Day 59 - The Garmin Lady Lost Her Mind, But We Still Made It To The Swamp

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Today was supposed to be easy. We stayed in a nice hotel in downtown Charlotte last night, got a great night's sleep, and had a quick breakfast at the Starbucks right across the street. The weather was great when we loaded up the bike for what was supposed to be a relaxing 3 hour ride to Congaree National Park. But that was before the Garmin Lady lost her mind!

We dialed in the address on the Garmin when we left at about 9:00 and she said we would be there at about 11:45. All was well with the world, the temperature was a balmy 84 degrees, the scenery went from urban skyscraper to suburban strip mall, to rural farmland. Then, when we crossed over into South Carolina, the Garmin somehow got out of sync. We were riding on the right road, but the designated road was being shown off to the right where no road existed. Then eventually, we made it to the right road, but the purple road was not lining up with the real road. I stopped and restarted the Garmin, and that's when the trouble started. All of a sudden, our 11:45 arrival was 2:11 and when I looked at the map, the Garmin Lady wanted us to drive right past Congaree National Park and then retrace our path back to the entrance. Every time I stopped and restarted the Garmin, I got a different result.

Finally, I tried the MapQuest app on my phone, and it worked fine. The problem with navigating using a cell phone is that you are at the mercy of the cell phone towers which is usually a problem at remote National Parks. I left the Garmin working, and quickly the phone and the Garmin were calling out the same path. Luckily, the cell phone reception was holding out, and by the time we were about 12 miles from the park according to the phone, the 2 began to diverge. Eventually, we saw a sign for Congaree National Park, which was good, because we just lost cell phone reception. The Garmin Lady was yelling at us to make a u-turn all the way up to the point when we were on National Park Road, just a mile from the Visitors Center, then all of a sudden, like nothing happened, she said we were arriving at our destination just ahead. We gave up, turned them both off, and headed into the Visitors Center to enjoy the park.

When we were first planning for this trip, we didn't even know there was a National Park in South Carolina. Congaree National Park was only made a National Park in 2003. It is one of the last remaining old growth floodplain forests in the southeast. Evidently these types of forest were all over the southeast until the logging of the late 1800's destroyed them all, Evidently one of the logging barons of the time held on to this section of the forest a the last remaining natural forest while he logged everything else around it. So the park is really one big swamp, flooded every spring by the watershed of most of South Carolina, by this time of year, it has mostly dried out with just the remnants of the Congaree River remaining. The result is an extremely bio-diverse area with lots of various creatures, bugs, birds, and plant life.

Since the floor of the forest is mostly muck, there is a 2.3 mile long raised boardwalk set up in a loop from the Visitors Center. Most of this boardwalk is under water in the spring, but by now it makes for a pleasant hike. Unfortunately, there is a 0.3 mile section of it in the center that was destroyed over last winter and is being rebuilt right now. which kind of defeats the definition of a loop. Luckily, there just happened to be sections of a couple of other non-boardwalk trails that could be used to complete the loop, making the total hike around 3 miles. The park ranger warned us that the non-boardwalk trails might be a little muddy in spots, and there were a few spots where trees had fallen across the trail. Perfect!

The temperature was getting close to 90 degrees, but it was a little cooler along the trail as the tree canopy tended to block out the sun. The humidity felt like a perfect 100%, which felt just like home in Florida. We asked about mosquitoes and the ranger said they were not too bad, especially if we kept moving. Some people just attract mosquitoes, but Jody and I don't usually have that problem, so we skipped the mosquito repellent. I didn't get bit at all, and I think Jody had 1 bite.

The park was really beautiful in an eerie sort of way. The boardwalk let us walk through some of the murkiest parts, and we were able to take some great pictures. The detour due to the boardwalk construction let us walk along some of the muddy areas, and right up to the shores of Wise Lake. We really enjoyed the hike, and it was easy for us as it was generally flat, and not like the mountain hike we had taken over the last few days. Besides the boardwalk and some of the drier, well marked paths, the other way to visit this park is in a canoe. At the river, we saw signs on the trees marking the canoe path through the swamp. Canoeing in the swamp would be fun but a little beyond what we had planned for the day.

When we finished the hike, we headed back to the Visitors Center for a well deserved Diet Coke, and asked the ranger if we could see the obligatory 20 minute movie. He made an announcement that he was starting the movie and we grabbed our Cokes and headed into the theater. By the time the movie started, the theater had filled up with everyone in earshot of the announcement. After the movie, we headed into the gift shop in search of t-shirts. There were no women's t-shirts this time, so only I was able to get one.

It was about 2:00 and we were done with Congaree National Park and ready to do battle with the Garmin Lady again. It put in the address of the Hotel, and the Garmin just stuck on calculating at 99%. The cell phone was useless as it was showing "No Service". I had looked at the map on the wall in the Visitors Center and had an idea which way to head, so we hopped on the bike (we left on our shorts as it was hot), and headed out. Once we hit the main road and saw a sign for Orangeburg, SC the town where we were staying, all of a sudden, the Garmin Lady sprang to life and pointed out the correct directions. By now the phone also had service, but I had to give the Garmin lady a chance to redeem herself.

The rest of the ride into Orangeburg was uneventful, the Garmin Lady led us right to the hotel, and there was even a Ruby Tuesday's within walking distance. I put in the address for tomorrows hotel, and the Garmin Lady laid out the correct path. So I don't know if there is something wrong with the Garmin, or if there was just something wrong with the maps around Congaree National Park. But for now, we'll just hope the Garmin Lady retains her sanity. It's only for a couple of more days. Tomorrow we head for Historic Savannah, GA. We have a hotel right in the middle of the historic district, so I hope we can enjoy some sightseeing.

158.7 Miles Today

9380.4 Miles Total

5.826 Gallons Today

239.054 Gallons Total

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