I started this adventure the first weekend in April when I rolled
out under gray skies that soon got darker.
Within an hour I was riding through a drenching down pour. Little did I know then, but Mother nature was
about to end a five year drought, and she had all intentions of getting the
water tables back to normal as fast as possible. Rain followed me the next six days and some days
it passed me and was sitting there waiting on me when I got to camp. When the rain itself couldn’t be there with
me on the road, its’ fellow element wind would stand in for it along with the
cold. It was a virtual cornucopia of
miserable weather. As most of you know
from previously posted ride reports
I decided to postpone the rest of the ride in Barnwell until a warmer, drier
date, and May 16th looked like it would fit that bill.
Barnwell to Rivers
Bridge
Friday afternoon found me wedged behind the front seat of my pickup
truck with Susan driving and her sister Lynda riding in the front with
her. My bike and gear were sitting in
the bed of the truck while I looked out forlornly wishing I was lying back
there with’em. Lynda was riding down to
keep Susan company on the 6 hour round trip to
Barnwell that she was making to get me to the drop off point. I felt the least I could do was to take the
jump seat in the back, but it sure was cramped.
The 25 mile ride I had ahead of me to Rivers Bridge State Park was
looking really good about now, even as we rode through a couple of rain
storms. By
The road was flat and I
made good time to the state park. As I
rode through the main gate another familiar site greeted me, fat rain
drops. I quickly found a camp site next
to the bathhouse, and started unloading and setting up the tent. As I threw the tarp over the bike a flash of
lightning and a boom of thunder announced the start of an intense thunder
storm. The rain was torrential as I
jumped into the tent and zipped her up.
As I lay there watching the lightning flash among the tall pines, I
could feel the thunder vibrate through the camp. I have never been outside in a storm like
this. The lightning flash was still in
my eyes when the thunder sounded. My
tent fly is 75 denier, 2.1 oz. multicoated StormShield polyester. In real life terms this is a piece of rayon
about a nano-inch thick between me and being a
freedom fry. To make matters worse I
could feel water flowing under my tent!L A quick look outside and I knew I was in
trouble. I had set up my camp in a low
acre. Not area, but acre. I was sitting in a tent in the middle of a
huge, shallow pond, with water almost lapping over the door step. The floor was beginning to leak because it
was only suppose to keep out moisture, not be a submersible. I was in between two very tall pines, as in lightning
rod height, and it was lightning, and I’m sitting in water!~
It was then I decided to swim for it and I
made a dive for the bathhouse. After a
while the rain slacked off and I decided to pack up and head for the picnic
shelter. I splashed back to my tent and
grabbed my bags and quickly reloaded the trailer. I took the tent down and just draped it over
the trailer and I started to jump on the bike.
That’s when I noticed the front tire was flat. Damn!!
This day was not going liked I planned.
I tried to pump it up enough to ride the quarter mile to the shelter but
no luck. It was still drizzling and I
was standing in water so I decided to push it to the picnic area. A quarter mile isn’t much unless its wet sand
and you are pushing a loaded bike and trailer with a flat front tire. I finally got there and the good news was it
had quit raining. I dried the inside of
the tent as best I could and stored my stuff inside. I hung my wet stuff from the ceiling joist of
the shelter roof in hopes they would dry in the zillion% humidity (like that
could happen), and I then pulled the front tire off of the bike.
It was then I found out
why the tube would not take any air. The
stem had pulled out. My new wheels don’t
use schrader tubes (valve stems like cars) like my old wheels. They use presta tubes and the presta stem had
pulled completely out of the tube. I
replaced the tube and reinstalled the tire and worried why that had
happened. I hoped this was not going to
be a reoccurring problem. It was
The numbers for the day
Total miles today 24.3
Average biking MPH 11.3
Total time
Total miles to date 329
Rivers Bridge to Edisto,
oops, that’s Summerville
Climbing into the tent ended the first day but began the first
night. The first very
long night. Now, sleeping under
a picnic shelter does come with a few pluses, roof and raised floor, but it
does have that one big minus. The floor
is concrete. I know how plush a 1.5”
thick, 20” wide by 46” long Thermo-rest air mattress sounds, but trust me; it’s
not all self-indulgent pleasure. It can
get a little hard on a concrete floor.
