You wouldn’t know I’m in South Carolina — or anywhere specific — given the same vein these shots are in. The excuse I’ll take is that it was a blustery and rainy day today without a lot of dry opportunities for photos. Furthermore, I was beset by navigational tech issues. 

My Wahoo — the bike computer with all my maps on them wasn’t pairing with my phone properly, it wouldn’t route me where I needed to go, and other than recording my ride it was utterly useless.

But there’s a shot of the bike loaded up before I checked out of the hotel, and navigation issues were a thing yet unknown.  

Here I exhibit my chest mounted insta 360 X5 camera that dealt more tech malaise on an unusually stressful first day — note how smiley — I’m still unaware of my impending Wahoo navigation issues.

And see how happy I am to be enjoying the start of my Atlantic Coast Route tour — I biked the first half last year, about 1,300 miles. Below, I’ve yet to turn on my bike computer after checking out of the hotel. I’ve yet to spend half an hour riding around various parking lots to no avail. The last smile before the stress sets in?

See, the cold, blustery rain has yet to fall.

After a harrowing back to back crossing of the Great PeeDee River Bridge and the taller Waccamaw River bridge, this was one of the last dry moments of the day — and a quick decompression break at Hobcaw Barony to recover from being back on US 17 and the hellacious 60 mph traffic whirring by a mere two feet away. So here. More bike porn below. Gratuitous

I lied, this (below) was the last dry moment, just in the nick of time to spot an East Coast Greenway sign — that helped with navigation. Soon after this the rain commenced and I spent 2 hours at Cyclopedia Bike Shop in North Lichtfield, South Carolina. The navigation issues with the Wahoo unit persisted, so I bought yet another phone mount (not pictured here). I used my phone to run Ride with GPS and got where I needed to go — sopping wet!

Set up the tent in a light drizzle.

It’ll keep me dry tonight when the rain starts again around 2am and doesn’t let up for nearly 20 hours. I’ll break down, ride, and set up again tomorrow in the rain.

At least the water sources will flow copiously. After all, any day on a bike is better than just about any other day.

Day 1

Start: Georgetown, SC
Finish: Myrtle Beach State Park, Myrtle Beach, SC
Miles: 37.02

And, I finally hit 1,000 miles for the year, but only 20% of my goal. Gotta’ get to biking. Yeah… it’s what I’m doing.

What I’m Reading:

When your head is a mess with anxiety, you have but one choice: You need to get out of your head and into your body.

— Jennifer Heisz / Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep