DAILY BLOG

Pictures to follow of Stage 24 on Saturday!

We finished!!!! Today’s ride may not have been our favorite of the tour, as we had a lot of traffic to contend with as we approached Charleston. However, it was a joy finishing the tour together—ad aqua simul!

We started the morning in Walterboro, a smaller town which was 58 miles from our ultimate destination—Isle of Palms beach, a few miles north of Charleston. Because the mileage was shorter than our usual amount, Jordan and Justy decided that they wanted to finish strong and ride with Jared and I the full miles today. They did a super job—in fact, it was among the longest distances that those two have ever ridden.

Other than steady stream of traffic, the ride was fairly uneventful for the first 40 miles. However, after lunch, we got into full board city traffic, which was a first to us—as we had always avoided metro traffic as we crossed the country. However, there was no way around this one, so we took it on the best we could.

The plan was to ride into the city of Charleston and then head north towards the Isle of Palms. Getting into Charleston was quite an experience—going over a drawbridge, over another major bridge, and then into downtown. After riding through the streets of Charleston, we headed north towards Isle of Palms beach. The ride through the city was not as fantastic as I had hoped. The problem was that we’d run out of water (Kim went on towards the beach, as it was too hard to have follow in the vehicle) and the boys were a bit tired. Plus, we just learned that two TV crews were going to cover the beach ceremony—so we knew we needed to be sure to be there on time.

All four of us made it to the beach by 4:15pm or so. There was a small group there from Seacoast Church and Zondervan to welcome us. (Thanks guys! You made the day complete!) There were also two TV crews from the local ABC and CBS affiliates. They ended up doing interviews with all of us for their evening news programs.

We ended up having a great night in Charleston in celebration. More to follow on the end events and especially on a tour recap.