This means that about every thirty minutes or so I would have to roll
over because the soreness would wake me.
This is not real conducive to a long night’s sleep, but becomes instead
a succession of little catnaps. But that
was not all. The rained had stopped and
now with the thunder gone I could hear the whippoorwill that had decided to
call … all night long. All night, I
swear. He/she was loud too. But wait, it gets better
While riding to the park, which is in the absolute middle of
nowhere, I passed a wood preserve plant not far from the main park gate. This was the only other signs of human life I
saw, and it was only a sign at the entrance of a gated dirt road. I mention this only because of a mystery that
manifested itself during the night and I think this plant plays some part in
it. I noticed after the rain storm what
sounded like a shotgun discharge as I setup my tent under the picnic
shelter. It seemed to be louder than a
shotgun, but was somewhat muffled and seemed to be coming from deep in the
woods. I just assumed it was a hunter,
but it continued to boom regularly about every 45 minutes, and continued into
the night. This boom was still booming
steadily as I rode out the next morning.
No clue to what it was and I am hoping someone reading this will know
and enlighten me. So with the concrete
floor, the whippoorwill, and the booming I spent my first night on the
road. And Lewis and Clark thought they
had it rough.
I finally gave up any attempts to sleep about
I got a Gatorade and a donut and called Susan. I had not been able to talk to her last night
because of no phone service. Of all the
places I had been this was the first time I could not call her. After getting the weather update from her I
sat there and began to rethink my trip.
I had called
The road is completely flat here and I was beginning to notice that
I never stopped pedaling. There was no
downhill coast. It was just pedal,
pedal, pedal. Even my Brook saddle was
beginning to feel a little uncomfortable from never changing position or
standing in the pedals. I finally rolled
into Walterboro and pulled into a parking lot.
As I stood there looking at my map a local man walked up and ask where I
was headed.
I told him my plan and he shot it down immediately by telling me
there were no overnight room rentals in
I had never had problems with leg cramps, but now my left leg was
cramping on every up stroke, and stretching out somewhat on the down
stroke. It wasn’t long before the right
leg started to do the same thing. I
ultimately had to stop and stretch and massage my legs. It was then I realized I had not been
drinking very much. I was only drinking
when I stopped. You see, I usually drink
when I’m coasting, as well as I stretch my legs then too. I now felt like I knew the cause,
dehydration. From them on I would stop
every ten miles and drink. My legs
continued to cramp the rest of the day, but I never had trouble with them after
today.J I was finally able to rest my legs for
about an hour in the little town of
Cottageville was the turning point for Givhan’s State Park, and it
is where I decided to stop and eat. It
was
By
I ate supper at a seafood place next to the motel and then lay in
my king size bed and watched TV until I fell asleep. It sure beat the hell out of a thermo-rest,
and a real pillow instead of rolled up clothes was heaven. What a difference a day makes.
The numbers for the day
Total miles today 67.5
Average biking MPH 11.1
Total time
Total miles to date 397
Summerville to
Andrews
I got up this
morning a little after
Traffic was
certainly a little dicey around the 17 and I-26 overpass. I was glad it was Sunday morning and not
Monday morning as I pedaled over I-26.
They were doing road work here too, and the next five miles were a little
intense. The traffic soon dropped off
after that, and the ride into Moncks Corner was really pleasant. It was along this stretch of road I met my
first and only other long haul bikers.
