Day 1 Monday, June 12.
The day that we have been looking forward to started out very wet. We can't even see the lake today.  So instead of our 8:30 start time, we decided to sleep in and wait for the rain to subside.  This gives Colleen a chance to rest up from all her Owen High School graduation activities the day before.  After church service and before the afternoon graduation, we had My Mom and Dad, Mrs. Schuit, Sandy and Eric, Roger and his family, the Brooks, my brother David and his family (about 20 all together) for lunch on the new deck. It was a beautiful day, clear cool. We all had a great time just chatting till time to go to graduation exercises at the Civic Auditorium. Right after graduation, Mom and Dad Massey left for Florida. Colleen went right to a big  graduation party at the Grey Eagle planned by the Tuttles, Richeys, Eubanks, etc (which Mom, Kevin and I also attended) Great fun time for the kids and the parents.  Colleen went with a smaller group of friends to a pool party at the Wagner’s till about midnight. The rain delay gave not only her but all of us a much needed rest. Kevin could have gotten perfect attendance at Owen for the first time if he had only gone in to school till 11:30, but we were not sure when the rain would let up. So consequently, he took the last day absence to sleep in and wait with us.  I think he really just wanted to have ONE time when he could say he had perfect attendance.
 

So it was not until 2:00 that we finally left for the drive up to Mt. Mitchell. There was one other car in the parking lot. The temperature was 46 degrees and it was raining just a little, but the FOG was so thick, that when Mom took the video of us coming from the far end of the parking lot, we disappeared completely into the fog. We put on our old loud Rolling Vibration Jackets to be seen in the fog.  We pulled these jackets out of the closet after having not used them since my last bike trip in 1974 to Europe and the outer banks.

 This 372 mile trip was certainly not my longest. The first Rolling Vibrations trip in 1973 of about 25 high school boys through NC, SC, GA, and AL, was about 1300 miles. In 1974, we had two trips. The Europe bike trip with my Montreat-Anderson College students and friends was about 900 miles. We had a day break from that trip before we started a second trip of coed high school students to the Outer Banks and back. This second trip was about 1000 miles.
 

But THIS trip in 1995 was special.  I had been waiting for the time I could ride with my own children. I wanted them to have the same experiences I tried to give other kids. To see their own country and people from a different perspective, to see the back roads, the small communities, the good country people and all the other sights you don't see or EXPERIENCE driving at 65 mph on an Interstate highway. I wanted to share with Kevin and Colleen and hopefully Patrick someday, those things that they have just heard me talk about. I wanted to give Colleen, especially, some unique gift that she could remember at her high school graduation.  A bike trip through Europe was what we had wanted, but the falling dollar value and our own finances with Colleen starting school at Samford University made this the next best thing.  I had planned on $100 for the trip, As it turned out it was $160. Not bad for a five day all inclusive vacation trip!

S0000ooooo At 3:30pm in a 46 degree, completely fogged in Mt. Mitchell parking lot, we started our trip at the highest point east of the Mississippi, over 6600 ft. on our way to sea level 372 miles away. Barbara and Patrick watched as I led, then Colleen, then Kevin brought up the rear. This was the usual order for most of the trip. We had only our sleeping bags, mats, a few changes of clothes and a three person tent on our bike racks. I made up three plastic bags by sewing together some old scraps of plastic tarps to keep our things waterproof. They worked well, though Kevin and I feuded the whole time as to who had the heaviest bag. (I DID!).

As we started down the mountain the wind really pushed us around on some of the corners. The rain was cold and I could barely see through my glasses, so we could not really let the bikes go, though we did get up to 30 mph a few times.  Colleen said that ice actually built up on her legs. But in the few minutes it took to get to the parkway, the rain had stopped and in a few more miles the fog had cleared and it was sunny the rest of the trip, Most of the trip down to Marion was great down hill coasting, speeds up to 37 mph (6600 ft to 1400 ft), with just a few up hills on the Parkway.

We only stopped a few times to take some pictures at overlooks. The kids did not even want to stop to eat in Marion, they wanted to get to our planned destination even though we began 6 hours after our planned start

There was a small lake with a log cabin lodge full of elementary kids from Spruce Pine. The camp caretaker was not around, but the group leaders said we could stay in the pavilion down by the lake.  So the first night we did not need to set up the tent. We ate a little gorp and laid out our sleeping pads and bags on top of the picnic tables in the pavilion.  No showers, but there was electricity in the bathrooms.  We were in the bags by dark, but I had trouble sleeping. Not from the facilities, but from the constant sounds of the huge bull frogs around the lake.  I could also have sworn there was a large animal walking on the gravel outside the doors. Colleen heard it too, It was too large to be a dog or deer. But maybe just the wind blowing.  It was a great first day. We prayed that all the rest would be just as good. (68 miles in 4 2 hours).

Day 2, Tuesday, June 13.
Awake about 8:00. It looked like a great day. Dew on the ground, a little ground fog, but looked like clear skies. Washed up, ate our breakfast bars and Grape juice for a breakfast snack and shoved off right after we took our standard picture with Colleens DAY I sign. Just before Pokeville we stopped at a cross roads restaurant.

After eating, we biked on in to Pokeville. Roger had told us that he had been through this town before and had seen a sign advertising a KKK meeting. Sure enough, we saw KKK graffiti on one building. We paused only to get some drink and moved on, though we did look at the clothes lines along the way to see if there were any white sheets that had a couple of holes in odd places!

It was a nice ride down past Shelby, though we had a couple of busy traffic miles along the 4 lane highway 74. We stopped in Grover, just a few miles from our camp ground in Kings Mountain State Park.
 

We were directed to a local Shake Shop for our early supper. The whole interior walls, ceiling and every shelf contained posters, dolls, toys, and all sorts of things having to do with cars, racing, old record covers, movie posters, Racing advertisements, etc.  You name it, at it was probably on a wall somewhere. There was only one other couple, an older lady and us in the cafe, but only one employee, so the old lady at the far end, brought drinks and told us just to go on up to the food bar.  She said she worked at another restaurant down the road and this was her day off, but she would help Ella Mae out by serving us. She got up from her own dinner several times to ask if we were doing ok. Good country fried steak, mashed potatoes( powdered!!), gravy, fresh beans and a whole basket of rolls. We had to let the food settle a little before pedaling off to Kings Mountain.  The other couple in the cafe offered to carry us in the back of his truck to the camp ground, but we wanted to make it all on our own.

We first had to go through the Kings Mountain National Military Park. This was a nice cool, tree covered, shady rolling road which led to the place that was the end of the long trek taking by the Over the Mountain Boys from Tenn. that came to help defeat the Loyalists during the revolutionary war. In the Park Building we watched a 20 minute movie of the battle that was thought by some to turn the tide by the defeat of the British and their Loyalist colonial troops.

It was just a few more miles down the road to the camp ground. Though we had a nice coast down to the camping area, all three of us were thinking that as nice as this coast was now, early TOMORROW we would have to peddle UP this same road.  It was about 6:30 and since the lake was already closed for swimming, we set up the tent and went to the camp office and got a basketball and played HORSE for awhile before we ate our meal of Gorp and small cans of Beefaroni. (It was about the only thing at the small camp store that did not require a can opener which we did not have!). Kevin bought some terrible potato chips too. Fortunately, the squirrels found them and probably had stomach aches all night. We all had good hot showers and a good night's rest. I tried to call Barbara at the beach, but got a recorded message. I assumed it was the doctor's machine who owned the Condo and that she was out. This day was to be our shortest mileage of only  44 miles.  No noises to keep us awake this night.

Day 3, Wednesday, June 14 (our 20th Wedding Anniversary)
Up at 8:00, We finished off the breakfast bars and a little Gorp and were off by 8:30 on the way to Lake Wateree State Park. Our first real test of about 76 miles. Finally, we got a little less hilly land after the up and down of the last two days. With fresh legs and a cool breeze blowing behind us, we were cruising between 15 and 17 mph, with a few bursts of 35 mph down and slow climbs of 5 mph up occasional valleys. We decided to take a back road that was marked on the map as 324 out of York. At one intersection my intuition told us to turn, but the road was not 324. I asked a man coming out of a small tavern (first mistake) if he knew the road. He asked where we were riding to and from. I had to tell him at least five times. He also asked me if I was retired! He apparently had his morning refreshment and was feeling pretty good!! The two guys inside the tavern never heard of 324 either. So we went on into town (as it turned out, That WAS the road we should have taken)

We went right on through town to a grocery store and bought more GORP materials and drink. While Colleen and I were inside, Kevin stayed outside with the bikes and drew a small crowd of little black kids. He told them about our trip and they could not believe it. One little girl said we "were probably the onliest peoples in the world that have made a trip like that". Another little girl was impressed with Kevin in another way that took several tries for her to express. She said "Hey, wha foot are you?" Kevin had no idea what she was asking. After several times of Kevin saying "WHAT?", she finally sighed and said, "I be 4 foot 2, high, wha foot are you?"  After a good laugh, he said, "Oh I'm almost 6 foot!"

Another man came up and said he had 5 bikes, but probably couldn't ride ONE into town. He was worried about our safety and asked questions like, "What do you do when you are going around a corner and a car is coming up behind you?  Do you get hit?" All we could answer was "We haven't gotten hit YET!" He also asked how much training we had done. He could not believe that we only rode for an hour on two different days. Two trips around our mountain of about 12 miles, once without our packs and once with them. Colleen and Kevin had both been playing soccer and were in good shape. I just hoped I was still in good shape. So far I was feeling good. I had the normal morning aching muscles, but a few miles down the road, they loosened up.

Well after asking two more people in the store where 324 was and getting no help, we started back through the town in the direction I thought the road out to be. Just three blocks out of town, we came to a sign indicating 324. This was not uncommon to find folks who did not know the roads by their numbers. We again moved right along, but came to an abrupt end when we got to 72. The map indicated a smaller road continuing on through. We saw a road up to the left about 100 feet and took that. Well it must not have been the one.

We came out on highway 901 south of Rock Hill just a few miles north of where I had planned. At the intersection was an all purpose store; gas station, one table Bar-B-Que, general merchandise, food  and hunting and fishing supply store. We grabbed the one table and had lunch. There was an old gentleman, half asleep in a chair against the wall. He looked like the husband in the famous picture of the thin, dull faced farmer holding his pitch fork with his equally dull faced wife by his side, both standing in front of their barn.  He woke up every time someone came in the door. He must have been one of the store fixtures, because everyone greeted him by name. Once he nodded his "Hello", he would doze off again.

Refreshed with sandwiches and more Poweraid, we cruised at about 17 miles and hour since the land was now only  low rolling hills and we had a gentle breeze behind us. Just before we got to Great Falls we passed a herd of long horned steers.  Wow, they really DO have long horns. During all the trips we made out West, I don't believe I ever saw real Texas sized long horns, and here they were in South Carolina.

We pedaled all the way through Great Falls and didn't find any interesting restaurants, though we were told about one on the other side of town that was supposed to have good local color and good food to boot. Well when we finally found it, the local color meant African American, which was ok with us, but it happened to be closed. SO... we stopped at a small store and bought our evening snack, canned Beefaroni, then  pedaled all the way back across town to a Hardies that we had passed earlier.

This new Hardies seemed to have replaced the old country store with the pot bellied stove where all the old farmers came and sat around and told stories. There were about 8 old farmers, tugging at their bib overalls as they laughed and told jokes in the corner. They didn't seemed to be eating anything, but they were all having a good time.  Two little old lady types sat next to us and started a conversation. After telling them about our trip, one said she was from Asheville, but had married a man from South Carolina and had been stuck here ever since even though he had died 20 years previously.  The other lady, who must have been 85, said that we should meet up with her grandson in Myrtle Beach. When we asked where he worked, she said "Oh, he works in the place where they sell T-shirts and beach stuff."  Well, that definitely narrowed it down to only about 750 stores!

Our camp site this night was in the pines with a view of the lake out of our tent flap. We feasted on Gorp and canned Beefaroni. We had decided before the trip started that we would eat two good main meals a day and snack the rest of the time. We did not want to carry any more equipment or food than necessary.  However, things went so well, we might add the small backpack stove and an aluminum pot next time (on Colleen and Kevin's bikes of course).

I had been trying to get Barbara at the Condo in Myrtle Beach but had no luck the previous days.  I finally called Mrs. Schuit and found I had the last digit wrong. I also called Buryl to get his parents phone in Florence. Why...? Before the trip I had spent much time figuring out each camping spot along the way. Our last camping spot was to be at Woods Bay State Park at Shiloh south of Florence.  Colleen asked at Kings Mt. State park the second night out, whether the rest of the camping areas had hot showers. I picked up a brochure at Kings Mt. that should the facilities of all the South Carolina State Parks and was going to show her that indeed all the state parks had hot showers. HOWEVER... the Woods Bay park not only showed that there was no HOT showers, but that there were NO showers at all. In fact, there was no CAMPING!!   As it turned out, ALL the parks in the Florence area were only day use parks for picnicking.  SO... what to do?  I remembered that Buryl’s parents lived in Florence. We had stayed in their trailer at Myrtle Beach once before.  I thought maybe they would let us set up our tent in their back yard. Buryl gave me their number and said they would be glad to let us stay in their trailer which was parked in the back yard. Well, they could not have been more gracious to let us invade their home the next day. But more on that later.

