I was to meet up with the other folks last Thursday for a ride across South Carolina to Savannah Georgia... but I started worrying
when my bike wouldn't start Wednesday morning and one of my front brake calipers was sticking...
The starting was just the battery, so I got a new one at the Suzuki dealer, and while it was charging I rebuilt a caliper that
I had on hand. The next morning I cranked up the bike (YAY!), rode it up to the driveway, installed the caliper, bled the system, and even had enough
time to polish some of the bugs on my bike before everyone showed up in Seneca.
We went and had a three-Oclockish "lunch" at a local Seneca drive-in, and headed out... only made to to Greenwood SC by dark
and got a cheapo motel and sat around telling lies for a few hours... on the way to Greenwood we took a bunch of my favorite
near-the-house roads and stopped in Abbeville to look for Jefferson Davis, but couldn't find him anywhere...
Friday we took off down hwy178, and then hwy3 towards Savannah - at the way-out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere intersection
of 178 and 3 is this old general store... it used to be the most happening place anywhere around, now there's usually a
couple of people selling tomatoes out of their truck there... I really like the building...
Not far past there we stopped in Blackville at Miller's Bread Basket for a slice of pecan pie and some coffee. I turned on
the little camera and let them lead after that...
You can guess what happens when
the wild bunch is in the lead, though... hey D00d - wanna race?
I love it when you get into the Low Country and start seeing Live Oaks and Spanish moss...
With them in the lead we made short work of peeling off the rest of the distance to Savannah... until we got
almost to the big bridge, all the traffic was stopped and people were turning around... so we turned around
and took an alternate route in... and eventually all
that traffic stopped and people were turning around...
We finally made it to Tybee Island after dark, stopped at a beach front condo and got a third floor beach front
condo to stay in for the next two nights. And ate good seafood both nights...
We stopped at Fort Pulaski and checked everything out...
After we bailed Joe out, we hit Uncle Bubba's for supper...
We heard Joe's bike from the balcony, and looked down to see him taking a picture of it near the beach,
so I took one at the same place on my way out of town...
I stopped at one of my favorite middle-of-nowhere places, Miley, SC, on the old Salkehatchie River Road...
One time when I stopped before there was some old-timers there, and I talked to them for a while... as I remember the story,
it was the biggest lumberyard in the South before the 1960's... When the federal government set a minimum wage,
the owner (this is 100% South Carolina for you) decided nobody was going to tell him how to run his business,
so he shut it down. This is a picture of the kiln, there's trees growing out of the roof now. It is at a rail crossing,
and stuff looks to be kind of cleaned up since I was last there... there was an old train engine sitting, running, in
the yard when I was there - I didn't see anyone around, but I'm sure someone must have been there...
Passed some cool cotton fields, it is being harvested now... one good picture from Sunday, and one bug-encrusted
picture from Friday...
A couple of pics from Spingfield South Carolina (didn't see Homer Simpson there...)
Hope Punisher didn't get too wet on the way back to Missippippi... we had great
weather for most of the ride...
-Mike
