TON’s Of Fun with My Son

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04-24-10

Continuation of 2010 Titanic Grand Tour.

When I walked out of the kitchen door into the wet morning I was not sure how the trip was going to go. But I have been promising my thirteen year old son, Harper, for weeks to take him with me on one of my adventures. I knew when I saw my son with his mothers riding jacket on and a helmet in his hand that this was a trip I had to make.

First stop was just five miles up the road at Bunky’s Market to top off the tanks and to cash a check for some gas money along the way. I topped off the tanks, wrote the check for $20 over and left. Ten miles down the road I remembered that I did not get my cash, so I turned the Shadow around and headed back to the store. By this time I am having second thoughts about this trip and was seriously thinking about heading back to the house. But Harper had his heart set, so I got the cash and started for our first stop which was Creston, SC some twenty-four miles down the road on old Hwy 6. Upon arrival Harper took the flag and set it up before I was even off the bike good.

As we left Creston and headed towards Summerton, SC the rain picked back up but luckily we were riding on the edge of the clouds and were only getting a steady sprinkle. To get to Summerton we had to head north on I-95, which meant riding deeper into the storm. We arrived in Summerton and had to park the bike in a driveway located at the front of the nice town sign.

The rain had stopped as we headed up 521 for the quick ride to Foreston, SC. Again Harper got the rally flag set up in record time. He was really making himself useful on this trip. I wish he was this helpful at home.

Before leaving for Kensington, SC I explained to my son that the trip would be over an hour and a half and that this city did not show up in the GPS so we may have to make a few stops so I could read my paper maps. During the first stop to read the map I decide to plug the largest city near our destination into the GPS and was able to follow it Georgetown. While in Georgetown I was looking for a place to pull over to refer to my map. While searching I guess I did not see that the speed limit had changed from 35 mph to 25 mph and I got stopped by one of their boys in blue. The officer was real nice and after I explained to him about the 2010 Titanic Grand Tour that we were doing he let me go with just a warning. He even pointed us in the right direction to get our required photo of the Kensington city sign.

By this time it was 11:15 in the morning and we were both getting hungry. Harper stated that he had seen a Fire House Subs back in Georgetown so I slowly rode the bike back to Georgetown and enjoyed a really good sub.

The ride to Charleston was a very nice sixty-three mile ride down Hwy. 17. We followed the coastline down to the “All America City”. Just before we got to Charleston we stopped in Mount Pleasant for gas and headed into the city. I noticed that the GPS said we still had six miles before arriving in Charleston as we crossed over the inter-coastal waterway on a very narrow and tall bridge. As we crossed over the bridge we saw the town limit sign; on the bridge with a very narrow shoulder just before a very step crest. I slowed but decided to pass it by hoping that there was another sign on the other end of the bridge. I was wrong.

Without stopping for the Charleston required photo we continued onto N. Charleston just a few miles up I-26. The N. Charleston sign was easy to photograph and then we headed back to get the Charleston photo from this side of the city. Luckily, this time the sign had good placement and we were able to safely get the needed shot.

Next stop was Stratton Capers, SC which according to the map was just twelve miles up Hwy. 642 from N. Charleston. We put over thirty miles on the Shadow looking for a town sign. Heck we could never even find the town. This was our first and only disappointment the entire day.

Jedburg was just a quick twenty-one mile ride up I-26. The sign had good placement and was an easy photo.

With our seventh success of the day we were glad to be headed home. We had been riding in and out of the rain all day, without our rain gear, and could careless that to get home we had to ride into what looked like a very large rain cloud. You could feel the moisture in the air but we were able to stay behind the big cloud and only rode in and out of drizzle. To help pass the hour and half ride home I tuned the Braves game into the XM Radio. Too bad the Braves lost but we still had a very good trip.

Successes:

Creston, SC
Summerton, SC
Foreston, SC
Kensington, SC
North Charleston, SC
Charleston, SC
Jedburg, SC

Total miles ridden: 325.4

Titanic City’s: 7

Total Titanic Grand Tour Signs: 17

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