Post 5 - Myrtle Beach, SC to St. Augustine, FL
The beginning of Blog Post 5 was written during our rest day in St. Augustine, FL but we weren't able to finish it before we left St. Augustine so we planned to finish the next week in the evenings while we continued riding through Florida. Well, that didn't work out as planned since we had some longer riding days through Florida that kept us from having enough time to complete it so we finished it after we got back home (long after we got home 😊)
We forgot to mention in the previous Blog Post 4 that after checking into the hotel in Myrtle Beach, we enjoyed a very nice hotel welcome with snacks and some wine outside on the balcony overlooking the beach with a nice sea air breeze. When we finished with the snacks and were heading back up to our room, we were already looking forward to snack-time the next afternoon since we would be still be there on our rest day. But, the hotel welcome event was only held on Wednesdays so none the next day. Fortunately we were there on the day they had a welcome and even better, it was on the day we arrived on our bike so we enjoyed the snacks even more since were pretty hungry from riding all day.
The night we arrived in Myrtle Beach, we enjoyed a nice seafood dinner on Pier 14 overlooking the big Ferris Wheel just down the beach towards our hotel.
The next day, which was our rest day, we had a very rainy day in Myrtle Beach which was a little bit of a bummer. But, looking on the bright side, that meant we avoided an all day soaker in the saddle. 😊 After our rest day, we left Myrtle Beach and rode towards Georgetown, SC Friday in bright sunshine. Our route took us south on Ocean Boulevard for several miles and then onto a path that borders King's Highway (Route 17).
After a short section of Business 17, we turned toward the ocean to visit Surfside Beach. When Ocean Blvd ran out at the water, we headed back to Route 17. There were a few side roads that got us off Rt 17 this day, but the majority of our ride was on the dreaded Rt 17. On Rt 17 there was berm off and on, but it was only a few inches wide and bordered by rumble strip. It also tended to have lots of debris. Not pleasant riding for sure.
Along the way we weren't really hungry at our planned lunch stop, so we rode on. That was lucky because when we started getting hungry, we looked on our phone for some lunch prospects and saw there was a Moe's Original BB up the road a few miles. It looked good so we decided to try it out. The smoked pulled pork sammy's were very tasty and they were friendly folks.
At the end of our ride, we crossed the Waccamaw Bridge into Georgetown before 3p, as planned, and avoided a lot of the Friday afternoon traffic.
Once in Georgetown, we checked into our hotel near a marina. Since we got in early and had some spare time before dinner, John got out his drone to check the repair he made to remove the sand in one of the motors from the bad landing on the Outer Banks and it flew just fine. He got some good photos of the bridge into Georgetown and the marina.
We rounded out the day with a walk over to get a great pizza dinner at Southern Pizza Company and then down to the Georgetown Waterfront where we found some ice cream for dessert. It's a beautiful old Southern town. As we strolled through town, we saw some wonderful Halloween decorations.
That evening, before calling it a day in Georgetown, we reviewed the route for the next day. There was quite a bit of riding on Rt 17 so we explored some alternates to reduce our time on Rt 17. The ECG had us riding on Highway 17 for more than 33 miles. With the help of the Garmin Bike GPS and Google Maps, we came up with an alternate route that added 10 extra miles for the day which upped the daily total to 73 miles in exchange for reducing the distance on Rt 17 from 33 miles to about 6 miles which sounded like a good trade-off.
When we packed it in for the night, rain was forecast all the next day on Saturday for our ride leaving Georgetown. As expected, we awoke to a rainy day so we got out our rain gear. But, by the time we had breakfast and were ready to leave the hotel at 9a, the rain had stopped. There was a hint of some sun and blue sky with little chance for any more rain the remainder of the day. On went the sun sleeves. 🌞
The first half of the route was great. We rode on very quiet shaded county roads past many plantations with Spanish Moss hanging from Live Oak trees.
We enjoyed our time riding on the quiet country roads away from Rt 17 but to cross the North Santee and South Santee Rivers in Santee, SC, we had to get back on Rt 17 for a few miles. After the river crossings, we hopped back off Rt 17 and headed north for the 2nd part of our alternate route. When we got to our first turn, onto Old Georgetown Road (OGR), the road was unpaved.
