Day 032 – Andrews, SC > Charleston, SC

Having learned a little from yesterday I put off blog updates and was on the road by 8 AM. I was planning to ride for a few hours and then take a long break during the heat of the day, but that didn’t really happen. By time I made it to James Town a few hours later I was starving and there was a Kangaroo Express (gas station) with a Subway inside of it and my stomach demanded a foot long roast beef sandwich and some sweet tea.

Once I could think again I noticed some older fellas (pic) in the back of the seating area and stuck up a conversation about road conditions (he had some great advice) and found out that David was the fire chief of James Town and also a lifelong resident besides some time living abroad (I think it had to do with his military service). James Town used to be a thriving town when David was younger, but now it’s just the Kangaroo Express and a few other small businesses.

His son works for the forest device so they collaborate on a lot of the fire management. They do controlled burns of the pine forests by helicopter. Once in the air someone sits with a big basket of what looks like ping pong balls filled with potassium permanganate. Once a glycol solution is injected it will ignite and after a set amount of time, depending on the chemical ratio, set the ground cover on fire, but spares the pine trees. It’s a way to reduce the chance of an out of control wildfire. David was also telling me how they use leaf blowers to combat fires by blowing potential fuel back on the flames thus preventing them from spreading or directing their spread. There was a check board pattern of burned sections (pic) as I was cycling through the Francis Marion National Forest.  We were also talking about white lightening and how people started making it with old radiators intend of copper kettles and the process would release a lot of lead from the soldered joints making people really sick or dead. Yikes!

As I was packing up I ran into Tim (pic) who was cycling north on a simplified touring set-up using a mountain bike. No helmet, and a big duffel bag of his stuff strapped to his rear rack. He was only doing free camping and as I was talking to him he refilled his two liter Fresca bottle with water using the spigot on the side of the building. I admire his thriftiness. Something I need to think about if I want to extend my trip longer. He started in Daytona, FL a week and half before and was heading north looking for work. He had done a lot of touring before but this was all about finding work on this trip. Good luck Tim on finding work and I hope you never need to use a helmet unless you are wearing one.

The ride through the rest of the forest was nice. Basically, a straight ride for 15 miles with lots and lots of pine trees on either side and a light amount of traffic. The Ravenel Jr. Bridge was the only hill of the day and luckily the wind was in my favor so I was literally blown into Charleston by 5:45 PM!

I called three different people on Warmshowers.org, but they were either out of town, full or had just hosted and weren’t up for another cyclist. The last one I spoke to suggested I come to the NotSo Hostel. It’s a great place and they have space for tents so the rate is really cheap – $18 a night including breakfast and wifi, shower and free laundry. They also have shared and private room so if you are in Charleston and don’t want to spend a lot of money or want to meet a lot of fellow travels check it out.

Once I got camp set-up and a shower I met Steve and Evan, two Canadians from Nova Scotia, that were in town because they bailed on a sailing trip through Greenland and Iceland because the captain didn’t have a life raft or survival suits or, from what I can gather, common sense. They flew into Charleston to meet crew a boat being delivered to Key West and then plan to take another job delivering a boat from somewhere else in Florida to Portugal. Wow! They are in there early twenties and seem to be having a lot of fun. We went out to a bar a few block away with Erwin, who is doing a solo drive from New York to Florida and back again. He is making his way back to New York to teach a summer tennis camp.

At the end of the night I fell dead asleep. I’m excited to explore Charleston tomorrow.