I know, a week has gone by - but life gets crazy sometimes!
I took advantage of the Sunday morning pause and traveled roads I normally avoid. Forty years ago these were all good roads to ride, one of them was actually on South Carolina’s designated cycling routes - but that was before the industrial parks and the aggressive promotion of lakeside luxury homes.
Champagne Charlie rode beautifully today, especially after I stopped to raise the saddle one more centimeter. When shifting, you’d never know the chain was once nearly rusted solid, and it’s always odd to look down and see how rusted the front derailleur is. There were some long fast descents that felt smooth and controllable, the 25 mm tires were just large enough to make the bumpier passages okay, and this bike rides no-hands flawlessly.
I rolled out of the apartment complex and hooked left on Deadfall Road, up past the luxurious homes along the golf course-centric developments. I remembered George Singleton’s book that included a mischief-maker burying empty 55-gallon drums in the area with little holes in the bottom, so that decades later they would be discovered and trigger a toxic dump panic and a fast devaluation of said luxury dwellings.
I put George’s class-war humor to the side and enjoyed a sunny day on its way to being hot and climbed the rest of the way to cross U.S. 25 and head for Dixie Drive. From there I headed for scenic downtown Hodges, pausing to admire the Forestry Commission’s new sign -
- and the enjoying the series of relatively flat long straightaways that make Dixie a local cycling favorite. I rolled on to Hodges to take the obligatory photo - no Clunker Challenge is complete for me without a photo of my bike against the downtown facade - and then turned and headed out 246 for Cokesbury College.
This used to be a standard route when I cycled with the Lander College Cycling Club c.1982-83, but today it’s a heavily traveled road. But it was now 11 am and everyone is in church, so there was minimal traffic.
They appeared to be setting up an event - probably a wedding, as the historic, long-closed college is a preserved historic site, and the rent from events helps maintain it. I paused to take some photos of the main campus and the chapel before taking bumpy Asbury Road - with its slightly scary descent - over to 254.
Coming back into town I passed Park Seed company, which like Cokesbury pre-dates the Civil War, and considered and rejected getting a photo of the Cokesbury Motel, a contender for scariest looking motel in the South. I turned left onto Deadfall and retraced my steps home. It’s a lot more fun to descend Deadfall Road than to climb it!
I wound up with 16.8 miles, or 27 km, so my total now is 44.3 km. Still pondering raiding the storage unit for better front wheel cones, and maybe splurging on some black bar tape …