Shar & Cin's Motorcycle Journeys: East Coast Tour

We enjoyed two days in the beautiful and historic town of Charleston, SC. Our welcome to Charleston was a $45 parking ticket for each of us at the visitor center. Motorcycles aren't allowed in the parking lot so we parked in an area where 3 other bikes were parked. Not the best decision!

The following day we grabbed a cab and headed to the heart of downtown Charleston exploring Market Street, the old slave market, rainbow row, and the Battery. Stopped for lunch and a couple of pops at Fleet Landing down by the waterfront. Then hailed a pedicab to give us a mini tour of the downtown neighborhoods. Beautiful architecture and sprawling gardens. John our pedicab driver is planning is own cross country bike trip with his buddy....bicycle that is! Hauling our butts around town was great training.

We checked out of the Marriott the next day (Amie's birthday) intending to tour one of the old plantations (Magnolia) and then head north in the afternoon. Apparently Mother Nature had other ideas. Before we got close to the plantation it started to pour. By the time we could safely pull over to get out of the rain and put our rainsuits on, we were already soaked. We decided to bag the plantation and try to skirt more rain by heading north immediately. We no sooner got on Rt 526 when the sky opened up again. We took the first exit and immediately saw the North Charleston Marriott and decided maybe we should spend one more day in Charleston. This proved to be the right decision...it came down in buckets with thunder and lightning all afternoon. Ended day 2 with a delicious dinner at Hank's Seafood (curried shrimp for Cin and grilled salmon for Shar...mmm mmm good) followed by an after dinner drink at Henry's where we met Randy, our friendly bartender who grew up in Bedford NH!

We headed out bright and early the next day (5/16). Clear skies, plenty of sunshine and low humidity were all the ingrediants needed for a fantastic riding day. We hopped on Rt 17 heading north across Sullivan's Island, Mt Pleasant, and Pawley's Island. We stopped briefly in Myrtle Beach for lunch and to buy discounted bike week t-shirts. The town of Myrtle Beach decided to cancel bike week but many bikers showed up anyway. We can't say that we blame them for cancelling bike week, all the bikes were extremely loud (boy do we sound old). 95% of the bikes were Harleys...don't think we saw one BMW. Myrtle Beach's finest were out in full force stopping many of the youngins for excessive speed.

Checked into a Best Western on the Cape Fear river in Wilmington NC. Another quaint riverfront area with many restaurants, cafes, shops and boatrides. We strolled along the riverfront area and dined at George's Riverfront. I decided to be daring and try the shrimp and cheddar cheese grits since it was one of George's signature dishes. Although tasty, it was extremely rich...you could feel the arteries slamming shut.

Heading towards the outer banks tomorrow.

TTFN

Cin & Shar

Welcome to Charleston, SC!!!