I knew the weather today was going to suck so I wasn’t really excited to get on my bike this morning. It was 45ish degrees with light rain and some wind the whole ride. Thankfully it was only a 50 miler today and the weather here in bizarro South Carolina will be sunny and 70 degrees tomorrow. I rode at a leisurely 11mph pace all day, a little slower than normal, because of my lack of motivation and my plentiful amount of daytime to get the miles in.

I was glad to get out of Myrtle Beach which felt like Atlantic City without the gambling to me (and I hate Atlantic City!). I decided not to take the bike unfriendly US17 all the way to Georgetown and instead took the ECG route which is less direct but uses side roads. I ended up on a bike path which led me by a marsh and a nice bike trail which was a welcomed change.

I got a flat tire at one point and two different people stopped to help me. I didn’t need the help but it was once again nice to have strangers offer to help. One of them even offered me coffee out of his thermos, which I politely declined. Of course, there was a white lab barking at me the entire time I was fixing my flat from behind a fence. It wouldn’t be right if that wasn’t happening so I just basked in the barking and kept on with my business.

Anyway I eventually made it to Georgetown after crossing the Pee Dee River and checked into the Quality Inn. I headed over to the only open local coffee shop (almost the entire town shuts down on Sundays) and had an espresso, coffee, and piece of Kentucky bourbon pecan pie (so good).

The store owner told me that there was a big fire here on September 25 right across the street so half the bars and restaurants are gone now. Here are the ruins.

I did manage to find an open restaurant though and ate two meals including a salmon dish and this amazing chili and grilled cheese.

I opted to go back to my hotel instead of spending more money on delicious food and drink and am just going to watch football the rest of the evening. Tomorrow I have 85 miles to Charleston so I need to rest up. I will be spending a rest day there on Tuesday also.

I woke up at 6:30 and ate my continental breakfast which consisted yet again of sausage and egg biscuits with bacon on the side. When I left the weather was perfect and I headed down route 17 for about 20 miles on the shoulder. I then used back roads for a while but kept getting thrown back onto 17 which was hit or miss depending on the part of the highway I was on. Sometimes there was no shoulder or the shoulder was entirely rumble strips which you can’t ride a bike on. Anyway, there wasn’t much to photograph but I enjoyed these horses.

I ended up going through the town of Shalotte which was having its annual Christmas parade which went for like 10 blocks. I wasn’t really in the mood for hanging out and watching but a took a few pics.

Eventually I got through the parade (I was part of it for a bit) and continued on my way. I knew it was going to rain in the afternoon so I was trying to hustle to Myrtle Beach. Just before I crossed into South Carolina it started to rain on me. It wasn’t that big if a deal other than the wind. I threw on my waterproof jacket and pants and kept going. Here is my bike on the South Carolina border.

By the way I saw zero “South of the Border” billboards on my route. Anyway, eventually I got to Myrtle which is very bike unfriendly. It’s very hard to get into Myrtle Beach and also once you are in you keep getting routed back to US17 which has no shoulder here. I’m not tempted to go out really or go to the beach because the weather is so shitty. Going to hang out in my room for a bit and them get some Italian food for dinner and call it a night early.

Total for the day was 65.16 miles at a little under 12mph. It was flat but into the wind. Tomorrow I head to Georgetown, SC then onto Charleston.

I tried to sleep in but woke up at 7:30am anyway. I decided to rent a car from Enterprise for the day since I wanted to make it to the USS North Carolina, Fort Fisher, and the serpentarium today as well as a show at the Brown Coat Pub and Theater tonight. Public transit here sucks so the 30 bucks to rent a car is worth it.

I started out at the USS North Carolina which was amazing. The ship went through WW2 protecting aircraft carriers (as well as other missions) and survived many battles. I’d have never made it in the Navy though because I’d hit my head all the time on the low ceilings.

Here is me firing a turret.

This is where I would have worked — the coding room. That machine is an Electric Cipher Machine (ECM) and was used to send and receive encrypted messages.

After the ship I drove down to Fort Fisher but it got really foggy all of a sudden. There was a guy taking his bike out onto the wall in the fog which was crazy to me. That’s him way out there.

There is a ferry that takes you across the water to Southport that I would have crossed on with my bike had I stayed in a hotel in downtown Wilmington. Sadly, I couldn’t bike that far yesterday so I’m skipping it. I still ended up seeing it though which was pretty cool. This is me on the wall looking back towards land.

I also made it to the aquarium at Fort Fisher which was surprisingly awesome. I didn’t know it even existed and it looked pretty nondescript but it was a really well managed museum. Here’s two guppies hugging each other (or banging? Can’t tell)

Here’s some fish swimming upstream.

Finally I made it to the serpentarium downtown and holy crap that place was fun. So many terrifying snakes and reptiles were there staring at me like I was a tasty snack. The saltwater crocodile was probably the scariest to me because it was accompanied with a story about how a group of them essentially devoured 80 Japanese soldiers who were retreating from battle. Look up the Ramree crocodile massacre if you want to read about it. Here’s one of them.

Also enjoyed some of the other reptiles namely the black mamba and the iguana.

I drove back to the hotel and am doing laundry. Heading back into town to grab dinner and watch a show at the Brown Coat Pub and Theater, returning the car, taking a taxi back, then getting some rest. Heading about 65 miles to Myrtle Beach tomorrow in what looks to be shitty weather.