It has been an adventurous last couple of days! We had our first inclement weather happening (April 26th) - well, we got to ride in the rain/downpour for a bit! Linda got to try out her new rain coat, she looks pretty good in it too!
Let me start at the beginning... The day before, we got up and left at a reasonable time as we were only going to be riding about 30 miles. After about 5 miles I heard something rubbing on my back tire so I stopped to investigate and saw that I had a broken spoke. So, not to worry, I called a few places looking for someone that could do this repair when we got to our next destination. Talked to a gentleman that gave us some good advice and told him we'd see him in a day or so.
So we are going along our route which takes us over the dam on the east side of Marion Lake in SC. We go riding across it and since it's closed to all motorized vehicles, that makes it really nice! The total way across is about 7 miles. We get to the actual dam part for it about 4.5 miles in and there is a worker there who tells us it is closed and we'll have to go back. I asked how long had it been closed, he said "since 9/11". I asked about signs, he just said have a nice day. The biggest problem wasn't going back the 4.5 miles but the fact to get around it was going to be another 20 miles. This is the blessings of bicycle touring, you never know what you're going to run into!! We went back the 4.5 miles and stayed there for the night.
Next day was on to Summerville to get my back tire fixed. We don't get five miles and I hear something else on my rear wheel, low and behold it is another spoke. I call my guy in Summerville & we get to talking and I tell him I had one spoke that broke before we ever left on this journey without having all the stuff for the bike trip. He told me I might want to call the manufacturer. So I did AND they are sending me a brand new wheel, thinking that one was faulty. God is so good!!!
But our ride continued and we had about 60 miles to cover - that day would be our longest thus far. I had looked at the forecast and knew it was going to rain around 5ish, so we left bright and early. Had great roads and mostly light traffic until we got into Moncks Corner. We were about 4 miles out from our destination and it was looking good, I thought we had beat the rain. Then SUDDENLY! and I mean SUDDENLY, the bottom opened up and down it came. We found a shelter what looked like an old business. It only lasted about 30 minutes but boy was it coming down hard. Lots of thunder and lightning too.
So those were our adventures, but more importantly we got to meet some really awesome people on those two days. First is Steph, who I have only talked to on the phone, but I am so looking forward to meeting him tomorrow in person. When we got turned back from crossing the dam there was Ashley, who is just a bright and shining lady, with a personality to match, that wanted to bring goodness and joy to everyone she came in contact with. Then there were two guys, Jody and Seth, on their motorcycle that were more interested in our bicycles and the idea that we were going cross country on them. Had a great conversation with them hearing their stories too!!
Until next time ... stayed blessed!
Randy & Linda