Day 13: Augusta, GA to Myrtle Beach, SC

"Motion to the Ocean"

The morning was brisk and we donned our jackets to start off. We had a fair number of miles to cover so we got a reasonably early start. As we coursed through miles of tree lined scenery on our " Motion to the Ocean", scores of golden yellow butterflies danced around our heads as though confetti streamers for a victory parade. The miles melted away quickly as we enjoyed thoughts that our labors would soon be rewarded. Who would have thought that a person with one eye and a person using mostly  one hand could traverse the country on motorcycles together. Mountains, curves, rain, cold, desert and heat for more than 3500 miles! And yet we were nearing the bounty.

We pulled into town in the early afternoon. We found parking spots for the motorcycles a block from the beach and headed to the sand at the Oceanfront Bar and Grill. Incredulously we took our pictures (dipping our right foot into the Atlantic, having dipped the left in the Pacific) and asked passersby to help us in taking some more. We decided a victory drink was in order so we went into the Oceanfront Bar and Grill. Needless to say, many had observed our efforts and many more were interested in what we were doing and the story of our trip. BST happily returned to duty and we soon realized that most of the patrons were motorcyclists, knew bikers, wished they were bikers or were just curious about bikes- which was fine by us. One victory drink became two (Fat Tire beer seemed appropriate) and then we wisely decided to gather our bikes while we could still safely ride them. 

Then, just as we had started the trip at Dudley Perkins Harley Davidson and buying shirts, we set course for the local Harley shop. T of course added shirt and hat to his Smithsonian level Harley collection and G again purchased a shirt for self and spouse.

We checked into our hotel, a bit drained from the realization that we could relax some now(though we had several more riding days to get home). Dinner and more victory  drinks definitely seemed in order. We walked to a nearby restaurant and happily pursued both. Then back to the hotel for the bike trip requisite finally, shot and a beet. We decided on a milder abuse-sambucca. The hotel didn't carry it. Back to the restaurant- they too had never heard of it. We defaulted to the tried and true Jack Daniels(honey version). And defaulted some more. Oh hell, we earned it, right? We think the night ended after that.

We deferred posting our celebratory news because we didn't want to take away from the solemnity of 911. However, our venture, our bucket list trip, was born from the realization of the uncertainty of life and nothing more poignantly evidences the frailty and uncertainty of life than the tragic events of 911. We thought it was fitting that we achieved our goal on 911 and it will help us to have something positive to associate with that date. It also happens to mark the third anniversary of T's retirement, strangely enough. 

We have three more days of travel to get home and are tremendously fortunate to have had his experience. We will continue the blog until we get home but there will be remarkably less to note during those days. To compensate, in one of the next few days we will share some behind the scene thoughts on highlights, lowlights and why we feel the trip went as well as it did.

Yippee!