It was a little surprising that the road was unpaved but we've ridden lots of miles on unpaved roads before so not a big deal, we thought. The night before, we planned our alternate route on the phone using the Garmin Connect App so we couldn't tell that OGR was unpaved. We rode about 1/8 of a mile on OGR to see if we could make it work but the wheels were sinking pretty deep in the sandy soil (partially because the road didn't look like it was used much so the sand wasn't packed and partially because of the recent rain we got). Aside from it feeling like we were riding up a steep hill, the soft sandy soil made for a difficult time keeping the bike upright since there was nothing to "push" against when steering the front wheel in the soft sand while we tried to keep our balance at very slow speeds on our heavy pannier ladened tandem. We paused to look more closely at the map. The map showed that there weren't many alternate roads available to get where we wanted to go so we briefly considered walking the bike. We quickly ruled that idea out when we discovered that OGR was 6 miles long and was likely all unpaved. The alternate routing that we planned for the day made this a longer day, 73 miles, so we made the decision to bail on OGR.
We turned around and rode the 1/8 of a mile back to the paved road. Once we were back to the paved road, we continued further north, away from Rt 17, to the next alternate to OGR which was labeled as a forest service road. When we got to the forest service road, it was gated. And to make matters worse, the road was overgrown and not passable so that wasn't going to work either. At this point, we had the option of retreating back south to Rt 17 and giving up on the second half of our Rt 17 alternate or pressing on hoping we could still find another suitable road to continue on our alternate. We decided to continue on. This meant that we were fully committing to an alternate because we were riding too far north from where we got off of Rt 17 to be able to return to Rt 17 and still have enough time to make it to our destination that day.
So, further north we went towards another forest service road to see if that was the one for us. Luckily this second alternate road, while also sandy dirt, was quite adequate to ride our loaded tandem on so into the Francis Marion National Forest we rode. Back when we had to bail on the OGR, John went to Google Maps on his phone and downloaded an offline accessible map of the entire area in case we got out where there was no cell service and we needed to refer to an alternate map to our Garmin bike GPS to navigate the network of forest service roads in the national forest.
Through the forest, the roads were all unpaved but were packed down for the most part. We didn't see a single car or anybody the entire time we were riding through the Francis Marion National Forest. This was exactly what we were hoping for when we were originally looking for alternates for the busy Rt 17 but it's not so great if you get lost or have some sort of mechanical problem with the bike especially if that happened in an area where there was no cell phone service.
Francis Marion National Forest Video
In the end, our gamble paid off. The Garmin bike GPS database included every one of the Francis Marion National Forest roads so we had no trouble navigating. The forest service roads
eventually took us to Rt 41 where we were originally trying to go on OGR. Surprisingly, with all our
rerouting in the Francis Marion National Forest, we added less than
one mile overall to our alternate we planned the night before.
Admittedly, we did lose some time during the couple of stops to consider our reroute options, but it was well worth it to ride through tranquil National
Forest. As mentioned before, we have ridden on a lot of unpaved trails and roads and find that the more we ride unpaved the more we like it.
While riding through National Forest, John was thinking that the vast network of unpaved forest service roads all over the Francis Marion National Forest would make a great trail network for gravel bike riders. Shortly after turning off of the last forest service road and onto the paved Rt 41, we saw a trailhead parking area specifically for access to the National Forest service roads.
360 of the Forest Service Road
With the uncertainty of finding a suitable path through the Francis Marion National Forest, we decided to hold off stopping to eat our packed Subway sammys until we knew we were through the forest and back on a paved road. Shortly after popping out the other side of the forest and onto a paved road, we passed by the Honey Hill Recreation Area complete with a picnic table and bathroom so we stopped and had our lunch.
When we arrived in Mt. Pleasant after ping ponging around the forest, we rewarded ourselves with dinner at Panera Bread and then settled into our hotel for the night.
On Sunday, we rode around Mt Pleasant and Isle of Palms, crossing several bridges. It was a very pleasant, cool, and sunny ride through subdivisions and by the coast.
