After a good night sleep, breakfast, and the sun to meet us, we hit the road to Wilmington NC to see the Battleship USS North Carolina. In case any of you are in the area, she is definitely worth the visit. My first impression of the boat was that it was not all that big, if you could picture yourself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. To be fair though, you have to know that I worked at the Newport News Shipyard in the 80's and worked on the USS Carl Vinson, which is an Aircraft Carrier. Throughout the ship on this particular day were some veterans that actually served on the boat. There was also Navy and Marine personal on board to talk about life on the vessel. Lori had the distinct pleasure of trying on a fully load back pack that weighed 65 pounds. This did not include the weight of the Helmet, Rifle, and ammunition belt. Let's just Lori would not make a good Marine! I was really thinking the whole time this ole girl is going to tip over!! I took several pictures on the boat which I will try to put a description on when I upload them to Flickr.
Do you remember hearing and reading about the forest fires in Conway SC.? Well let me tell you they are still smoldering and there is smoke everywhere. The fires came right up to the edge of the road we were driving on and the smoke was a bit choking as we passed by. I really didn't think it was this close to Myrtle Beach, but I would say maybe 3 to 5 miles from the beaches, as the crow flies, from North Myrtle Beach. We did not travel down to the beaches since we were just here last summer. Plus we spent a good 3 hours on the Battleship and needed to make Charleston.
Later in the afternoon as we were passing through Georgetown SC the rain finally caught us. I pulled into a parking lot, told Lori as soon as we finish putting these suits on, it will stop raining. Well not exactly, but all we got was about 2 miles of light rain, then a few spurts a little later on down the road. I can live with this and it was a good test for the new boots, which also passed.
It was a long day today even though we actually did a little less in the mileage department. We pulled into Charleston, SC. around 6pm to very warm and sunny skies. I would say it was 85 or higher when we arrived. Once we got to the hotel, unpacked, talked to clerk about his favorite restaurants, we ended up at a place called Sticky Fingers. I had their Ribs, wet, with original Memphis sauce. All I can say is that they were awesome. The only complaint was that I could not finish the meal, I was stuffed. Lori had Pulled chicken, which in my opinion was good, but not as good as the ribs. Do you know you can go online, order a meal, and these guys will ship it to anywhere in the USA. How weird is that? We also got a complimentary Peach cobbler to take with us, which I'm munching on right now as I type. Good for me, bad for you.
Tomorrow, we will hit Fort Sumter here in Charleston and then bolt to Gainesville, FL. We will be staying in Gainsville for 3 nights because I have 3 rides from Road Runner Magazine that I want to do before I visit the Crane's and then turn south again for the Keys.
A few more things I would like to mention and then it is bedtime. I fixed the issue with the Garmin and GPS and I was able to talk to my oldest son today while riding down the road. The Valkyrie will rollover with 60,000 miles on the odometer tomorrow which is a lot for a motorcycle. Well it's a lot for me. Some have asked that Lori put a few comments on here and here is what she has for today, " zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". I kid you not; she passed out on the bed by 9:30pm. Party Animal!! She did the same thing yesterday. She'll be up by 5am ready to roll, but she better not wake me. hehe!
Today’s mileage = 287
Total for the trip = 626
Day 3 at EveryTrail
Day 3 at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging
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