Tag: cycling

Mountains to the Sea

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.

Loved having Tampa
with me on this ride!

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.

my new friend, April

 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.

More Than Just A Bike Ride

One of the things that continue to fascinate me about cross-state bike rides is the variety of people that do them. There are 7 year olds and 70 year olds. There are very small people and very large people.  Some are very fast and some are very slow. There are singles, couples, families and teams or groups.  And they bring all kinds of bikes. There are road bikes, mountain bikes with knobbies, hybrids, recumbents, tandems and three seaters pulling a tag-a-long. But they all have one thing in common. They have a lot of fun!

One might say indoor camping
is a little crowded!

In June, 1999, I was privileged to ride in my third BRAG (Bicycle Ride Across Georgia). We began in LaGrange, which is about 20 miles from Alabama, and rode across the state to Savannah, a total of 435 miles. We began on Sunday morning and finished on Saturday afternoon.  The weather was unbelievable for this time of year with overcast skies keeping the temps mostly in the 70’s while we were riding. We had overnight stops in Columbus, Thomaston, Perry, Dublin, Metter, and Statesboro. BRAG is a family oriented tour, not a race. It is recreational, social and in some ways, educational. We traveled at our own pace along a set route and at the end of each day, tent camped at a local college or high school. There was even some indoor camping in the gym if you wanted to sleep with about two hundred other people! Everyone was responsible for his or her own meals but most choose to eat breakfast and supper in the school cafeteria. And I found the food to be really good. Sometimes the lines are very long but this gives people time to talk to each other and make new friends. During the afternoon and evening there were various activities and entertainment. And some of the towns we visited went all out to see that we had a good time. In Thomaston they closed the streets around the Courthouse Square for a party and dance featuring The Platters. At Fort Valley State University there was a large tent set up with numerous food vendors, entertainment and an invitation to swim at the pool. West Laurens HS in Dublin was a great stop and the football coach there was from Lenoir City, TN, my home town! In Metter, there was another street dance with CC and Company. The ride ended by going around Savannah’s historic Madison and Monterey Squares and through historic neighborhoods with large trees full of Spanish moss draping across the streets.  Our final destination was Daffin Park where we ate a great BBQ lunch and had all the free beer we wanted (and were willing  to stand in a long line for).

One of the things I’ve noticed about these kinds of rides is that by mid-week you have lost track of time and don’t even know what day it is…and really don’t care. You just ride your bike, meet lots of people, eat lots of food and have lots of fun. Lord willing, I hope to do these kind of tours for years to come!