Then we crossed the Arthur Ravenel Bridge on Wonder's Way pedestrian/bike path entering Charleston, SC. This path, separated from traffic, provides the opportunity to take in the bridge and surrounding views from a protected vantage point. Up to this point, most of the larger (and sometimes many miles long) tall bridge crossings we've made have been all business with our attention forward and backward in our helmet mirrors scanning for cars while riding on berms close to multiple lanes of fast cars, 18 wheelers, and the like so being afforded a wide protected pedestrian path was a big treat.
Arthur Ravenel Bridge - Charleston, SC Video
Once in Charleston, we rode towards The Battery where we passed a parking lot and saw a Vermont Bicycle Tour van with two guides standing beside it. We pulled into the parking lot and rode over to talk to them. They told us they were operating a four day local tour in the Charleston and Beaufort areas and this was day zero. They were interested in our trip and shared some local routing advice, which we appreciated. Hi Elliot and Tim. 👋
Our plan was ride further before stopping for some lunch but within a block of where we stopped to talk to the guys from VBT, we
saw a BBQ restaurant and stopped at Queology for a nice lunch of
pulled pork before proceeding to The Battery. The staff at Queology where all wearing their restaurant t-shirt. 😀
At The Battery we saw the Pineapple Fountain and took a few pictures in the park where we'd been in June 2008 on a trip with John's Mom. Sue didn't go wading in the fountain like last time, but many people and kids were in the fountain cooling off and having a great time there. It's a pretty park.
John cutting up with Mom - 2008
ECG - 2023 (15 years later)
On the bike once again, we crossed the Ashley River Memorial Bridge. Elliot from VBT suggested we consider taking the bridge just south of the one we were planning on taking but as we were riding, right before turning onto the road that takes you to that alternate bridge, we saw a sign prohibiting pedestrians, e-cycles, some motorcycles, farm equipment, and animals. It didn't exactly prohibit bicycles, but it did say e-cycles and we didn't want to risk it, so we stayed with our original plan. The Ashley River Memorial Bridge had a narrow, elevated sidewalk. Taking the sidewalk that's elevated has the benefit of traffic isolation. But, this sidewalk was very narrow and the downside is that if you unexpectedly ride off the sidewalk, you're probably falling down once you hit the road so if a car is coming through (and many were since it was busy) you're probably going to be run over by a car. With that in mind, we still opted for the sidewalk and carefully managed the crosswind. We rode it all the way across with only one stop to pass another rider headed the other way on his bike. We both stopped and walked pass each other before continuing on.
Once off Rt 17, we rode about 10 miles on the West Ashley Greenway through quiet neighborhoods, onto a path through some wooded sections, and then past a marsh where we spotted some Roseate Spoonbill's.
We returned to Rt 17 to cross two more bridges and then took Route
162 towards Hollywood, SC. None of the restaurants in Hollywood
are open on Sunday for dinner and we also didn't have any good options for places to
stop for breakfast or lunch the following day on our route. Luckily, there was an Piggly Wiggly grocery store along the way that Sue scouted out ahead of time so we stopped and purchased enough food and fluids for the next three meals prior to arriving in
Hollywood. We definitely had a loaded bike when we left the
grocery for our AirBnB. I think we added close to 10 pounds to our tandem at this grocery stop.
For each bike trip that Sue has planned, she has searched for at least one unique lodging venue. On our Natches Trace trip last year, Spring 2022, Sue booked us a night in the Quirky Canary which was a 1973 GMC motorhome converted to an AirBnB. On our Summer 2022 trip, Cincinnati-Cleveland-Niagra Falls-Albany-NYC, we stayed at the Amsterdam Castle which was an old armory. Our lodging in Hollywood, SC was the Skoolie Bus which was a converted Thomas Built school bus complete with an outdoor shower hosted by Colby on AirBnB. It's a cute concept and it was very well done. We had a unique and comfortable stay.
Skoolie Bus Airbnb in Hollywood, SC
Outdoor shower
The original door latch was still in good working order and served as the door lock once you were inside.
