Folker and I went to a local dive bar last night for dinner. We enjoyed a couple Yuengling beers and I had a pimento cheese burger that was a hot mess. It was hard to keep it together but very delicious.

Today was going to be a day of riding through a few beach towns. Having grown up in North Carolina, I was familiar with these towns as a child as we visited the South Carolina beaches often. I had vivid memories of these towns and of course a few decades later and I might as well had been in a foreign country.

This morning there was a nice trail that we followed for a while and then we started coming into the beach towns full of bars with interesting names and attractions that I have never seen. Garden City Beach now has rows and rows of beach homes that seem to be all rentable for all the current beach goers. Just amazing how nicely developed these places have become.

Between beach towns are golfing communities that fill the gaps. I am glad to have seen this area all these years later and to see how they have created such a nice area for families to continue to be able to come and enjoy.

Folker was not feeling well today and told me to go on ahead. I needed to stop by a bike shop just before the campsite and have a new rear tire put on. I pushed on ahead and made it to the bike shop soon after making it into North Carolina.

South Carolina, thanks for allowing me to pass on through. Your drivers are very patient and courteous and Charleston and the beaches are amazing.

I was greeted by the owner of the bike shop and he was very curious about my previous adventures as he has plans to do some touring himself. He then pushed me over to the mechanic and expert on tubeless tire setup. I had spoken with the expert, Cartier, on the phone yesterday.

I found out later on that Cartier is the son of the owner and has been working with and on bicycles since he was twelve. Not only is he a great mechanic, he is also very passionate about it all and it showed when watching him work with numerous customers that were in and out during my time there.

He explained that most of his customers are retired and they keep him busy. Unfortunately, he only gets about five years with these customers as they either get too old to ride or pass away. Fortunately for him there are always new retirees coming to replace them. Interesting cycle of customers.

Cartier was a gold mine of knowledge and I picked his brain and I tried to learn as much as possible. After he put on my spare tire and set it up tubeless, replaced both valve cores, and topped off the fluid in the front tire, it was time to settle my bill. He surprisingly only charged me for the tubeless fluid. No labor charges, $5.

I don’t know why this causes me to get emotional, but it does. Maybe it is from all the stress and worry of it all when I had to pump my tire every thirty minutes to make it to the shop. To have him work on my bike for free just gives me faith and hope in it all. Just keep moving forward and it will all work out somehow.

I am now at the campsite awaiting the arrival of WL. Folker made it here a while back and he is hopefully preparing for some excitement. I am definitely ready for the excitement with my family. I miss them dearly.