The former church

Too many!

I usually try to memorize the roads I’m supposed to take, but from Alabama to Georgia to South Carolina, there were just too many.

My screenshot of Welcome to Alabama. When there’s nowhere to pull over, you improvise! 

My GPS took me on a billion roads and soon I didn’t even know if I was still heading east. I gave up and just did what it said. It was set to avoid highways, so I followed along.

Eventually I was hungry and needed to pee. I found a Lowe’s with a shade set up by their sheds. I pulled Lucille into the shade and ate my lunch in the parking lot. Then I went in and used the facilities.

Lucille and I having lunch in the shade! 

Soon though it was time to go again. My destination was a bunk a biker in Seneca, South Carolina.

Welcome to South Carolina. 

My host

I had called my host at my last gas stop as he’d requested, but I got his voice mail. I left a message and kept riding. When I pulled up to his place, I initially thought it was a junkyard. There were a ton of bikes around the place, covered in tarps. It turned out, these bikes weren’t junk at all, though the tarps made them seem that way.

I checked my email and there was an email from my host requesting i ring him before I arrived. Too late. I rang him from his driveway. He came out to meet me wearing only a pair of shorts. It turned out he had been making. He spent most of the night into the early hours repairing a bike, then had gone on a ride in some of the awesome South Carolina roads.

He asked me to drive Lucille around the church, past many of the motorcycles, around a fifth- wheel trailer, off the concrete, down a hill, through the grass, then squeeze between some stuff he had, turn the corner and run Lucille up the hill in the grass to park by his side door. Um,… no. Then he told me to drive her off the cement and through the grass the other way and make a tight u-turn, in the grass to park outside the side door. Again I declined. He teased me a bit before driving her down there himself. I wasn’t going to drop her in the wet grass!

Lucille parked in the grass next to the church. 

The house

Turns out my host, Redd, lived in a former church. He had converted the mother’s room into a sort of kitchen and the priest’s office into his room. In the sanctuary, where services had previously taken place, he now had a motorcycle shop, complete with about 15 different rides in there. There were tools, parts, tires, fluids,  and bikes filing the place!

A Ridley he was repairing for a customer. Apparently it’s for sale. 

Then he took me downstairs. There were rooms down there he was hoping to convert to self- storage. It seemed like these were probably once classrooms but now they were mostly full of motorcycle stuff. There was a kitchen and also a couple of bathrooms. It turns out though that the toilets weren’t hooked up to the water supply. There was a bucket next to one for manual flushing.

There was a shower and Redd left me with that. He wanted to nap a bit and then go have Chinese food. I showered, did laundry,  and got organized while he napped.

Clothes hanging to dry. Hopefully it doesn’t rain in the night. Again. 

Dinner

When we were both ready, he asked me what bike I’d like to ride, the Harley or the Concours? I didn’t want to ride ANY bikes after my long day in the saddle, but I said I’d ride whatever he thought best, thinking I’d be doing the driving. Nope, he intended me to ride bitch, or pillion as it is more formally known. It has been years since is ridden behind anyone and it made me very nervous. He was a great rider, but I was a terrible passenger. I kept putting my feet down at red lights and such. He must have hated it, but he didn’t complain!

Dinner was at a Chinese buffet. I ordered off the menu to get vegan food. It was quite tasty and Redd took my leftovers home for the dog I hadn’t seen. Apparently his ex-wife had the dog for the day.

Redd was an interesting guy that had retired from the Air Force, so we had our military service in common. He knew a TON about motorcycles and the local roads and he even gave me a motorcycle road map. I really liked chatting with him.

He took me on a little tour of Clemson University before heading back to his place. I was beat, so I headed to bed soon after we got home. Another great day.

Redd with his homemade motorcycle trailer made from a truck toolbox.