32: breakfast, the weeping time, missing yemassee, how not to die, state #3, taco truck, bait and switch, schizophrenic wind, tire wire, online pricing

April 18, 2025

Savannah to Beaufort

The hotel room came with a free breakfast, and you could take your pick from a number of items:
1. Rubber pancakes - For me, this was too tempting. I've tried the waffle makers in hotels and am always disappointed, even after the 89th time (OptimistBrain: "I'm sure the next one will taste great!"), but had never seen this contraption so I made some pancakes. When I say "rubber," think soft like a rubber band, not hard like a tire, and with a similar taste.
2. Sugar - This was thinly disguised as yogurt, but one taste and I was onto them and their tricks. (The trick being just add sugar to Elmer's Glue)
3. Fruit - In English, the word "fruit" can be singular or plural. There was an apple and, having determined to eat more healthy (shrimp are healthy, right?), I grabbed it to eat later. I'm not sure of the variety, but later learned it's the Brealy variety... the kind that is brown and mealy on the inside.

Just push the button and thirty seconds later it will poop out a pancake.

While eating, a man from Marseille asked me about my trip. He and his family have been traveling around the US for the past year and a half, and after visiting every major city and a large number of less major ones, they decided to settle in Savannah. That says a lot about the place.

I do, however, suspect he's a convicted felon in France. Otherwise, why wouldn't he want to live there, perhaps in Avignon, or Saint-Rémy-de-Provence?

As I was making my way around Savannah yesterday, I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to see the location of "The Weeping Time" because it was too far away from the downtown area. However, as I was plotting my route yesterday I discovered I pass right by it.

On 3 March 1859, the largest slave auction in the history of the U.S. occurred here when 436 men, women, and children were sold in order to pay off Pierce Butler's significant debt, most of it from gambling. That's four hundred thirty six people, a number larger than many of the towns I pass through on this trip.

The marker says the largest in Georgia history, but it's the entire country.

It was labelled as "The Weeping Time," not only because of the two days of continuous rainfall, but also because of all the tears shed when families were separated. The auction was reported widely in the northern media, and called attention to the developing cracks between the North and South before the start of the Civil War. I'll just add the name of the journalist who memorialized the event in Northern papers because he used such a fantastic pseudonym: Mortimer Thomson, who wrote under the name of Q. K. Philander Doesticks.

The location of the marker in this park isn't the same as the location of the auction. It's been subdivided and sold, and now includes an elementary school, a plywood corporation, and part of the Interstate.

I was considering going through Yemassee like Bill and Ian did for a couple of reasons. When I was doing my research about the route I came across an article that said more than forty monkeys escaped from a research facility there. The 11/7/24 article stated that 39 of the fugitives had been safely captured, but 4 others were still on the loose. Unlikely, but it would be cool to see an escapee.

The main reason I wanted to go is that the Auldbrass Plantation is in Yemassee, and I would love to see it. During this tour, I hope to visit several Frank Lloyd Wright structures. Auldbrass is one of his, but they only do tours one weekend every odd-numbered year, in the Fall, and the tickets in 2023 were $175.00. Soooo… maybe not.

The roads are again really bad, and if this is the "good" road out of Savannah, I wondered how Bill and Ian fared going over the giant Talmadge Memorial Bridge. My choice of road is all industrial, and filled with large semis powering past.

Reviewing these pictures, now might be a good time to tell those of you who don't do much cycling about Mark's Tips on How Not to Die While Riding a Bicycle in Congested Conditions.

If you're driving along the road someday, late for work because that asshole husband/wife/kid forgot to fill up the gas tank again, you might happen to see me riding right where your right tire goes. For a second, you think "He is exactly even with my right tire. That has to mean something," but then you notice the 900 cars around you and suspect one of them might notice.

Then, as you're thinking, "I can juuust squeeze by this guy," you notice that I appear not to have good control of my bike because I swerve to the left about nine inches, then right back into the same place. "No, damn it. This guy's crazy. And doesn't even know how to ride a bike." So you continue toddling along at 10 mph.

When, at last, you see there are no longer any oncoming cars, you slide left to pass and see that, finally, now that it's no longer helpful, I move over to the right. And I give you a smile and a wave of thanks.

