Long Haul - Day 32 (9/17/21) Lumberton NC to Conway, SC 63.7 miles
Updated: Sep 18, 2021
Yesterday when I was planning today‘s route I was a bit concerned about several sections that took us onto State Routes. In my mind I was thinking of State Route 15 that runs through Goshen and I was a bit concerned about fighting traffic all day. One of the sections was 14 miles long. To my surprise and delight, they were about as busy as a dirt road in the middle of Amish country. To be sure there was some traffic but very little.
We crossed into South Carolina about an hr and half after starting this morning. We had just crossed and we were slowing down for a corner and a pickup pulled up beside us. I generally just ignore people in vehicles but there were two mid twenties guys in the truck and he was leaning his head out the window and Dana heard him ask if we wanted a ride. He was smirking and might have persisted except the car behind him started blowing their horn and they took off. I thought “welcome to SC”. We stopped at a convenient store for a potty break and bought several sausage/egg muffin sandwiches. They were tasty and hit the spot. We we just finishing up when an older (but probably younger than us) couple came out of the store, walked over to us, looked at us and the bikes and inquired about what we were up to. We told them and we chatted a while. They were from Kansas but moved to South Carolina about twenty years ago. They had been together for 22 years and just recently celebrated their anniversary. What a nice and friendly couple. We were wrapping up our conversation and he reached in his billfold, pulled out a $10 and said “this will help for your meal tonight.” I thought well bless your heart. Sometimes a $10 bill is worth a lot more than $10. We thanked them and as they walked away she said in her SC accent “there’s a lot of crazies out there, be safe now”. Yeah we’ve met a few trail angels and Donald and Regina were some of them.
We headed out again and within a few miles we came up on a woman getting into a truck. When she saw us she broke into huge smile, waved and yelled “you all have a great day”. We only had several miles left to go
and we met an older (again not as old as us) gentleman on a bike (riding toward us on a busy highway on the shoulder going the wrong way). As he got near us he saw our bikes and bags and broke into a big grin, gave us a thumbs up as he passed us.
Just about that time, we were stopped at a light and a younger man opened his window and yelled “where y’all riding from?“ I yelled back “from Maine headed to Key West”. He shook his head, and yelled back “y’all be safe now!”
We were checking into our hotel and the young man helping me asked about riding our bikes. I told him what were doing and he smiled and asked “It was on you bucket list?” I replied yup and at our age we have to get it done sooner than later. He smiled and then asked how long we’ve been married. 44 years several months ago I told him. He said well that’s a long time and you don’t see that much in this generation. When we were finished he showed us the room and as he passed Dana he looked at her and said “I want to be like you guys when I grow up.” I’m not sure exactly what he meant but at least we must have sparked something inside him.
Maybe today was a day of giving and receiving. For me, I think we got more than we gave. People are awesome when we slow down enough to engage.
Today we completed 1500 total miles. We are also under 1000 to go.
We were on Bear Swamp Road today for quite a while, still no bears.
https://www.treesforgoshen.org/biking-for-bucks-expand-goshens-tree-canopy/
Today’s Ride Ratings
Weather 9 (comfortable temps and overcast much of the day we had a few sprinkles)
Temperature 72 at start and 80
at finish
Scenery 6
Riding Surface 9
Terrain 9
Quite the tan you got going there!! Don't forget I want to be your favorite sister for a meal!! 😁 Either half way down Florida or you had mentioned Ft Myers or somewhere else be okay too!!