April 15, 2024
To St. Helena Island
Robert has been an extremely kind and accommodating host, and is juggling life like we all are. We need to be on our way as he has an early appointment today, so we're up and out by 7 am. Good to know we can move it when necessary.
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While Mike heads straight to the ferry over to Hutchinson Island, Barry and I ride to Quinn's for a proper breakfast. Afterwards Barry indulges my plea to hang out and write for awhile. He catches up on all the terrible news of the world over a second cup of coffee.
Then I make what should be a short easy trip to the ferry difficult. When we get to the west ferry stop the boat has just left. According to the schedule it's a four minute ride down the riverwalk to the east ferry stop where the next boat leaves in 10 minutes. I figure we can make it.
Wrong. There's not enough time to get there when you take the wrong path that goes to a stairway, double back to a ramp so you don't have to lift the loaded bike up the stairs, snag the front wheel on a trolley rail and crash, and arrive at the stop to watch the boat taking off two minutes early.
A half hour later we get on the next boat at the east ferry stop, which takes us to the west ferry stop where we should have waited to board in the first place, and finally across the river to Hutchinson Island.
Construction at the landing point on the island blocks all the outdoor passages we can find that don't involve stairs, obliging us to wind our way through the Westin Golf Resort to get on with the ride. By now Mike is surely 25 miles down the road.
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This is all the good part of the day.
From here we find our way to the bridge on U.S. 17 and plunge into the worst bike situation I can remember. For the next four miles we white-knuckle it through a construction zone on a narrow two-lane road. A steady stream of traffic in both directions leaves little room for cars to go around us. Some of them pass pretty close. Menacing piles of sand litter the intermittently disappearing shoulder.
I seem to remember an alternative route that went around all of this through Garden City. Don't be like us. Go the other way if you come through Savannah.
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We bail out on State Highway 315, which is less terrible. There's still a lot of traffic and a narrow shoulder, but the lanes are wider and there are more gaps when motorists can change lanes to pass. I'm ok taking the lane here.
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Close to halfway in Okatie we find a post office inside a dry cleaners to mail more stuff home. Barry got a new Wahoo Roam to replace the Wahoo Bolt that he had worn out the buttons on. He is sending home the box with the charger along with more odds and ends we can jettison. It adds up to over 3 pounds of stuff we don't need in our overstuffed bags.
Back on the road the traffic grinds on. There are just so many cars. It's not until we turn south into St. Helena Island, two miles from the end, that things quiet down. We were going to stay at a hotel in Beaufort, but the Tuck in the Wood campground sounds nice. I hope it's worth the extra nine miles to get there.
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Our campground is in a quiet spot, which is a relief after the long loud ride. I'm thinking this place was worth the extra miles until Mike returns from a ride to the beach - a river beach, not a real one- where someone stole his Wahoo Bolt. Grrrr. Then the mosquitos show up.
I sure hope we find some quieter roads tomorrow.
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Today's ride: 54 miles (87 km)
Total: 877 miles (1,411 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 9 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 4 |
6 months ago
6 months ago