The Skoolie Bus AirBnB host had five offerings on the same property - two yurts, a travel trailer, a tiny home, and the Skoolie Bus. In the back of the property we saw a fair sized sailboat stood up on its keel. John had the thought that the AirBnB host, Colby, might just have a long term plan to turn the sailboat into another accommodation on his property which would be a very unique experience.
Monday morning came with cool weather and clouds but, thankfully, none of rain that was predicted. We were soon back on the dreaded Rt 17 for most of our day. There was a small berm for most of the day, for which we were thankful.
Good ol' Rt 17 - a nicer section with a small berm to the right of the rumble strip but it still had plenty high speed traffic and trucks
And what nerve wracking road to ride your bike on would be complete without the venerable logging truck - yep, Rt 17 just kept on giving 😄
Along the way, there were a few side roads that ran parallel to Rt 17 for a few miles each that we took to get some relief from Rt 17 before we pulled into a gas station to get some cold drinks to complement the our packed lunch that Sue made in the Skoolie Bus from the supplies we bought the day before at the Piggly Wiggly. While eating our lunch, we saw a very friendly pooch hanging out at the gas station. The pooch was quite the chonker and John had the feeling that he was very effective at convincing patrons of the gas station to share their food with him.
Poochie looking for a handout from Sue
While eating our lunch, the pooch wondered around the gas station like he was a lost or abandoned dog. But, after talking to one of the employees of the gas station that was outside collecting the trash from the bins, we learned that the once abandoned dog was adopted by a resident that lived in a house adjacent to the gas station and that owner left poochie roam around and inside the gas station throughout the day. It was then that I noticed a funny marking on his collar, "I know the way home". The seemingly random roaming of the dog had previously resulted in good intentioned, but unknowingly incorrect, reports to animal control that the dog needed help when, in fact, he was probably living his best life mooching food and hanging out at the gas station all day. The marking on the collar was the owner's way of preventing people from inappropriately reporting the dog lost. Pretty clever.
It was at the gas station that we finally met another rider who was riding the entire ECG. We were about to start riding after our lunch break when we saw Stephen from New Hampshire pull into the gas station on his bike loaded down like ours. He was riding his bike from Calais, ME to Key West, FL on the spine route (the ECG Spine Route doesn't take some of the optional coastal sections like Cape Cod and the Outer Banks that we took). He was taking his time and had been traveling since August 1st. We saw him one more time later that day when we were resuming our ride after a quick rest break. He told us that he was planning to camp in Beaufort, SC that night.
A couple hours, after having ridden over 2500 miles without crossing paths with any another ECG traveler prior to meeting Steven, we met two more people, Grace and Matt of The Golden Road, who were also doing the entire East Coast Greenway. We rode 41 days and never met another ECG rider and within a few short hours, we now had met three people doing the entire ECG. Amazingly, Grace and Matt were walking the entire East Coast Greenway.
The day we saw them, they finished with 30 miles for the
day. You can read about their adventure and catch up with their progress on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/theggoldenroad?mibextid=ZbWKwL.
What an amazing couple! They started the ECG in April of this
year.
The last segment of the ride for the day, once we crossed the Port Royal Sound, was on the beautiful Spanish Moss Trail and off of Rt 17.
The trail delivered us close to historic downtown Beaufort, SC, where we took a little side trip past our hotel to see the beautiful old homes in downtown Beaufort before going back to our hotel.
Tuesday, we got an early start and got back onto the Spanish Moss Trail for the start of our day. We saw lots of birds, including a beautiful group of ibis in the marshes. We traveled past downtown Beaufort and through marshes, live oaks with Spanish Moss for about four miles.
At one historical marker we rode through what looked like it might be an old railway station, but it turned out to be an old grocery warehouse.
Spanish Moss Trail in Beaufort, SC - Video
At an info sign along the trail, we read about how Beaufort produced over 5 million tons of phosphate annually in the late 1800's and was the largest phosphate supplier in the world producing half the annual worldwide demand at its peak.
On our way down the trail, right before stopping to read about
Beaufort's contribution to meeting the demand for phosphate, we
passed by a couple well into their retirement, who were walking along the trail. We let them know
we were approaching them to pass, "On your left", followed by a good morning.
