Beach Cycling in S.C.

I bet you where not even aware that I had escaped the “Mitten” for a few days where you?  Unless you where following my randomly malicious Facebook updates concerning run ins with TSA and the endless delays of Delta airlines you would have no idea…cause I didn’t tell anyone!  Anyway, since this is a cycling blog of sorts I suppose I should regale  you all with the health and cycling scene in S.C.  more specifically Myrtle Beach.  First let me make this bold claim…Myrtle Beach just may be the most unhealthy place on the planet when it comes to eating both the restaurant scene and the grocery scene.   Since we where staying in a house on the beach we had access to a kitchen and all of the cooking amenities.  What good are amenities if you have nothing to prepare?  So off to the local grocery we go where apparently “Beer” counts as a vegetable and a “Corn Fed Slab of Beef” counts as a veggie burger and “Pop-Tarts” count as fruit.  I even had to invent a meal at a restaurant due to their lack of anything resembling a vegan meal.  It consisted of a side of rice, a side of steamed veggies and a baked potato all mixed together into my own concoction of dinner.  It was an adventure I had no intention of taking but was forced to.  

We flew down there and in case you have not noticed airlines charge an inordinate amount of money to check any luggage, I didn’t even want to know what it was going to cost to get one of my bikes down there since it was $45 to check my suitcase.  Luckily we found a bike shop on the beach that rented bikes by the hour, half day or day.  The selection was limited, for adults there was a green beach cruiser or a green beach cruiser with a child seat.  For kids there was a pink beach cruiser or some hybrid 3 wheeled recumbent type mutation.  Helmets and locks where complimentary and the prices where actually very reasonable.  If you ever find yourself in North Myrtle beach sans a bike and you think you absolutely cannot survive without one you should check out the The Bike Doctor….oddly the guy who is the “Bike Doctor” actually walks around in surgical scrubs and the two women behind the counter refer to each other as “Nurse”   for instance “Please go tell Nurse Susan you need a different lock.”  I kid you not folks.  The Bike Doctor also has an impressive showroom full of bikes and a ton of parts and accouchement for your cycling pleasure. 

About to attack the beach with the bikes

 

The boy and the "bike" he put at least 4,000 miles on

 

The girl and the pink beach cruiser (with complimentary helmet)

 

Under a pier

 

Me on the green beach cruiser....take note of the serious cycling sock tanline

 

 

 

All of The Bike Doctors "Patients" so to speak?