About six
miles from Moncks Corner I met two women headed the opposite direction towards
Summerville. We stopped and talked for a
while and they told me they left from
I picked up
a couple of biscuits at McDs and found a
laundromat. As I was washing my clothes
I felt like I was back in
With my
laundry done I was slowly pedaling out of town when I decided to get off hwy 17
and to take a side trip through the
The rain
held off long enough for me to unload my stuff and ride my bike into town for a
Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner. The rain
started about the time I got back into my room.
The weather channel was calling for 70% thunder storms tonight and 70%
rain showers in the morning. Life is
hell on the road, but it’s a whole lot nicer with a king size bed, AC, and
TV. I was glad I wasn’t camping at “Give Anns” state park.
I called
Susan and told her I was planning on staying at another motel because of the
weather and asked her to do an internet search for the motels in and around
Mullins. She said she would and that we
would talk again tomorrow around lunch time.
It’s nice to have a support team.
The numbers for the day
Total miles today 58.1
Average biking MPH 11.4
Total time
Total miles to date 457
Andrews to Mullens
to Dillon
It rained all night and when I got up it was still sprinkling. I packed and loaded my bike and was riding
out of Andrews by
Susan was looking for a motel for me in Mullens and that was my
destination for today. It was about 60
miles away and after the traffic thinned I figured it would be a nice misty
ride through the countyside. Hemingway would be my first town of any size
and 23 miles down the road was where I stopped for a Hardee’s biscuit, or
two. I called Susan and she had a list
of 2 or 3 motels. The mist had stopped
and only grey clouds remained. The day
was looking good.
Right outside Hemingway the trees disappeared and were replaced
with long stretches of open farm land. I
was riding north and I ran into that north eastern wind I had heard about on
the weather channel. Now this just
sucked. I had been cruising along at
13-14 mph and now I was struggling to make 8-9 mph. I finally pulled into Mullens about
As I sat in another Hardees eating lunch I
decided
As I pedaled towards Dillon I became aware of another topography
change. The land had started to
roll. Not too bad, but with the wind the
last 20 miles was the toughest since Aiken.
It looks like I am finally leaving the flat land. About
Now, Shoney's is not high on my list of restaurants for fine
cuisine, but if you just want to feed, its tough to beat. Tonight was all you
can eat shrimp and I hurt their bottom line. As I walked back to my room I noticed a
Waffle House! All right! Tomorrow was
going to be a country ham breakfast day, and if that wasn’t good enough, I
noticed a little blue peeking through the clouds. Things were definitely looking up.
The numbers for the day
Total miles today 79.9
Average biking MPH 10.4
Total time
Total miles to date 536
Dillon to Cheraw
Today I planned to ride only to Cheraw, 40 miles away. Since today was a short day I slept a little
longer and then headed for the Waffle House.
Ummmm, country ham. As I started
to cross the street I saw the sign on the Huddle House next to the motel and it
said,” Country Ham Breakfast”. I made a
snap decision to just eat there instead of cross over to the Waffle House. I regretted it the rest of the trip. The ham was that old sugar cured stuff. I don’t even believe the pig it came from was
country. The grits were runny and the
biscuits were canned. I almost went
across the street and ate another breakfast at the Waffle House.
By
Now, hwy 9 is the major route from the coast to the piedmont, and
it was busy with truck traffic. The
greater part of them were logging trucks headed for the Bowater Plant in
I Turned down
Now that I was riding on a hilly terrain I was shifting my rear
derailleur more, and I noticed some shifting problems. My chain was jumping and slipping on the rear
cassette under a load. This was not
good, and with the big hills coming in
It had a laundromat next door and a Mexican restaurant and Hardees
across the street. What a place. I washed my clothes first and then had beef
fajitas at the Mexican place. Now I was
ready to tackle the bike.
There was some misalignment with the rear derailleur and I adjusted
the derailleur stops. This brought it
back into alignment, and I hoped this would fix it. After an inspection of the whole bike I found
another problem. The headset was
loose. It takes a 32mm wrench to adjust
it and that is too big a wrench to travel with.