The couple returned the greeting and thanked us for our courteous
trail passing announcement. But there was something about the
way they said it that made John want to turn around, after reading
the info sign about Beaufort and phosphate mining, to see if there
was something else they might have also wanted to say to us had we
not been near them for only a brief moment as we rode by the first
time. It really was quite a weird feeling - like we shouldn't continue
until we went back to talk to this couple. This hadn't happened
before in all our miles so far on this trip but there was no
continuing on until we went back so back we went.
And sure enough, as we got back to them, they began talking to us as if they already knew us and were waiting for this opportunity to talk. They told us about how they've lived in Beaufort for over 30 years, living in three different houses in the area, and that the land used for mining the phosphate is still poisoned with arsenic which was a byproduct of separating the phosphate.
They also told us that the hurricane of 1893 wiped out the phosphate mining infrastructure. The mining company sought help from the government to rebuild but did not get the assistance they requested. About the same time, purer phosphate was found in Florida which then went on to become the leading US producer of phosphate and Beaufort never recovered production.
Sue told them that long ago she lived in Beaufort, SC and worked at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. They then said they used to walk 8 miles a day every day on the Spanish Moss Trail but now they take much shorter walks each day. The gentleman told us that the medical care there was very good which he had been relying on to an ever greater degree with various tests and radiation therapy recently. Without saying exactly, it sounded like he had some sort of GI tract cancer. He said he wasn't expecting to ever return to the long walks they once enjoyed together. It might seem odd that they would, in such short time, tell strangers all this personal information but John thinks that maybe they didn't have people that they could talk to in the course of their daily lives and maybe they just needed to talk to someone.
While helping his mother at the rehab center at different times over the years and visiting her at the nursing home, John experienced first-hand time and again how elderly people can get isolated and want to do nothing more than to just talk to someone. If you get such an opportunity, please take the time to listen. At the time, it might seem like a small thing to you but it sure could mean the world to them.
OK, back to biking again. The route took us to Shell Point and through the marshes and subdivisions there, and then back to busy roads for most of the rest of the day.
Though most drivers got over and there was more shoulder on the road today, there was lots of debris to try and avoid to prevent tire punctures, the traffic was noisy, and the riding was quite nerve wracking.
We entered Georgia after traveling through what was described as "alligator alley". Sue did see one alligator. While cruising down the road, Sue reported that she just saw an alligator in the swamp/ditch along the road. John wasn't convinced it was an alligator but was willing to turn the rig around on the off chance of spotting the first freshie of the trip. After turning around, John asked if Sue remembered exactly where she saw the gator and she did. They passed by that spot before turning around so that they could approach the point slowly without alerting the gator. Sure enough, there was a gator with his eyes characteristically just above the water. John got two pictures, but before he could walk a few steps closer to get a better one the alligator dove and that was the last we saw him.
After alligator alley, there was bridge construction. We were in single lane traffic for awhile and then back on the busy roads with lots of trucks heading for the Port of Savannah.
You can see loading/unloading cranes for the Port of Savannah on the horizon
We entered Savannah through neighborhoods and wound around to the downtown area from the Port City before heading down busy Rt 21 where it was literally bumper to bumper tractor trailers hauling shipping containers to and from the port.
Shipping Container Traffic near Port of Savannah - Video
Riding down the very busy Rt 21, John thought he saw an electronic tablet lying on the berm of the road. We stopped and after a few minutes John walked back to the bike carrying a Samsung tablet in his hand. The tablet was still powered on when John spied it. A quick check of the apps on the tablet showed that it was a tablet for truckers to schedule pickup and deliveries of shipping containers. Savannah is a huge port city with a lot of imports and exports passing through which require a lot of trucks to transport goods to and from the port. John slid the tablet under the cargo net on top of the trunk bag on the back of the bike in hopes that he could find the owner after getting to the hotel that afternoon.
After we got to the hotel and checked in, John looked at the apps on the tablet more closely and found a phone number for the company that owned the tablet, ContainerPort Group. The number he called had a lot of choices on the automated answering attendant but each of the choices were likely not to get anyone because it was after normal business hours. However, there was a choice to report a breakdown that just might get through to a person. Bingo! A nice lady answered, and John briefly told her about finding the tablet. The lady he spoke with was very helpful and asked if we could take it to a police station and then she would have the company send a representative to pick it up. Sue checked and there was a police station 0.9 miles away from the hotel which worked out well since we were on foot after our ride on our way to get some dinner.
