18 July 2017
Tanned, rested, and ready...wait, that's not it. Late getting in means late to bed means either not enough sleep, or get up late, or both. Running on both...
On the road just after 10 hopefully won't matter too much, since I won't be tiptoeing through commuter hell this morning, and although it's farm country, the farms are bigger and more spread out. To wit: the first 120 miles that took three hours yesterday only took a bit more than two today. And part of that was through Lynchburg.
Down 29 through Danville (humming "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down") across into North Carolina, past Greensboro... The way I've been creating routes lately (since I have so many GPSs, and they require different tending) is by creating waypoints (named for the day: 20170718-01, etc) about 40 miles apart (range of 'reserve' on the bike, more or less), then either creating a "route" in Map source / Base Camp and dumping that into the GPSs that'll take it, or raw into the Nuvi where I can create one using its "Trip Planner" app.
But it can make for some interesting road choices--I swear I was on some roads yesterday that most of the natives don't know about. Fun roads, too, winding around hills, up and down and around little farms and woods. Came over one hill and was confronted by a "Detour" sign. Well, that road was going in the general right direction, so no biggie, and it dumped me onto a bigger one, still going in the right direction. Some 10 miles later, the detour pointed back west, but right at that intersection was my next waypoint marker, so I was right back on track.
Stopped for gas at a station in the middle of nowhere--I'm refueling at chains I've never heard of: Horizon, Speedway, Stewart's, Irving, Murphy, Marathon, with only the occasional Gulf, Citgo, and Shell thrown in. Seems to run fine, though...
On one of those fortuitous no-number roads, I went past a place I wish I had time for--I tried to remember the name: Sonny (Something) Classic Car Museum, with a line of '50s big iron nose-to-tail along the front. It took more research than I thought it should, but it was the Sonny Beachum Classic Car Museum--one man's collection. It was the '56 Ford Fairlane that caught my eye...
Down into South Carolina then, and all the Pee Dee stuff--got to wondering about the name: it must stand for something, right? P.D. somebody? Nope, goes back to the Peedee Indians, and the name is of 'uncertain derivation.' So much for that.
Circled around Columbia and started thinking about the end of the day. It's been hot and muggy, and the weather looks like it's going to do something. Stop for gas in Bamberg, pass my penultimate waypoint and tell the Nuvi to look for lodging 'on my route'--I don't figure to go all the way to the end--and it finds a couple of places in Allendale. But the weather's looking really nasty in that direction, so I tell it to look everywhere--there's a Days Inn a similar distance to the west, with a grocery store right nearby--go!
I still got sprinkled on a little bit, but it was clear when I got there, and after the clerk got done placating a couple of construction workers, got me a upstairs corner room. Went across the street for groceries, and noted a laundromat right next door to the motel. I'm not quite on my last day's laundry, but what a perfect opportunity--I can even zip back and forth between my room and the 'mat (which is essentially deserted, although there must have been 50 machines ready for use). So, clean clothes for the next six days.
But another late night, and late morning.
Motel: $78.81
Groceries: $8.36
Laundry: $5.00
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