Atlantic Coast Tour
April 19th - Givhans Ferry State Park to Andrews, South Carolina

Yesterday, our day off the bike, we watched as the park filled up with families and canoers. By nightfall it was full, amazing. This morning we are taking off very early because we have yet another 70-mile day, the last for a while. Most of the day we are riding on quiet rural roads. We stop at many of the small grocery stores along the way to buy tidbits to eat. We have to be careful because much of the food in them is outdated. Louie had worked on the bike yesterday to take care of a clunk that had developed. It seemed to be better this morning but then it started again. We stop so he can tighten things again. The clunk comes and goes throughout the day. Louie finally determines we have a bad bearing in the stokers bottom bracket, hopefully we can figure out how to get Santana Tandem specific parts shipped to a bike shop in Virginia.

We get chased by dogs several times today, most of which are fat so we have no problem out running them. Bec yells, "NO! BAD DOG!" in a very mean voice which works a couple of times with the more aggressive dogs.

In the distance we see a police car with lights on. As we get closer, we see that it is a march of some sort. There are about 50 people walking. They have on T-shirts, but we cannot read the whole thing. The end of the walk has some very old women walking in front of another police car that is guarding the rear of the walkers. They say they are walking to Saint Johns, wherever that is. It reminds Becky of the little ditty, "As I was walking to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives. In his hand were seven sacks and in each sack were seven cats…….." something like that anyway. Must be the heat and the long miles getting to her!

Becky gets a bit confused in Monks Corner, but gets it straightened out by talking to a few locals. We notice that most of them are leery about us being on the main roads but think we should not be out in the national forest either since there is not much out there. We ask about Wi-Fi at a library and at a McDonalds in Monks Corner and folks just give us a blank stare. Email and uploading our stories will just have to wait for a more connected area.

We have a great day on peaceful roads through pine and cypress forests. Louie keeps looking for his South Carolina license plate, but is having no luck. He even stops at a junkyard. They tell us that the license plates have to be turned back in so none are on cars in the wrecking yards. People here pick up every bit of scrap metal they can find. They even tear apart old trailers for the metal. We see pickups going someplace loaded with all kinds of metal, even old bikes. One guy is picking up things beside the road. He says that he picks up anything that is worth money. Bec thinks that Louie is going to be hard pressed to get a license plate in this state.

When we arrive at the town of Andrews a sign tells us it is the home of Chubby Checker. We get a motel tonight for about $40! Yahoo! A soft bed, TV, but no internet. We look in the phone book to see if there are any listings for the last name of "Checker" sadly, we find none.

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