I felt better knowing we had a place to stay the next night, so we celebrated by having more canned Beefaroni and gorp for our snack as we played cards until the sun went down. Sleep was not to come quickly this night, since we had a lady next door that kept up a constant hyena laugh. It reverberated through the night longer than the time it took their camp fire to die out. We had covered 76 miles this day.

Day 4, Thursday June 15;
Up bright and early, hot shower, donuts and gorp for breakfast and we are off. Just out of the park in Longtown, we ate breakfast at the Windmill Restaurant. Great grits, eggs, bacon, and pancakes. This place was at a cross roads out in the middle of the forest, but was a landmark for all the hunters in the area. At the nearby small store, I tried to get some WD-40, but having found none, I ended up spraying mosquito repellent on my sticky derailleur. It worked fine the rest of the trip. You learn to use what you have!!

Camden was where the Richey’s warned us that it was the hottest place on earth. We took a vote on taking detour to see the lovely old homes in the historic district. The vote was to move on. It was definitely FLAT now and easy to cruise. At Bishopville, we stopped at a Subway for a late lunch. The  owners were so amazed at our trip, they gave us free drinks and cookies.

A storm was beginning to brew behind us, and we could have taken either a southern route or a northern route to Florence. As it turned out, we should have taken the southern route, since the storm went directly north crossing our path.  It was interesting that both a policeman and policewoman outside, had not the slightest clue of the route outside of town that we wanted to take. Fortunately, a young gentleman who talked to us for a bit, told us of a shortcut that might help us beat the storm to Florence. We only got 15 miles out of town when the storm began to overtake us. It was not raining yet, but large bolts of lightning were getting closer, so we pulled into a convenience store that had a porch where we rested in their rocking chairs while we waited for the storm to hit. It hit with a fury with lightning striking very close, so we decided it would be more prudent to wait inside. We played cards at one of their snack bar tables till the storm blew over, then started out in a small drizzle. Since we lost over an hour, we really had to blitz to get to the Ziegler’s before dark.

Day 5, Friday, June 16,
After another great meal of grits, eggs, bacon and toast we headed out on a back road that Mr. Ziegler told us about.  We had a fun time on the back road through Claussen. The kids went through just about every song they knew, from Sunday School songs to the current pop songs.

At one stop, we bought drinks from a lady that could have come right off the screens of a honky tonk picture show. Sitting on a stool behind the counter of a lonely filling station at a country cross roads, smoking a cigarette and trying to look younger than she really was with beehive hairdo, too much makeup, tight jeans and flowery shirt. She had drawn on her upper lip, had a real southern accent and called the kids "Honey". She is just one of the many unique people that we won't forget on this trip.

We were ahead of most of the Friday afternoon beach traffic from Florence, but they caught up with us at Conway. There we ate in another Subway while another big storm passed over us. Traffic was really heavy now so we chose to take the back way on highway 90 to North Mrytle Beach. The few miles in the light drizzling rain along 501 till we turned off onto 90 was rather wild. Only two lanes, heavy traffic, rain and dark enough for cars to have their lights on and we were moving as fast as we could to get out of this traffic.  The storm seemed to be following behind us so we moved right along. Fortunately there was very little traffic after we turned off highway 501. We arrived at the beach about 6:00 and had our  picture taken next the North Myrtle beach sign with the ocean in the background. But we were not finished yet. We really did not how far down the beach drive, Barbara's condo was. I caught a Realtor as she was leaving her office and she told us the general area where it was located. It was almost back to the city of Myrtle Beach.

We tried to stay off the main highway 17 as long as possible, but ran out of beach road at Atlantic Beach and were forced on to busy 17.  After another  6 miles, we pulled into the Kingsland Parking lot and found the Van. While we were putting the bikes on the Van, Barbara came out to meet us.

SO this last day we missed our century day by 4 miles. We ended with a 96 mile day, making a total of 372 miles from Mt. Mitchell to the ocean in 5 days.

Barbara saw me hit HARD and came running over and tried to help me up, but I was so scared I pushed her away to see if I could get up by myself. I'm ok, but it will be many months before the constant pain lets up. That's ok, though, I'm just happy to be walking around. (I went water skiing yesterday!!!)

So ends this 1995 summer trip!  We are already planning our 1997 Europe bike trip.