Day 88

Above
It was just as much of a pain getting back down to the road as it was coming up. After that, lots of turns, some easy dirt roads, a difficult newly gravelled road, over a bridge and I was in South Carolina. I was dumb about gettig water- I skipped a few places and was paying for it now. I passed by "The Shady Lady Saloon"- nope, not worth it. Soon after I found a minimart. The lady inside told me about the spicket outside. I drank a bunch while I was there. I didn't eat as much as I would have liked either, so I stayed there for a bit and ate icecream. The road widened out as I went. I just kept to the side and hoped people would pass me. I asked a few places for postcards and then I got a flat tire. I couldn't figure out what did it, but I've been wanted to have just thorn resistent tubes in there anyways. So I quickly changed it out. The city was pretty crazy by this point. Good thing there were sidewalks. I asked a few more places- no luck. I was supposed to continue on to Greenville, but I realized that since I was going Knoxville to visit a friend, there was no reason for me to keep going that way. I changed my route and found out I could shave off quite a few miles by doing this. I wish I had thought of this before, because it would have been even more miles saved, but oh well. I had to average 90 miles for the next two days, minus whatever I got for the rest of the day. I rushed off in the new direction, still keeping my eyes open for places that might have post cards. I wasn't expecting much- it was after 5 on a Sunday. But as I was zooming by closely packed shops, the familiar post card shape caught my eye. I slammed on the brakes, almost falling off. Don't be closed, don't be closed, don't be closed. The door was open a bit. Yes!!! I quickly bought it and wrote it out, know that I still wanted to get some solid miles in today. More sidewalk, and then it disappeared. It was a huge pain in the butt, trying to ride through parkig lots or just waiting for there to be no one coming so that I could ride in the road to get to the next parking lot. Finally I had no choice but to ride in the road. I stayed to the right. There was plenty of room and very little traffic. Soon I had to cross a bridge over i85. I paused for a while, trying to find a better way around, but I eventually just had to go for it. It was better than I thought. I got a shoulder and was able to ride by just pausing to make sure no one was coming when I needed to cross over a lane to an off ramp. I think this is where I finally got a permanent shoulder. I still couldn't really relax because of where I was, but it was much better than being back a few miles. Soon I had to look out for a place to camp. As usual, there were places, but I saw on Google a place that looked promising. I skipped past some fantastically thick woods only to find that my promising spot was not so great. It probably used to be a forest, but many trees had been cut down. I wanted to keep going but there were no more spots- a city was up ahead. I walked my bike in, hoping to hide behind some bushes. Ants scared me away from a few spots, but I finally found one without too many. I sprayed a spot, set up my tent, and crawled inside with there still being plenty of light outside. I didn't make it as far as I wanted to. But if I have two solid days, I will still be golden.