March 11

By staying in the motel, we got an early start the next day (3-11) and reached Charleston by about 2:30 in the afternoon. We were pressed for time (at least thought we were) because the weather forecast called for thunderstorms in the late afternoon. Our route (U.S. 17) took us right through Charleston, then over two scary bridges and into Mount Pleasant. At the bottom of the second bridge (they were quite high, so we went up, over and down), I heard a terrible metallic clanking noise coming from my bike, so pulled over quickly and stopped. By the time I got off my bike and looked, the rear tire was rapidly going flat. I looked around the bike and couldn’t find anything else wrong, so I pushed it a couple of hundred yards to a grassy spot and changed the tube. As for the metallic clanking noise, I strongly suspect it was from a piece of metal that I must have run over. It apparently punctured the tire, then just kind of stuck on the tire for a few revolutions banging the frame as it went around. Then it just kind of fell off and the tire went flat. Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Click on thumbnails to see full photographs.

Our destination in Mount Pleasant was Cheryl Backstrom’s house, where we were going to stay two nights while we “checked out” Charleston. Cheryl and Gene are both retired teachers from Orrville, and Cheryl has been living in the Charleston area for the past two years. After getting my tire fixed, it only took us another 20 minutes to reach Cheryl’s house. Cheryl is one of those “instantly likable” people who know how to make a guest feel totally at home in about two minutes. She had lemonade ready, the soup was cooking on the stove and she had a plan to show us the beach before dark. Her home is such a welcoming place that the neighbor’s cat “Cozy” lives there much of the time.

After we got our bikes in the garage, our clothes in the house and took showers, Cheryl did take us for a quick trip to a couple of the barrier islands, Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms. As we were backing out of the garage, Cheryl saw her neighbor Pat (Cozy’s Mom) and called her over to the car to introduce us. She did the introductions, then added as we were leaving that we were a couple of bikers she had picked up. Later that evening, Pat called to see if Cheryl was okay – she thought Cheryl really had picked us up while doing her census work (part time job) earlier in the day.

I saw the license plate “Jaw Juh” somewhere along U.S. 17 early in the day. It took me a couple of seconds to “get it.” If you didn’t “get it” by now think about the “deep south” pronunciation of the state that lies between South Carolina and Florida.

G.A.S.P.

(Great Adventures to Scenic Places)