The 51st Stage - How We Got to the Atlantic

From Janie:

 

About Sunday, November 12.  51st stage.  From Savannah SC to Hilton Head NC.  To the Atlantic.

 

Here's a follow-up post, about how we actually got to the Atlantic.

 



 

Early morning, at the hotel.

A little bit of developer humor:

'Angola:  A Gated Community'

Nicole, with her Zion Cycling t-shirt from earlier in the trip.

This actually played a part in our celebration.  Story below.

Jody, ready to roll on Jean-Luc.

Janie, ready to get in The Little Darkness.

Jody, coming over the drawbridge.

 

We were lucky on this trip.  I got stopped by a train once, for about 15 minutes, in Brunswick GA.  We had to wait about 30 minutes for the ferry from Missouri to Kentucky.

Jody had to wait about 10 minutes in Ripley MS for the police to finish removing crime scene tape.

No other train delays.  And here - no drawbridge delay.

Savannah, in the distance.

 

Jody, flying on Jean-Luc.

Jody and Janie, at the GA/SC border.

On our way to Hilton Head Island.

We'd started in Savannah.  We would later go by car to Charleston.

Janie, getting on The Flying Fish for the finish of the final stage.

Sidewalk chalk cheers from Nicole!

Janie, riding the tiny shoulder. 

 

Traffic going to Hilton Head was insane.  It was a Sunday, but not during the season.  Lots of traffic.  Cars whizzing by, without giving any additional space to the cyclists.  Cars with Florida plates seemed to be the worst.  We couldn't tell if they were Floridians or rental cars.  Either way, lots of morons behind the wheel.  A big change for me from the start of the trip, being so very comfortable riding next to traffic. 

 

Jody caught me about 8 miles before the turnoff to Coligney Beach.  We had picked that beach, with its plentiful parking and public access, for where we would go down to the water and dip the front wheels.  We rode through town together - must have had a tailwind, as we were clipping along at about 17 miles per hour.  Or maybe we were just ready to be done! 

Jody and Janie, by the fountain a few hundred yards from the beach.

Jody's sexy biker tan!

Barefoot on the beach, headed to cip the wheels.

Dipping the wheels!

Happy day!

Jody, of course, felt the need for a few extra yards on Jean-Luc.

Note the bare feet!

 

As we were walking back up to the boardwalk from the beach, an older couple with thick accents stopped Nicole, asking her about her Zion t-shirt.  She explained that she had gotten it in Zion National Park on an earlier leg of our epic adventure.  She also said we'd just finished a cross country ride.  "We're from Zion, too," the husband exclaimed.  Zion, as in Israel.  Yes, we'd bumped into an Israeli couple from Tel Aviv, on the beach at Hilton Head.

 

The husband also told us another story.  One of their relatives had ridden a tandem bicycle with another Jewish man, going to Eastern Europe in the 1930's, trying to help Jews escape the coming war.  They spent months helping smuggle Jews out to what was then known as Palestine.  Amazing.  A Jewish bicycle story on the beach.  They also told us their son works for Bicycling Magazine.  The magazine editorial board was working on an article about a cyclist who had ridden from Eastern Europe down to Israel.  Their son spoke up, saying he had a relative that had ridden in Eastern Europe before the war, on a tandem bicycle.  One of the editors responded saying, my grandfather did the same thing.  Yes, indeed.  It was the same tandem bicycle, the same pair of Jewish men.  Remarkable.  And if it hadn't been for Nicole's t-shirt from Zion, we would never have known.

 

Back on the boardwalk:



Jody, getting a champagne shower!

(A real shower would come much later, in Charleston.)

Jody and Janie,

still happy after all these miles.

Janie gets a champagne shower, too!

 

Many thanks to Destination Cycling for all the help, support, massages and the CHAMPAGNE!  Many thanks to Nicole for the fabulous spread to go with the champagne for our celebration at the beach - crackers, brie, strawberry jam, peach-raspberry poundcake.  Yum, yum, yum.

Jody and Janie, happy in the sunshine.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
~Albert Einstein