To Myrtle Beach

April 20, 2024

Yesterday's marathon to Georgetown took us past the halfway point on our route to New York. Barry and I have been kicking around the notion of continuing on to Cape Cod for a lobster roll and time to ride by all my childhood memories. We're still having enough fun to go for it. Mike may or may not hang with us that far; he and Lori have another big trip coming up to prepare for. We shall see.

Since we left Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine two weeks ago, daydreams about Myrtle Beach have kept me going on all those long rides. We have a reservation for three nights in the state park and today looks like the best beach day we'll get. Time to get a move on.

We don't have too far to go - less than half of yesterday's distance. There's a good shoulder for the first eight miles on U.S. 17, then we're off on easy streets that take us to the Waccamaw Neck Bikeway.

I got out ahead of Barry enough to catch him coasting down the Waccamaw River Bridge

Crimson clover and some other little yellow posies along U.S. 17

Nice neighborhood by a golf course in Pawley's Island SC.

Actually, all the neighborhoods around here seem to be near a golf course.

On the Waccamaw Neck Bikeway. If you ride here, watch out for the new section where the pavement breaks at the driveways and suddenly you're in deep sand. I ate it on one of those breaks.

Here's a new one, sharing the path with golf carts. Two of them pulled over to let us pass.

Where the bikeway goes through the woods it gets a bit twisty and bumpy. I still prefer it to sharing the road.

The bikeway gets us to the 17 Business Loop in Garden City to ogle the waterfront homes.

Most homes on the shore road are raised up above storm surge level.

Lunch at the SaltAire restaurant in the Holiday Inn

Home stretch, in Myrtle Beach State Park

At the park we throw up the tents in a jiffy and head on out to the beach. While it's not as wild and unspoiled as Anastasia State Park, we're happy to be here. There's rain in the forecast tomorrow so we'll soak up the rest of this beautiful day by the ocean.