrong and the picture is real blurry.

Things got bad after I left the forest.  My route put me on SR-41 for 18 miles.  This is a truck route.  It has no shoulders.  It was possible to pull off in the grass without rolling in to the ditch.  I had another SC road with a curb that prevented me from pulling off the road.  There were sights along the way.

The Adventure Cycling Association route that took me in to Charleston SC leaves a lot to be desired. 

At one point, I had to cross an older two lane bridge.  It was probably ¼ mile long.  The only way across was to ride in the middle of the lane blocking traffic.  It took several minutes for the cars to pass once I made my way across.  I’m not going back that way.  If I do, I’m calling a mini-van cab.

I finally passed a bike shop!  This is the first time since coming in to Jacksonville FL that I’ve been able to pump my tires.  They were down about 20 psi. 

The guy at the bike shop found the device I’ve been looking for.  It’s a CO2 pump a gauge.

The 20 miles approaching Charleston was more of the same:  Poor roads, no shoulder.  I was able to ride on the sidewalk a bit, but that was too bad to walk on at times.  I had two people yell “Get off the road” and a nasty honk.  That’s the first time since leaving Palm Beach FL that I’ve had this happen.  The only other time was in Salem NH.

The new bridge across the Wando River into Charleston SC is beautiful.  There is a divided bike and pedestrian trail.  I should have taken photos but I was tired.  Here’s one I found on the web.

Once I got to the historic area, I had to ride in the street.   No problem here since I was faster than the cars and we all had to wait for the horse drawn carriages.   

I finally made it to my cousin Mike.