Monday 118 miles into Charlestown

I woke rested and started early toward Myrtle Beach for my planned rendezvous with Nick. The streets were deserted this early as i passed through this typical vacation beach town. 

......complete with boardwalk.......

.......and beach at sunrise.

I was early, it was a beautiful day, there was a tailwind and rain and thunder showers were predicted for later in the day. I was itching to move on partly because it is my nature when riding but also because I had a destination in FL and a deadline to see my younger sister Linda for her birthday and older sister Janice before she left on a 3 month cruze from China to Seatle.

Needless to say I am justifying why I rode on and did not wait for Nick now at least a half day behind. Our relationship was strong yet based on a very independent coexistance. Nick would expect nothing less of me than to follow my own calling. 

I generally followed RT 17, the main road, where SC was not very generous to cyclists with the shoulder and most of the time layed down a bike and body shattering rumble strip ..... The bain of all cyclists.

But fortunately with my handy I-phone navigation device I could usually find parallel deserted back roads that only added slightly to the distance.

.....but we're vastly more scenic and pleasant. And sometimes even a bicycle path.

As the day progressed I eventually ran into a the predicted rain but it was only a passing shower that I could wait out for 15 minutes or so under shelter .......

Just before noon I passed through Georgetown SC and some large paper mills and I think a wire and cable mill ....

.....with more industry in the distance far to the north.....

As the day wore on I piled on the miles closing in on Charleston, a city I had heard many good things about and wanted to visit. I had not heard back for a warm showers contact and Nick was not around to lead the way to sleeping out Hobo style, so I was looking around for a motel.

Coming onto Charleston even the main route 17 was rural and deserted. On a parallel side road I encountered a group,of friendly locals boys who gave me water.....

.....and the sad news tha there were no accommodations until the outskirts of the city, but they did tell me about a terrific local seafood restaurant down the road..

......Where I stopped for the best crab chowder, slaw, fried green tomatoes and fried local fish imaginable. They had an article posted for have been written up in the NYTimes.

While at dinner I found a Holiday Inn Express on the north side of Charleston and lumber in at dusk, exhausted with 118 mile behind me.

That night I made contact with Nick by phone to know he was all right, glad that I went on ahead He had been grounded by heavy rains all afternoon and had spent the day in the public library in Georgeton and was now about 100 miles behind.

We happily said our fare-wells by both agreeing it had been great fun riding together, that each of us had learned a lot from the other and that we would meet up again at Abbey's coffee shop in our hometown of Stockbridge in a few weeks to,retail,our friends with tails of our travels.

That night I slept well.