I haven't done so well with photos the last couple of days so tonight I'll make up for that omission with a few that cover the last few days. Working from the bottom up is the lighthouse on
Okracoke Island along side the keeper's house. It is open and they allow you to climb to the top. I walked only a few yards down the path and was fighting off the
mosquitoes (a constant scourge in North Carolina - I am convinced that the mosquito is the state bird of NC) so I took a couple of quick shots and was back on the bike. The harbor shot is from the hotel docks and you can see the same lighthouse in the distance. The final shot from
Okracoke is the peaceful little river with the boat and the ocean in the background - taken about halfway down the island (which is about 14 miles long) on the way to the Cape Hatteras ferry. The
DQ sign is because Dairy Queen is such an important part of these bicycle events. Every day we have a cue sheet for the day's route and without exception every
DQ along the way is marked - my personal favorite is root beer float with a grilled cheese - fuel for the miles still to be ridden. And the last three are scenes from South Carolina: a shot of the
spanish moss that is so prevalent in these parts, a shot of me mid-span on the bridge (more below) that crosses the Charleston harbor, and a shot of the harbor showing the WWII carrier Yorktown and in the distance Ft
Sumter where the first shots of the Civil War were fired - literally where the war started.
And so today's ride. We started out on quiet Saturday morning streets and headed into Myrtle Beach and the beach/ocean areas (betcha didn't know that Myrtle Beach has more golf courses per
capita than any city in the world). It is a lot like other beach cities with lots of condos and townhouses - actually reminded me a little of A1A in Florida - but it was nice this morning. It is off season and so not the hordes of people I would imagine in the summer time. We were still a pretty large group when we went through so it was kind of neat going down the main drag in a fast moving group of maybe 18/20 cyclists. We did see a lot of the ocean and beaches and for one maybe 3 block period actually rode along the boardwalk. Leaving Myrtle Beach we worked our way onto highway 17, a four lane divided highway that is the main route to Charleston and were pretty much on this road for the next 80/90 miles. The road is a good one with one huge error in its design - they build a great shoulder perfect for cycling but then go and ruin it by creating rumble strips right down the middle. This, of course forces cyclists to the edge of the right lane of traffic, not exactly the optimum situation. Fortunately traffic for the most part was relatively light and saw us and moved to the left with no real problems - needless to say, however we did virtually the entire trip in strict single file. It was otherwise an almost perfect day for a long ride. The temperature was in the upper 70s, and the winds were tailwinds all day. Our group of 8 or 9 lost a couple of people today who chose to go a little slower and one other who went solo for the day - the four of us are pretty compatible so for most of the day we really let it out and rode at anywhere from 19 to 22 mph most of the day - our final average was about 18.5 mph which is easily the best I have ever done on a such a long ride. Coming into Charleston we had to cross a 2 and 1/2 mile bridge (pictured above) that spans the Charleston harbor. It was constructed with a separate cyclist/pedestrian lane that is wide enough for both and made the crossing much more enjoyable than most of the bridges we have seen the last several days. Most impressive for me was the view of Ft
Sumter - I truly wish we had enough time to take the tour and see it up close. And once off the bridge we were routed through downtown to give us just a taste of this historic old city...certainly hope I can come back with Susan one of these days and do the tourist thing a little more thoroughly. So tonight Tom and I found a nice little Italian restaurant for dinner and will soon be asleep getting ready for tomorrow. For today we did 122 miles and put out over 8000 calories. Tomorrow is a little shorter, somewhere around 85 miles - all told we will have done about 400 miles in 4 days ending tomorrow. And there is a nasty rumor floating around that tomorrow my bring a return of the rains...ugh. On that note, good night.
I haven't done so well with photos the last couple of days so tonight I'll make up for that omission with a few that cover the last few days. Working from the bottom up is the lighthouse on Okracoke Island along side the keeper's house. It is open and they allow you to climb to the top. I walked only a few yards down the path and was fighting off the mosquitoes (a constant scourge in North Carolina - I am convinced that the mosquito is the state bird of NC) so I took a couple of quick shots and was back on the bike. The harbor shot is from the hotel docks and you can see the same lighthouse in the distance. The final shot from Okracoke is the peaceful little river with the boat and the ocean in the background - taken about halfway down the island (which is about 14 miles long) on the way to the Cape Hatteras ferry. The DQ sign is because Dairy Queen is such an important part of these bicycle events. Every day we have a cue sheet for the day's route and without exception every DQ along the way is marked - my personal favorite is root beer float with a grilled cheese - fuel for the miles still to be ridden. And the last three are scenes from South Carolina: a shot of the spanish moss that is so prevalent in these parts, a shot of me mid-span on the bridge (more below) that crosses the Charleston harbor, and a shot of the harbor showing the WWII carrier Yorktown and in the distance Ft Sumter where the first shots of the Civil War were fired - literally where the war started.
And so today's ride. We started out on quiet Saturday morning streets and headed into Myrtle Beach and the beach/ocean areas (betcha didn't know that Myrtle Beach has more golf courses per capita than any city in the world). It is a lot like other beach cities with lots of condos and townhouses - actually reminded me a little of A1A in Florida - but it was nice this morning. It is off season and so not the hordes of people I would imagine in the summer time. We were still a pretty large group when we went through so it was kind of neat going down the main drag in a fast moving group of maybe 18/20 cyclists. We did see a lot of the ocean and beaches and for one maybe 3 block period actually rode along the boardwalk. Leaving Myrtle Beach we worked our way onto highway 17, a four lane divided highway that is the main route to Charleston and were pretty much on this road for the next 80/90 miles. The road is a good one with one huge error in its design - they build a great shoulder perfect for cycling but then go and ruin it by creating rumble strips right down the middle. This, of course forces cyclists to the edge of the right lane of traffic, not exactly the optimum situation. Fortunately traffic for the most part was relatively light and saw us and moved to the left with no real problems - needless to say, however we did virtually the entire trip in strict single file. It was otherwise an almost perfect day for a long ride. The temperature was in the upper 70s, and the winds were tailwinds all day. Our group of 8 or 9 lost a couple of people today who chose to go a little slower and one other who went solo for the day - the four of us are pretty compatible so for most of the day we really let it out and rode at anywhere from 19 to 22 mph most of the day - our final average was about 18.5 mph which is easily the best I have ever done on a such a long ride. Coming into Charleston we had to cross a 2 and 1/2 mile bridge (pictured above) that spans the Charleston harbor. It was constructed with a separate cyclist/pedestrian lane that is wide enough for both and made the crossing much more enjoyable than most of the bridges we have seen the last several days. Most impressive for me was the view of Ft Sumter - I truly wish we had enough time to take the tour and see it up close. And once off the bridge we were routed through downtown to give us just a taste of this historic old city...certainly hope I can come back with Susan one of these days and do the tourist thing a little more thoroughly. So tonight Tom and I found a nice little Italian restaurant for dinner and will soon be asleep getting ready for tomorrow. For today we did 122 miles and put out over 8000 calories. Tomorrow is a little shorter, somewhere around 85 miles - all told we will have done about 400 miles in 4 days ending tomorrow. And there is a nasty rumor floating around that tomorrow my bring a return of the rains...ugh. On that note, good night.
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