4/27/23 – Georgetown, SC to North Myrtle Beach, SC

Miles: 72.02 Today / 1104.99 Total
Elevation Gain: 1900 ft. Today / 11,035 ft. Total

I forgot to mention, yesterday, that I passed the 1000 mile point of this ride. Not bad, eh? The Bike the US for MS mileage has not been accurate, so I am not sure how many miles long this ride will even be, at this point. It will be one of those stupid mysteries you don’t have the answer to until the very last day.

And an update on our injured rider. His surgery was postponed until tomorrow, because he needed to be transferred to a bigger more modern medical facility with more skilled orthopaedic surgeons. He will be getting a knee replacement, not just a repair to the femur. His wife arrived today, and they will have to figure out how to get him home. He may not be able to fly for a couple of weeks—maybe longer. Very sad outcome for him and them both. If you are a person of faith, his name is Dan, and he could use your prayers.

Today was a great riding day. Cool temperatures all day long, with a nice breeze that wasn’t enough to help or hurt you as you cycled along. And there was cloud cover most of the day. The route was great as long as we weren’t riding on US Highway 17, which we did off and on all day long.

Pulling out in the morning, we rode through the historic section of Georgetown before crossing the Waccamaw River. Most of the rivers out here are wide. REALLY wide.

This sign had our agenda for the day on it, although my friend Charlotte Rowe added a restaurant stop onto the agenda—a stop at Blueberrie’s Grill in South Myrtle Beach. She’s been pumping me up for this stop for 3 days. I felt to pressure to see it all! We rode through Murrell’s Inlet, just before entering Surfside Beach.

Over half of the day was spent riding on the road next to the beach, so we passed a lot of funky places and a ton of vacation homes, luxury resorts and gazillionaire mansions. I’m guessing that some of the gazillionaire mansions are vacation homes too.

When I arrived Myrtle Beach, I noticed a billboard advertising a $20 Helicopter Tour in 2 miles. That’s a bargain, right? Of course people die all the time in helicopter tour crashes, so it was a scary thought. I was riding briefly with a couple of the guys from our group and asked them if they’d do it. One of them responded, “What could go wrong?”—speaking of the known safety problems some of these tour operators have. Neither of the guys were interested, but as I got closer to the airport, I gave taking the tour some consideration, and I decided—I’m doing it!

I pulled up to the office and inquired about this deal that seemed too good to be true. Turns out that you have to have 2 people to get that price or you pay double the price. Hmm. Not such a good deal, but just then a lady walked in by herself. Her husband wasn’t up a helicopter flight, so she was going to do it alone too. So we went together, and we upgraded out tour from a 2 minute helicopter ride to an 8 minute ride. Within minutes, we were on a 4-seater helicopter, with just a pilot.

The pilot flew us out over and along South Myrtle Beach, then circled around and back to the airport. Seeing the sights from the sky was amazing, and it was a blast!

Back on the ground, it was now time to get back to my bike ride. The restaurant on my plan closed at 3:00 PM, and it was now about 1:30, and there were sights to be seen along the way. I rode past the Goddess of the Sea bronze sculpture along the beach in Myrtle Beach and stopped a couple of times to check out the each. It looked pretty darned nice.

Conner, one of our Tour Leaders, was just coming back from a swim in the ocean as I rode by one beach access, and seeing him made me wish I’d brought my swimsuit with me. I would definitely have gone for a swim. So next time I know I’ll be riding along the beach, I’ll be packing my swimsuit and pack towel.

I pulled up to Blueberry’s Grill at 2:35 PM, and the menu had way too many delectable food choices on it. I settled for biscuits and gravy, blueberry hush puppies, and a blueberry muffin to go (I need to carbohydrate load, you know.) The food was delicious! Thanks for the recommendation, Charlotte! I thought of you every time I took a bite!

After savouring my late lunch, I was under the gun to get to the church where we were staying this evening. When I arrived, the host had a nice dinner laid out for us. I was still stuffed from my lunch, but how could I turn down that hospitality? I went ahead and ate another meal. (Sorry. No photo of the dinner.)

The church had a lot of nooks and crannies for us to carve out private sleeping places in. I reserved the left side of the stage—next to the grand piano and sound equipment. That new mattress of mine fit right in there nicely, and I slept like a puppy.