After getting cleaned up, we walked over to the police station on our way to dinner and don't you know, the station was closed for remodeling.
The sign on the door said that the temporary replacement station was located in an office building 4 miles away so John called and talked with the trucking rep who he had talked with before. She agreed to John leaving the tablet at our hotel front desk and for John to send the hotel address to the her so that the trucking company could send someone over to pick it up.
After a good dinner at The Flying Monk Noodle Bar, we returned to the hotel to do laundry. We had gotten some bike supplies shipped from Amazon to this hotel so John packed up the tablet in the Amazon padded shipping envelope along with a note on the front and took it down to the front desk for them to hold until the rep came to pick it up. John rounded out the evening with some bike chain lubing to get ready for the next day.
Wednesday, the next morning, before 9a John got a phone call. It was the driver who had lost his tablet! A representative from the company had already picked up the tablet from our hotel that morning and the driver, Al, was so happy. He had been searching for the lost tablet along the road where John found it. After picking up his 2-year-old daughter and realizing the tablet was missing, Al went to the spot along the road where he thought it might be, but he couldn't find it. He looked for a while, but his daughter was getting agitated, so he took her home to her mom and went back out but still had no luck finding it. Later that night with a flashlight he returned but came up empty handed again.
Al told John that he had set the tablet down on top of the car before driving away. Al discussed probable trajectories with his brother to try and speculate how far it might have flown and/or bounced away from the travel lanes in an attempt to try and narrow down where along the road he should search. Resigned that he had done all he could to find the lost tablet, the next morning Al reported the tablet lost to his safety person. As they were in beginning the process of getting it replaced, Al got word that there was a tablet found on Rt 21 and it was turned in. Immediately, without seeing it, Al knew it must be his tablet. Shortly after that Al had his tablet back in hand. Al mentioned that his replacement deductible for the tablet was $1,000. What a great ending to the lost and found tablet and what a nice start to our day. Later that morning, the lady John had first called upon arriving at the hotel the night before to report it found, texted him to thank him as well.
The good day continued. Though we were on Route 17 a good part of the day, we had considerably more berm than we'd seen since we entered North Carolina, the weather was sunny, and the temperature was just about perfect.
Downtown Savannah is a pretty southern coastal town with lots of green space areas they label "Squares" which are mini parks that we passed by while riding down roads flanked by old live oak trees covered in Spanish Moss as we headed out of town.
On the way through Riceboro, GA we met some guys (many of the guys appeared to be retirement age with a few that were younger) who hollered at us from a car wash as we rode by and asked where we were going so we spun around and stopped to chat with them. They were a very lively group and quite interested in getting the details about our trip. They all piled on asking all kinds of questions at the same time so it was a little difficult to answer them until John got them to ask one question at a time. After lots of discussion about our trip, they wished us well and John took their picture before we continued riding.
Down the road, we then stopped to check out America's Smallest Church and have a look around. It was a very small church complete with bell.
Smallest Church in America - Video
Along the way, about 10 miles from the end, we stopped at a grocery store for dinner supplies and arrived at our AirBnB before 5:30. This was the first time we had an oven, so we really enjoyed the lasagna for dinner and the fresh baked cherry turnovers for dessert.
On Thursday morning, our good friends Pete and Patti brought us
breakfast to our AirBnB where we all ate prior to riding with Pete for the day.
After breakfast, we were getting ready to ride with Pete when he came back inside the AirBnB and said that his one of his bike shoes was missing. Our AirBnB was in a little neighborhood in Townsend, GA at the end of a dead-end street. When Pete came over in the morning, he left his bike outside and his shoes on the front porch steps. Pete began looking everywhere for his shoe. He looked around outside of the house and in the car but still no shoe. Then he saw a big dog. It barked and growled but ran if approached. Pete and John figured it took the shoe, but where? After canvassing the houses behind our AirBnB, John found the shoe complete with dog slobber all over it. When he asked Pete to hold the shoe up to take a picture of the shoe, the dog got very excited. We decided it really liked shoes. The dog hung out until we started riding and then turned around and went home.
