Welcome To South Carolina

After leaving at 6 AM Saturday, we pulled into our parking spots at the condominium at about 7:30 that night after a little mix up on directions. The condo, generously provided to us for the week by an alumnus, has been a great surprise, with more than ample room for our 6 man team and beautiful views of the beach. Boatloads of Chinese delivery made the night complete.

We were on the bike this morning by 9, taking a conveniently close and surprisingly technical bike path out to the roads planned for the day. After a 20 mile jaunt to Surfside Beach, we stopped by a local bagel spot for breakfast. Parking our bikes outside, we walked in to a sea of surprised and inquisitive faces. In the short time we were eating there, we had half a dozen friendly locals approach us to ask who we were and where we were going. Compared to Bloomington where everyone under the sun rides bikes, this attention was a nice change of pace, especially on the roads. As we continued our ride up to Myrtle Beach on some well-traveled roads, we noticed much friendlier and more cautious drivers than in Bloomington. The only honks we got were accompanied with a smile and a wave.

Entering Myrtle Beach city limits, traffic seems to disappear altogether. Compared to the beautiful resort areas nearby, the 10 mile stretch traversing the Dirty Myrtle is like being transported to an old Western ghost town, only much, much worse. It's obvious that nobody voluntarily lives there and seems like the entire economy there revolves around mini-golf and Ferris wheels. Of the few people we did ride past, most would  be competitive in a Slim Shady look-a-like contest. Needless to say, we were happy when we got back out of "city" limits and continued our ride elsewhere.

The rest of the ride took us inland, through some golf courses and back South to our home for the week at a nice easy pace to warm up for the week. The sun finally came out as we were arriving, hopefully as a good omen for the rest of our stay.

Stay tuned for more daily updates on our training trip!