Peanuts, Peanuts!

Day 21
From Santee SC
To Walterboro SC
Mileage estimated 64
Mileage actual 66
Top speed 24 mph
Riding time 4hrs 37 mins

Hurricane Hanna was supposed to hit land in South Carolina about 3am this morning; as it was it hit land at North Myrtle Beach about 3.20am this morning, but was not a ferocious as first expected. Whatever the reality, our start today delayed as the weather was assessed. We only had a 64 mile day today (only!) so we had breakfast at 7.30am then returned to the hotel where I got changed into suitable riding clothes ready for the off.

I told you that most people were by now addicted to the Weather Channel, but when I went through to the hotel lobby to get the van to the breakfast restaurant, it was a bit ridiculous, I felt, to find people in the 'one and six pennies' lined up watching it on the hotel set!

Still, when your day can be made or ruined by the weather it is important to be well informed. We were expecting showers all day and Dowling Tailwinds when we looked at the forecast last thing last night; when we got up this morning, the forecast had changed to real tailwinds and only a 10% chance of rain and that only early in the day. As it turned out, the rains gods never got angry, the sun god smiled all day and we rode in very hot conditions for all of the day.

So, a nice day when we set off from the hotel about 8.45am - a real late start for us - and made our way to the quiet of the country roads out of Santee. While the roads may be quiet, they are still badly surfaced and both difficult and uncomfortable to ride in places. I have now developed a niggling injury which has originated in the heel of my left hand and goes up my arm to the elbow and shoulder. There is no doubt it has come about due to riding over the rough surfaces for such a long time and whilst it will not stop me riding, it does make riding uncomfortable. Whinge over!

Today, there was a subtle change to the scenery as the number of corn fields reduced and the number of peanut and cotton fields increased. I've talked a bit (and enough) about cotton already on the blog but not mentioned peanuts much. You are probably used to seeing peanuts like this:-

That was about the extent of my knowledge of them before I came over here, too. They are called peanuts, or ground nuts because they are a 'legume' and, thanks to dictionary.com, I can let you know that a legume is:-
1. an erect or climbing bean or pea plant of the family Leguminosae
2. the fruit or seed of any of various bean or pea plants consisting of a case that splits along both sides when ripe and having the seeds attach to one side of the case
3. the seedpod of a leguminous plant (such as peas or beans or lentils)

so it's a bean, really and the nuts are the seeds of the plant. The plant grows then flowers and as the flowers die, a tendril is formed that grows downwards and buries itself into the earth, forming the peanuts underground. The nuts grow underground and are finally harvested and processed into whatever we want them to be.

The plant stands about a foot high and is quite easily confused with a soy plant, as they are from the same 'family', but the soy is taller. We didn't take any of the nuts, just pushed them back into the sandy soil in which they grow best. So now you know!

Anyway, back to the ride. Only one stop today and that at 36 miles (when the ride was nearly over!) but we did have our fair share of attack dogs screaming and barking at us and there were also a good number of people dressed in camouflage clothing but wearing bright orange headgear and carrying very big, mean looking shotguns. When we asked them, as we slowly rode by, what they were hunting, we were told they were out to shoot deer. We came across one group lining up at the side of the road, actually standing on the tarmac but looking into the woodland off the road and they apparently send their dogs in from one side of the woods then wait at the other to shoot the deer that the dogs chase towards them. Very scientific.

The ride today was quite short, but could have been even shorter. This was a sign we got to when we arrived at a junction. I made it that we had 21 miles to go to get to Walterboro:-

You don't even need to guess which way we went, do you? Correct. Towards Canadys. And we did our 21 miles and a few more!

Still, we were in early, even though for the last ten miles I 'drafted' Scott who is still suffering Montezuma's Revenge after the meal the other night. When I see how Scott has been, I consider myself lucky that I got away with only one bad day, but then again, I did treat myself a bit differently than him so probably I made my own luck!

The hotel here has a pool but it is so hot this afternoon and it was so hot to ride in, that not many have ventured into its depths, most preferring to sit in their room or on their bed with the air conditioning on high, trying to get comfortable.

We have really now broken the back of the major mileage days; tomorrow is another 60+ day and that takes us into Savannah, Georgia, for a Rest Day on Monday, then we only have two more days, both in the 70 mile area as we roll into the finish on Wednesday next.