Day four (Thursday, May 11, 2023) began early as I tried to quietly sneak out of Susan's home around 6:30 a.m. I had a great rest and was really glad I got to stop and see Susan and meet her husband. They were great hosts for the evening.
During dinner last night Susan told me about the resident gator that lives in the pond in their housing development. Sure enough this morning as I left I saw him peeking out of the water looking for his breakfast. Fortunately, it wasn't me.
I ate my breakfast banana on the trial as I left outer Charlestown. The greenway next to the road was about 5 miles and a nice relaxing way to start the day before having to jump back on the South Carolina roads. I'm not a big fan of bananas but I've been eating at least one a day to get potassium. Plus I don't think I'm allowed to be considered a cyclist if I don't eat bananas.
Again today Komoot was able to route me onto some great dirt/gravel roads and away from the hectic traffic on US17.
I get to see some weird things on the road.
Around mid-day I took a break and ate some of my peanut butter and breakfast bars on a church porch to escape the sun.
I had no idea South Carolina had such a
large forest industry. I got passed on the road by many trucks hauling trees that hung off the back. The drivers were pretty good about giving me space.
Some of my favorite people I've met have been road construction workers. I rolled up past a line of cars and had a nice chat with this guy. After all the cars cleared, he was nice enough to hold traffic on the other end and let me pedal through.It was also nice to know that no cars would be coming behind me for a while after.
A very rural store in South Carolina with some chairs out back where I drank my Poweraid and ate a few snacks. The building was half quick stop convenience store and the other half a liquor store.
I like to take breaks every hour or so and stretch and learn about the historical events in the areas I'm passing through.
In the last hour of my ride I started to see a lot of traffic coming from the other direction. As I neared I-95 it got worse and made it very difficult for any cars behind me to pass me. And with no shoulder I had to stop in the grass every so often to let the cars that pack up behind me pass. It was annoying.
I wanted to go a few miles longer to a more local campsite but ended up getting a spot at a KOA near I-95. I picked up a pickle and drank the juice. It's great for preventing camp. After I setup my tent, I decided to go into the pool and do some aquatherapy. There was only two other people at the pool and we stuck up a conversation about travelling. We decided to grab a pint at the little bar they had after we cleaned up.
Nick and Sara were a lovely couple from England who come over to the US every summer and travel around in their 5th wheel camper. They keep it stored in Seattle so they will be going back through the midwest around the time I am in June. I hope to get to meet up with them again. I really had a fun evening with them.
The only problem was after we said goodbye, I went back to my campsite in the dark, with a little buzz and tried to make Ramen for dinner. I couldn't get my store to fire up so I just put water on the noodles, let them obsorb it, and then ate the noodles cold with hot sauce. It wasn't my best meal but it did the job. Welcome to life on the road. :)
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