We were soon all packed up and on our way down the road under clear blue sunny skies. We met Super Ride Support Crew of One, Patti, at a fire station later in the morning for a snack and beverage break.
The next stop was in Darien, GA for some lunch at The Canopy Restaurant where we enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch with Pete and Patti out on the porch.
Surprisingly, while we started our ECG ride on August 31, we saw Halloween decorations pretty early on in our ride and far north. As we rode, we saw more and more houses and businesses decorated for Halloween.
It was great to see friends and catch up on their news since we left town in August. Pete is a very experienced rider having ridden his bike across the US (west coast to east coast) during his college years. It was fun cycling with him again. Big thanks to Patti for the the ultimate in bike support. We were spoiled all day.
This was our last day riding in Georgia. We had more Rt 17 and most sections, thankfully, had some berm. We crossed the very high Sidney Lanier Bridge leaving Brunswick, GA, which is appropriately labeled high stress by the ECG about 5 miles before the end of our day of riding with Pete.
Sidney Lanier Bridge from Brunswick, GA - Video
Patti took us all to a great dinner in her car (in one of those vroom, vroom things we'd been seeing, for weeks now while riding, go past us on the road with what seemed like no effort at all 😉), which was a luxury we hadn't experienced since Williamsburg. We had wood fired pizza and great conversation.
Pete and Patti stayed in the same hotel as us that night, giving us a chance to visit with them Thursday night after dinner and again the next morning. We all walked to breakfast Friday morning and then we said our goodbyes. They were off to visit family, we were off to Florida.
A lot of the route was on Rt 17 again but it was on a section of Rt 17 that was just a two lane road (one lane in each direction) and had less cars and truck traffic. It started off with a pretty good berm that dwindled and then came back again. There was an opportunity to take some alternate roads off of Rt 17 that looked like would be even less busy. The alternates added many more miles but it was worth it. On one of the alternate roads, a long, straight, country road where we barely saw any cars, we got a rare opportunity to see not just one, but a pair of bald eagles. The first bald eagle we saw took to flight, and flew over to second bald eagle across the road.
After the encounter with the bald eagles, we were both thinking that we were so glad that we decided to take the alternate route even though it was longer.
Sue had mentioned in the morning before we started riding that there was a BBQ restaurant that might be a good place for lunch so we were both looking forward to it. When we got out on the alternate route too far to go back, John got the sinking feeling that his late lunch hunger pains for BBQ might have been dashed by taking the alternate thinking that the alternate would go around the BBQ restaurant. He thought he wouldn't get his BBQ but Sue assured him that BBQ was still in cards for lunch so on they went. With all the hectic Rt 17 route in the week leading up to this day, we really enjoyed the time on the quiet country roads before arriving in Woodbine, GA on a short section of trail.
Captain Stan's Smokehouse, the BBQ restaurant in Woodbine, is only open a few days each week. This day was day 51 of our trip (riding day 46). We hadn't yet come short of meeting our goal for each riding days so we were still on schedule and arrived at the BBQ place on a day that they were open. We ate outside at Captain Stan's Smokehouse. The place has a lot of character and good barbecue. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
Stan's Smokehouse 360 degree photo - click this link to view
Later after we crossed the bridge into Florida, we were about to take a picture of ourselves and the bike at the Welcome to Florida sign with John's tripod he was setting up on the guardrail, when someone came up behind John and started whooping and hollering. It was another ECG through-rider, Marie. She started in Montreal. She took our picture, we took hers, and we compared stories of our ECG travels for a short time. She had met Stephen King, who we met just north of Beaufort at a gas station days before. They stayed at the same Warm Showers hosting network for bicycle travelers in Savannah, and he told her about us. Marie had to get going to get to her Warm Showers host in Fernandina Beach and we needed to get to our hotel there, so we all set off together to finish out our day of riding.
