Life in the Slow Lane (The Pearl): Mar. 27

Ashley Marina

Pam and I have been waiting for a nice day to ride our bikes across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. We've been here for seven weeks and the weather has been too cold, too windy or too wet for us to go. Today was our last day in Charleston together, so we made the best of the day we had...beautiful sunshine and lighter winds (12 MPH), but still a little chilly. The bridge spans the Cooper River between Charleston and Mount Pleasant. It’s the second longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the largest in North America (2 ½ miles). The bridge has a wonderful bicycle pedestrian path, which is very popular with the locals. We've seen people walking, jogging and biking on it in all kinds of weather. Pam and I rode from the marina here in Charleston to Patriots Point, about 6 miles, and felt like it was a pretty easy ride…that was the easy direction. We enjoyed looking around the waterfront and had a nice lunch sitting outside (out of the wind) at The Reel Bar, located at The Charleston Harbor Resort. We talked some about taking the water taxi back to Charleston, but we didn't want to wimp out, so we bundled back up and started our trek home. Getting to the top of the bridge from the Mount Pleasant side is MUCH harder. The incline is twice that of the other side and we had a strong head wind adding to the challenge. We made it and were pretty proud of ourselves. I actually laughed when Pam suggested this outing a few months ago…I said no way, but I’m glad we did it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying Charleston, we both love riding through the streets soaking in all the charm of this wonderful city. It’s been fun having such great friends to share our time with here in Charleston.

A look at the bridge from East Bay in Charleston