The storm missed us last night, but apparently a tornado touched down in Conway, just 30 miles north of here.  The air remained heavy and humid until the sun came out this morning.  After taking care of online business we went back to Barefoot Landing to look for some LED signal lights for a friend back home. The sun was hot and we both wore our Tilley hats. After looking over the biker booths we went into the River City Cafe for lunch.  The burgers there are huge and delicious. We noticed on the TV that there was a storm warning, and sure enough when we went back outside the dark clouds were moving in. Rather that go anywhere else on the bike, we thought we might as well continue the tour of the shops at the Landing that we’d missed when we had to leave for the Condo Tour on Friday.

We looked around only two stores before the rain began to come down. It didn’t seem like it was going to stop any time soon, so we bought one of the five dollar umbrellas that were conveniently by the door and dodged in and out of the boutiques along the street. Two hours later, when the rain had finally let up and we’d seen all there was to see, we started towards the bike. Suddenly I realized that I didn’t have my Tilley! Thinking back, the last time I could remember having it was when, I’m sure, I set it down on the counter in the store where I bought the umbrella to free my hands to get out my money. We trotted back there, but they hadn’t seen it. I left them my name and phone number. We checked at several stores that we’d been in; no luck.  We even went back to the hat shop where I’d bought it, hoping someone may have found it, but again no luck.  The store owner made a call to the security office to ask them to keep a look out for it.  The girl at the Wyndham booth alerted all the staff there to be on the look out for it.  Sigh.  Perhaps it will show up yet.

The sky was still dark off in the distance; it was time to get on the bike and back to camp before more rain. The helmets were hanging on the bike and Jim’s was turned up to the rain like a bowl.  Needless to say, he rode home with a wet head.

We actually had time to make and eat dinner and get the laundry done before the rain started again.  It’s been raining now since 9:00. Again, we’ve been lucky. Had we’d headed back towards Murrells Inlet today, we might have been in trouble.  According to the news there was major flooding in the area this afternoon.

It hasn’t been an ideal week for the Bike Week organizers, and all of the merchants that we talked to  apologized for that! 🙂