Here's what I'm doing:

I look for cars even if they're really far behind me, and if there's a car in the oncoming lane I move to the very center of my lane so the person behind me will realize early on there's no way to slip past.
I keep an eye on them as they approach to make sure they're slowing down. Just in case they're not paying attention I don't want to be in the center of the lane, and remain ready to make a hard right - but not too soon; otherwise, they'll just use the opportunity to slip past and get into my discomfort zone (definition of discomfort zone: me, sprawled on the side of the road)
When there are no longer any oncoming cars then I move over to the right, just in case the person gets lazy when they pass.
With a lot of traffic, the ride no longer becomes enjoyable because of the intense concentration.

I want to add that if there is ever a truck driver reading this, you are appreciated. Almost every trucker has been very patient, swing wide to the left, and frequently will give a toot of their horn after passing. And they're the ones we really cause to slow down because it takes so long for them to get up to speed again.

Eventually, I just settled into a rhythm: I would ride the right tire line. Every 30-60 seconds the cars would have enough room to pass, after which it would start over again.

The chicken quesadilla was really good, but when did it start costing $14.00 for a quesadilla and a Coke from a taco truck!?!?? Am I starting to sound like a grumpy old man?

It's better when there are two lanes going in the same direction as you.

Google maps, or whatever supports it, pulled a huge "bait and switch." When you're looking at the map it says the cost of this hotel in Okatie is $85.00, so I planned to stop there tonight. When you click on it, the price changes to $274.00.

I just couldn't do it. There's absolutely no way that I'm going to pay more than $120 or so to stay in a place like Okatie, South Carolina, so I resolved to ride until I didn't want to ride any longer then find a nice place to stealth camp. I've been seeing a number of them along the way since getting away from Savannah, most of them quite nice.

This bridge was quite long, and very pleasant. The wind was almost cold coming off the Atlantic.

I had a nice wide shoulder, but the schizophrenic wind was nothing like I'd ever seen. Unlike most winds, which blow in one direction and have occasional strong gusts, this wind was coming from all directions. At one point I had a headwind on my left side and a tailwind on my right.

The sign on the tree says "Protected by Fuck Around and Find Out." I didn't want to get any closer because the owner was out working in his yard.

I started hearing a ticktickticktick sound and thought I had picked up a rock in my tire, but when I stopped to investigate I found this. I pulled it out and made a note to myself to check the tire pressure this evening and in the mornings for several days.

From Shell Point (see map below), I rode over to Point Royal in order to get on a designated bike path. After this morning's traffic, it was five miles of wonderful, especially with the tailwind.

I only took this picture because I love the name. Trees and a fence prevented me from getting a good picture of the house.

The two major smells today were marijuana and roadkill, but it was mostly fresh air.

Somehow, all of a sudden it seemed, I was in Beaufort where the hotels were reasonably priced, and without the bait and switch, so I selected one and rode to it.

The Country Inn and Suites showed the price of $92.00, but when I checked in the woman at the counter said it's $162.00. When I showed her the price on my phone, she said, "Yeah, that's the online price." I was in disbelief at the difference, but reserved a room standing in front of her for the lower price.

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Wanda JenningsThat has happened to me too. One place didn't honor the online price but when I asked for a Senior Citizen discount, it came out to be the same price as the online price!!!!! YES!!!, YES!!!, YES!!! How sweet it is!!!
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3 days ago

Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 861 miles (1,386 km)

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Steve Miller/GrampiesWe too have encountered the pricing differential between in person and online. We too have made the reservation online while standing at the front desk. The front desk person didn't even blink.
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4 days ago

Bill ShaneyfeltRiding in traffic. Yup, I have been doing pretty much like you described since I was a kid in the 1950s, Ride left of the edge line, keeping an eye on my mirror for approaching traffic both directions, and when they are close enough to make a correction in their direction, I would wobble about 6 inches into the lane, just far enough to be really obvious and scare them enough to move over as I drifted back and to the right of the edge line... Almost always works, but over the decades, I have had to leave the roadway at times to preserve bodily integrity.
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3 days ago

Mark BinghamTo Bill Shaneyfelt"to preserve bodily integrity." Ha! I like it! The same "my discomfort zone."
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3 days ago