Dump Trucks, Bridges, and Barbecues

My day began with a somewhat early visit from Marley. Not a bad way to start the day. From there I went downstairs where Judy had put out some sausages, bacon, fresh biscuits, fruit, juice, milk. Another feast. Plus there were the turkey sandwiches she had made for me to take with me on the road.

With the road beckoning, I returned to my room to pack up. Today’s destination: Walterboro, SC, another Warm Showers host, and another 100 km ride. The maps indicated that today’s ride would once again be relatively flat. The biggest challenge would be the highway. Today’s Warm Showers hosts, Ron and Debbie, indicated on their online profile that Highway 17 was busy and lacking of quality shoulders. There are alternate routes but none of them seemed to be much of an improvement so I decided to stick with Highway 17 and see what happens.

What happened was that I found myself on a somewhat busy highway with minimal or no shoulders – or shoulders with rumble strips. This lasted for about 75 km. With all the traffic, I think I was looking in my mirror more than I was looking forward. About 20 km into the ride, that turned out to be pretty wise. I was on a section of the highway that had three lanes in each direction and ran through a busy commercial area. At one point I glanced in my mirror to see a dump truck approaching. Usually not a big deal. However, beside the dump truck was a transport truck. It was pretty obvious that, other than slowing down, there was really nowhere for the dump truck to go to avoid me. A couple more glances in my mirror indicated that slowing down did not appear to be something the dump truck was interested in doing. A final mirror check showed the dump truck still barrelling down on me. While I had every right to be where I was I opted to forego my rights and get out of the way. Quickly. Fortunately there was a sidewalk along the highway, so when the next driveway came along I took it. About three seconds later the truck rumbled past me. I chose wisely.

The only other challenge on the day was really more of an inconvenience. There were two notable bridge crossings today. The first, and biggest, was the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. It posed no issues as there was a wide pedestrian/cyclist path – and had some nice views. The other smaller bridge which crossed the Ashley River didn’t have quite as ample of a path. As I said, this was really nothing more than an inconvenience as the sidewalk wasn’t wide enough for two bicycles to cross paths – especially when one of the bicycles is fully loaded. So, when other bikes came my way I stopped to move over as much as possible to let them by. It was during one of those crossings that I met Jim. Jim was from the area but has done a bunch of cycling and so we talked about cycling and trips for a while before continuing on in our respective directions.

Not long after that I had another encounter with a cyclist. I had pulled off the highway to confirm I was in the right place and another glance in mirror showed another cyclist approaching. Not fully loaded, just out for a ride. A couple minutes later I met Michael. He was curious about my bike and all the rigging on it as he was considering doing a trip as well. We discussed the bike, the gear, Warm Showers, and other related things before he continued along the highway. I resumed riding a few minutes later.

From there the rest of the ride was very uneventful. This section of Highway 17 certainly wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had on a bike but it really wasn’t all that bad. You just had to pay attention to your surroundings. Generally a good idea anyway.

I stopped for lunch at noon. Halfway to Walterboro. I was making pretty good time so I leisurely enjoyed my turkey sandwiches and a few other snacks I still had in my bags.

By 1:00 I was back on the road and by 4:00 I had arrived in Walterboro. From there it was a short ride to my Warm Showers hosts. I pulled into the driveway and was met by Ron. Much like previous hosts, Ron was great. Very friendly and generous. It seems he gets quite a bit of Warm Showers traffic. He had a couple stay last night and he was expecting a second guest for tonight.

We enjoyed a fantastic barbecue of burgers, salads, beans, chips, and apple pie and ice cream for dessert – it was great to be sitting outside, wearing shorts, in late October.

Ron and Debbie’s second guest for the night, Eneko, didn’t arrive until shortly after 7:00 but they once again rolled out the red carpet and fired up the barbecue and cooked another round of burgers. The rest of the evening was spent sharing tales from our trips. He’s from England and, because of flights, his ride is going from Miami to New York. All I can think to say is, “Brrrrrr”. Having just come from where I’ll be going he warned me of some of the challenging sections that I have coming up. Hopefully it will go well.

The rest of the evening was spent with the four of us sitting around, sort of watching the World Series, and discussing everything from cycling trips and previous Warm Showers experiences to baseball and cricket to ridiculous athlete and executive salaries. It was another very enjoyable evening.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 101.04 km
Time on bike: 4:38:37
Maximum speed: 36.51 km/h
Average speed: 21.75 km/h