In Myrtle Beach: the great coffee escape

April 21, 2024 to April 22, 2024

Rainy Sunday

Between the neighbors yakking and the wind blowing and the jets flying over us to land at the airport next door the campsite was loud last night. Then the thunder and lightning started, lighting up the tent and keeping us wide-eyed. Eventually it all subsided and we fell asleep to the sound of waves breaking on the beach.

Everything is damp this morning. The wind blew the rain sideways, encrusting my panniers with sand. I'm hanging out in the laundry room until it's light enough to ride someplace that's warm and dry.

More rain is on the way. I'm outta here.

A few miles away I find what I'm looking for at Grand Strand Coffee Shop -heat, a table, food and great coffee. It's an ideal place to sit and think and write in my dogged quest to catch up on the journal. If it weren't for the relentless passage of time and new days to recall I would be there by now. Later Barry joins me and settles in to read the news, seeing that I'm in Greta Garbo mode.

We kill more time at the grocery store, then ride back to camp where it's still raining off and on. The forecast for a dry afternoon is not panning out. While we were gone Mike talked to the ranger and found a picnic shelter by the beach that has opened up today due to the rain. He set up shop there and defended the territory until we got back. That move has transformed the rest of our day. We have a dry place to hang out and cook dinner.

Breezy and dry, more scenic than a hotel

Man, they have a lot of restrictions here. No music?

Think I'll wait until tomorrow to walk the beach.

The afternoon is a fine time to figure out a route to extend our trip from New York to Provincetown Mass. The first part is simple. I read somewhere on Cycle Blaze about the Cross Sound Ferry from Orient Point at the end of Long Island to New London CT. That's appealing. We won't have to backtrack through New York City.

I've plotted a route from New London following the coast to the Cape Cod Canal. The East Coast Greenway and the ACA routes all swing further west than I want to go, so I'm just looking at the heat maps showing where the locals ride, and trying to avoid the busier roads.

Suggestions are welcome from anyone who might know the roads around the coast of Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. Once we get to the canal we'll be in familiar territory.

Looks quite a bit hillier than where we've been

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Our perch here in the picnic shelter is pretty exposed to the chilly breeze. Later in the afternoon we move to another shelter nearby that has more cover from the wind to fix dinner, then ride back to our soggy camp. We'll have another shot at a beach day tomorrow.

Decent dinner fare from Walmart - hot soup, salad and hand pies

Stunted by the wind and salt spray, these trees still make a partial windbreak.

I am vindicated for toting the rain gear all this way

Monday funday

The rain is over but it's still cold so I am headed back to the coffee shop until it warms up. I found another Grand Strand Coffee Company closer to the campground and recognize Bettina who was at the first place yesterday. "Did you come back to see me," she asks?

Turns out Bettina is the owner. She and her daughter Keely started with a coffee stand at the Farmer's Market when Keely was 13. They did a brisk business, so much so that they were kicked out of the Farmer's Market for competing with Barnes & Noble. Knowing that there was demand for speciality coffee in Myrtle Beach, they decided to open a speciality coffee shop. This was at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020. It was a rough time for any business, let alone a new one, but they endured.

Now Keely is a student at the University of South Carolina and Bettina has two shops, both clearly doing a good trade while I was there. While I quit caffeine last year, the smell of good fresh coffee still calls to me. Their decaf Pan Van Latte - a blend of panela, vanilla, cinnamon, and honey, is a real treat. Besides great coffee they make a killer breakfast sandwich and are so nice to let us park there until it warms up outside.

Bettina must be giving Barnes & Noble plenty of competition now.

While we hid out in the coffee shop, Mike took a long ride to a post office in North Myrtle Beach to pick up the new tent he ordered. It was to be a replacement for the one with the six inch hole that the squirrels made back at James Island County Park a few days ago. The USPS website lists that post office as one that accepts General Delivery packages, but they don't, as the clerk told him quite rudely. The new tent has been returned to sender. By now he must have piled up enough karma points to be spared further harassment from squirrels, rats, raccoons or surly postal workers.

No new tent, he'll just have to patch up the old one.

We have work to do as well, hanging up wet sleeping bags and clothes. The pages are wet in the Bluey Goes Camping book that I bought on Saturday for my grandson so that goes on the line with the rest of the wet stuff. I hope he still likes the story.

Enough with the chores. Barry settles in with his hammock while I head to the beach.

The sand here is silky with no sharp rocks or shell fragments to dodge. The water feels warm as I wade through the waves. Walking barefoot is supposed to reduce inflammation and boost your supply of beneficial electrons from the earth. Maybe so. It sure feels amazing this afternoon.

As I walk toward the pier I watch the little sandpipers skittering around the water's edge. It's hard to believe they are getting enough nutrition poking into the sand for bits of food to offset the energy they expend running to and from the waves.

Birdwatching is extra entertainment here

Underneath the pier is a fun spot to watch the waves breaking

If the sun is out, it's warm enough for ice cream

Mike's been walking the beach too, boosting his own stores of electrons from the earth

I'm glad we hung around here long enough to have one more sunny afternoon at the beach. Even with the wet weather yesterday, the campground is one of the nicer ones we've stayed at. All the essentials are close by - bathrooms, power, water - and we haven't been tormented by critters or mosquitos. I just hope the next stop is warmer.

Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 1,157 miles (1,862 km)

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