Cycle South Carolina
June 22-29, 2003
Having previously planned on riding Bike Virginia during this week I hadn’t considered the Cycle South Carolina ride until sometime in May. I wanted to take my wife along and Virginia didn’t offer indoor camping and South Carolina did. And that was one of her requirements. Also, non-riders were free on CSC, another nice incentive, since she is a non-rider.
The ride was much smaller than I expected, with only 140 riders, but that had some positive points. There were no shower lines, at least by the time I got in, short food lines and the opportunity to get to know more people. The ride began in Walhalla and ended at Edisto Beach, hence, the mountains to the sea. We had overnight stops in Anderson, Greenwood, Edgefield, Aiken, Blackville and Waltersboro. Food for the week, always a high priority on my list, was very good. We ate at Miller’s Bread-Basket in Blackville and was served some excellent food by the Mennonite family that owned it. The little town of Springfield served us a variety of pimento cheese sandwiches for lunch one day which was a nice treat. Our end of ride party was on Saturday night and was a barbeque supper consisting of three different styles of barbeque. We then had fried chicken with all the trimmings at an end of ride picnic upon arriving at Edisto Beach.
The little town of Edgefield was one of our favorite places. We had an excellent lunch downtown at an old house which had been converted into a very nice restaurant. This small town has produced ten of South Carolina’s governors. We visited with the town potter and the woodcarver and found them very interesting. We also saw the statue of Senator Strom Thurmond located in the town square. That night, the Senator, who was in the Edgefield hospital, died at the age of 100.
It was fun to ride with Linda again, a friend from Gainesville, Georgia who joined us for the week, and to meet April who is originally from South Carolina but now lives and works on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. April, who had very little road biking experience, did her first century on the second day of the ride. And she did it on a mountain bike with knobby tires! Way to go April!
Overall it was a nice ride of about 385 miles and another fun week on tour with my wife and friends.