I had replaced the headset before this trip and I evidently did not get
the races pressed down all the way. I checked the yellow pages for a bike shop
and found none (and that took about two seconds. The yellow pages are about 5
pages long.). I hand tightened it as
best I could. It would show up as a
handling problem if it got too loose, and so far that had not been the case.
After messing with the bike I watched a little TV and quickly got
bored. I was beginning to wish I had
ridden to the next town. Tomorrow I was
suppose to ride to
The numbers for the day
Total miles today 41.3
Average biking MPH 10.6
Total time
Total miles to date 578
Cheraw to Rock Hill
I was up and out by
About four miles outside of Cheraw the derailleur got a full
checkout. It was about then the road
jumped ugly. The genteel rolling hills
were replaced with a wild, undulating, heaving ribbon of asphalt ( I ran out of synonyms for rolling). My flat riding was gone and I was now in
one-one. For the non-cyclist that is
your smallest chainring and your biggest rear
cog. “It don’t get no
easier than that for climbing”. In other
words, if you can’t get up the hill in one-one you’re next choice is
walking. I was giving the old derailleur
a workout and so far it was up to the task.
It shifted flawlessly and did not skip a tooth while I, on the other
hand, was getting real nostalgic for that flat road as my heart felt like it
was skipping a few beats occasionally.
I quickly settled into a routine of up one hill and down the
other. I even enjoyed resting and
stretching my legs on the down hills. I
started to actually prefer the rollers to the pedal, pedal, pedal, of past
days. In no time I was in
I took a break in
By now hwy 9 was 4 lanes.
It was like riding down an interstate without the breakdown lane. Traffic was still light but it zoomed by at
high speed. There’s no greater thrill
than a convoy of sand trucks roaring by you at 65 mph. It’s like riding through a sand blaster. I figured I was going to have to repaint my
bike if I didn’t get off this road soon.
Finally, about 16 miles from
What a great road this was.
It passed through as pretty countryside as I had ridden this trip. It took me through Tradesville, Stewart’s
Cross Roads, and Unity as it ran along the South Carolina/North Carolina
border. Eventually it came to an end
though, as my little country road ran into hwy 521. It was back to high speed traffic, big
trucks, noise and smoke.
Four miles further along 521 and I turned left on hwy 5. I was now only 12-13 miles from
The rain came in buckets.
I ordered a pizza form Papa Johns and settled in for the night. The good news, I was dry. The bad news, there was rain and flood
warnings all day tomorrow and the high was only suppose to be 58. There’s nothing like being cold and wet. I know. I’ve been there, done that. Now … remind me again why I love this.
The numbers for the day
Total miles today 74.3
Average biking MPH 10.0
Total time
Total miles to date 652
Top speed for day 30
mph
Well, the weather channel didn’t lie. It was pouring. I was out early again, and by
It was 13 miles to
The first leg of this around the state trip included hwy 11. Hwy 11 runs over the foothills of the
piedmont. It was really hard at times
but I only walked my bike once. By the
time I reached
I slide to a stop and pulled my bag off the trailer and headed
inside. I pulled everything off but my
riding shorts and tossed them in the dryer.
While they were tossing and tumbling I opened my bag and pulled out a
dry jersey, wool sweater, dry gloves, socks, leg warmers and my cold weather
booties. After everything was dry and
warm I put on my leg warmers,
fresh jersey, sweater, dry rain pants, socks, sandals, booties,
dry rain coat, fresh gloves, and a fresh sweat band pulled over my ears. I was ready to continue on.
Ten more miles put me in Gaffney.
I ate lunch at another Hardees (I have really developed a taste for
those 1/3 lb. cheeseburgers meals). Its
The road was still hilly but a lot better than hwy 5 and I
rolled through Cowpens without stopping.
Next came Converse and right behind it was
By now it was pushing
The numbers for the day
Total miles today 75.7
Average biking MPH 9.4
Total time
Total miles to date 728
Top speed for day and trip 36 mph