Shortly after resuming, we were making good progress when we hit a big rock on the side of the road and got a flat. Rear tire, of course. John veered to miss it, but the back tire caught the side of the rock and pinch flatted the tire. John should have easily missed it but with his head down and the helmet visor obscuring view further ahead, he didn't see the rock in time. He never used to ride with a mountain bike style helmet with visor but after trying it has really liked it for shading his eyes from the sun. Unfortunately, he doesn't always remember to occasionally look-up while riding in a more aero position to clear the area immediately in front of the bike for debris on the road.
As John was changing the tube, a homicide detective from the local sheriff's office pulled over with flashing lights and protected us in the grass next to the road with his car. He was so nice. He asked if he could help and then waited the 15 minutes until we were completely finished changing the tube, putting the panniers back on the bike, ready to remount and roll. He even pulled partially into the traffic lane with the lights still flashing to protect us so we could safely re-enter the road.
When we turned off of Rt 17 and onto Rt A1A, we were pleasantly surprised by a nice, dedicated bike lane. It continued until we crossed the bridge to Amelia Island, FL where we stopped for the night.
Once we cleaned up at our hotel we walked to the beach and ate dinner at Sliders Seafood Grille. Yummy! After dinner we took a stroll on the beach, got an ice cream cone on the way back to the hotel, and then packed it in for the night.
Saturday morning, we rode east from the hotel a short distance to the beach and turned south along the coast riding on Rt A1A. It was a beautiful morning.
The route took us past Big Talbot State Park and then into Little Talbot State Park on a wide bike path. It was nice riding, but stopping to take a break was a huge mistake. The mosquitoes were ready and attacked when we stopped. Eventually the path got closer to the ocean and the wind held them at bay.
Along the way, we stopped at an ATM to get some more cash since we were running low. Since we had been living on the bike for over a month and a half without a car, we decided that if cars can drive up to the ATM, so can we with our bike. Worked swell. 😊
John spotted a small ultralight seaplane in a big tidal pool near the ocean preparing to depart. We stopped to watch. After a short wait, the plane engine started, and the plane began its taxi to the downwind portion of the pool followed by a turn into the wind and the application of full throttle. The ultralight took a few hops in the water to break free and then continued a sustained climb-out over the beach. Very neat!
Later, Sue had missed the map notation that to stay on A1A we had to use the St. John's River Ferry. Luckily the ferry was just finishing up boarding all the cars as we pulled up, so they instructed us to walk the bike onto the ferry as we arrived and we departed shortly after that.
We had heard that further south there was an air show at Jacksonville Beach with the Blue Angels at 1pm that day. The route took us directly through Jack Beach, as the locals call it. The main road was closed for a few blocks by the ocean, so we had to go back a couple of streets to go around the closed road. Since there were so many people, we decided we didn't want to stick around and wait for the Blue Angels which John figured would be at the end of the air show, so we kept riding. Luckily for us, when we got the south side of Jack Beach in at Ponte Vedra Golf Club, we heard and then saw the Blue Angels so we stopped by the golf course in the shade of a few palm trees and began to watch the show overhead. We could see all the high portion of the airshow, but we couldn't see the low maneuvers by the beach. The lake at the golf course where we were watching appeared to be their landmark to turn from inland to the beach, so we got to see quite a lot of them passing low just in front of us as they set up for a pass straight down the beach.
Jacksonville Beach, FL Blue Angels Airshow - Video
Riding south along the coast after the airshow, we passed a lot of huge and expensive houses along with clubs as we headed to Vilano Beach. The sun was getting pretty low as we got closer to our destination of St. Augustine. As we were riding, I glanced over towards the west and noticed a sun dog.
Just before sunset, we used the
protected bike lane to cross the Tolomato River into St.
Augustine.
St. Augustine, FL Arrival - Video
Our hotel was in the historic district soon after crossing the bridge. We ate at a great Cuban restaurant that was just across the street and looked forward to a rest day the following day in St. Augustine.
ECG Section 5 start: Myrtle Beach, SC - Oct 13, 2023
ECG Section 5 end: St. Augustine, FL - Oct 21, 2023
Totals so far
Riding days: 47
Distance: 2,777 miles
States/district ridden in: ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, Washington DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL
John and Sue
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