Day 7: October 16, Myrtle Beach to Brookgreen Gardens

I was slightly upset that I couldn't seem to sleep past 3:30. There was no reason for if, as the couple next to me had finally gone to bed and the camp was quiet, and I debated digging out my OTC sleeping pills. I couldn't stop thinking about all the negativity of the past few days: the near miss dog attack, the woman lecturing me, basically getting run off the road, having to go 5 miles out of my way through the neighborhoods to get to a street light not even 1/2 miles in front of me, cracking my phone in Subway, not knowing where I will sleep at night, and going about 3 times over my intended budget for the first week were all starting to get to me.

I decided I needed a rest day, but when I packed up and was about ready to roll out, I couldn't find my hat. I thought I must have either lost it or someone stole it. Of all the things for someone to steal! I only have so many things on this trip and they all have serve an important function. After riding around the campground and stopping into the general store/office to ask, I noticed that the buckle I had it attached to had come undone. My hat was really gone, so a trip to Walmart to get a new one was now a priority, as it had become a sunny day. I also wanted to get to a library and finish posting my most recent days on my blog.

I enjoyed the bike paths and the bike lanes very much, and started thinking about how Myrtle Beach was so unlike the rest of SC. I finally got to Walmart and got my hat as well as a few other things I needed. Then I continued on to what must be the worst library for visitors I think I've ever been in. You only got 15 minutes of computer time to do whatever you needed to do, and if you wanted to print anything you had to prepay. ( I wasn't printing but the people next to me were, and complained about having to know how many pages you would need to print before even sitting down.)

I also left my bike in front by the bike rack, which was out of sight of the front desk workers. There were two guys sitting on the retaining wall that took a little too much interest in it, and when I asked if I could move it closer where they could see it, I got a big, definite "NO," as if I was asking the craziest thing ever. So  I went as quick as I could and found a likely place I could sleep that night behind a church out in the woods in the figurative middle of no-where, just in case my couch surfing requests fell through again.

I really intended to do as little riding as possible today and take it easy and enjoy Myrtle Beach, but I found myself kind of wandering around not really knowing what to do with myself. I followed the bike path that followed highway 17 for a while, before taking a 90 degree turn away from the busy road. It was a super nice ride, but in unfortunately ended suddenly near a new, still-being-built neighborhood. Instead of backtracking, I decided to ride through the neighborhood, which was ended up being a very long way to get back to where I started. It was getting to be a few hours before sunset, and I decided to start heading to the church as I still hadn't heard anything back. I rode through a very twisty backroads route, which started really adding the miles and anxiety. What if this church thing turns out to be a dud? Right as the sun was setting I finally found it, and it was perfect. There were deep woods behind it that I could hang from and a concrete pad and stoop that I could use as well. So I sat on the back steps and waited for the sun to go down.

Then I noticed an odd thing start to happen: the darker it got outside, the brighter it got behind the church! There were a number of street lights all around the side and back of the church that I didn't notice before. I could see the lights from cars passing by on the road out front and started worrying that they could see me. I pulled out a black piece of ripstop I brought that I have been using as a ground cloth and covered the bags and reflectors on the front of my bike and made sure that the angles of view were as good as possible. Now I felt slightly trapped here: if I went to the woods surely someone would see me, and the forest didn't seem as impenetrable now as in the day, when I could see the lights of the cars through the leaves.

I decided I wouldn't use my stove tonight: I would break out one of the two MRE pouches I brought instead. Then I got ready for bed, making sure to wear what I intended to ride out in the next morning, and packed up everything except my sleeping things, toothbrush and toothpaste. I wanted to make sure was really ready for a quick escape this time!

I went to sleep early, around 8:30. At 11, I was woken up by a noisy truck with a loose metal trailer roaring around to the back of the church. I was freaked out because I had been discovered, but not really able to do anything but look at it with big, wide eyes. It turned around and paused for a moment with its headlights right on me! Then it floored the gas and drove away. I obviously looked like a homeless person (indeed, in a sense I am...) and I can only imagine I scared him about as bad as him me. I waited for about 45 minutes wondering if he, the cops, or any hooligan teenagers of his would be coming back... I finally fell back to sleep only to be woken back up around 12:30 by a raccoon scratching on the tree in front of me. I yelled at it, shined my flashlight at it, and hissed at it, and it went away. "Great," I thought, "Now I'm going to be fending off a raccoon the rest of the night!" Fortunately, this one had obviously not been habituated to people like the horribly insistent ones in established campgrounds, and I didn't see it again.