My month in South Carolina

My take on South Carolina

where I went this month

South Carolina's land:

You can see on the map that I only missed one part of the state - the eastern section, part of which is known as the Pee Dee region, after the Pee Dee River that flows there and all of which (I think) is included in SC's extensive Coastal Plain region.  Columbia, which is pretty thoroughly inland and in the northern half of the state, is on the dividing line between the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont region.  The Piedmont runs northwest to the Blue Ridge Mountains and includes Spartanburg and Greenville.

I mention all that because these land forms are distinct enough that even I could notice them.  The coastal area is truly flat; the mountain area is truly mountainous; the piedmont is truly a kind of land that's neither of the others, including hills, rather than mountains or flat land.

The part I missed, in the east, is the area I traveled through 5 years ago when I was on my way to Pennsylvania to begin my trip.  I still clearly remember staying in a couple of state parks there and finding the campgrounds to consist of a whole lot of sand.  That must have been the Sandhills part of the Coastal Plain.

Aside from the different land forms, I saw a whole lot of trees.  This seems to be a very green state.  The word I tend to think of is "lush."  Of course, that's likely to be a function of the fact I'm here in May, when Spring is in full swing statewide.  All kinds of flowers were blooming, adding to the impression.

On the other hand, I saw a large number of various kinds of bodies of water all over the state, most appearing to be at least full, and on the edge of overflowing.  And even they sometimes had waterlilies growing and blooming in them.

Aside from Spring, I think the lushness is likely also a function of the fact that South Carolina gets its full share of rain, without which it might look more like some of the western states.  The striking contrast kept leaping to my mind through my month here.  Of course, in May a year ago I was in Oregon which, let's face it, also gets its fair share of rain too - some would say more than its fair share.  And there I noted how green things were but never used the adjective lush.  And that's the word for South Carolina's land.

South Carolina's people:

Most people I talked to were very nice, very accommodating.  It would be hard for me to say anything else when I remember that guy who went way out of his way to lead me around a disaster along back roads to my campground.  

I guess the phrase I'd use to describe the people here is "Southern hospitality."  Not at all universal, of course, but still a dominant strain among the people I met.  Not all states show that sort of thing, which makes it more impressive that South Carolinians in general did.

One thing that surprised me was how often I'd see people wearing masks in stores.  I would never have expected it in this politically conservative state, especially now that we have effective vaccines and subsequently lower rates of even contracting Covid, let alone being hospitalized with it. but there they were.  Old people and also young people - wearing masks indoors, just like me.

Driving in South Carolina:

I haven't got much nice to say about driving in this state.  The roads are often so rough that they're almost dangerous to drive on.  I complained long and bitterly all month about the poor directional signs, both on the highway and in various towns and cities.  

Drivers themselves were generally courteous, which I appreciated, but they weren't as gracious on the highway as they were when they were pedestrians or shoppers.

This seems to be the primary
official plate and the one I saw
most often around the state.

I also saw this one not quite
as often but close.

What I wanted to see that I missed:

As usual - I missed a lot of what the state has to offer.  Some things I noted in my daily posts but others . . . for instance, SC boasts having the finest beaches in the country.  But since I didn't get to see even one of those, I can't give an opinion.

And in no particular order, here are some other sights I missed:

   *SC has a quilt trail in the northwestern part of the state, and I didn't get to see any of it.  

   *SC's state dog is the Boykin spaniel, and the Camden Museum has an exhibit that explains what kind of dog this is and where it came from.

   *There's a SC Tobacco Museum in Mullins, and I'm curious about what they've got.  

   *And Bishopville is home to the SC Cotton Museum; they say it includes a larger-than-life boll weevil, which to me is more of a repellant than an attraction, but they say Native Americans were growing cotton here before the Jamestown colony.  I'm curious if they address the critical contribution by enslaved laborers to SC's success.

   *Winnsboro boasts the "oldest continuously running town clock in America."  The town's brochure mentioned an incident that occurred "during the War of Northern Aggression."  This brochure is amazingly unclear about the date the clock was installed, but it might have been in 1834.  Each fall the town holds their Rock Around the Clock Festival.

   *Northwest of Greenville is a grist mill with the tallest water wheel in SC.  The Pickens-Hagood Mill stands next door to the Hagood Creek Petroglyph site.  I'd like to see both of them.

   *McBee is the location of Mac's Pride store, open mid-June through late August, so I missed it.  Mac's Pride is known for its peaches, which I'm a sucker for.

   *At the Swan Lake Iris Gardens that I passed in Sumter, they have all 8 species of swans living there.

   *Fort Sumter (which is nowhere near the town of Sumter) is accessible only by ferry, and it looked like it cost more than I wanted to pay.  But it's certainly the site of a historic moment for our country.

   *Near Harleyville is the Francis Beidler Forest, where a 1-mile boardwalk takes a visitor out to virgin bald cypress and more tupelo gum trees than anywhere else in the world.  I'd like to see that but they don't allow dogs, and my policy is to never go on a long walk if I can't take Dext with me.  (I like to walk but not enough to double my trips to satisfy someone else's rules.)

And of course I'd have liked to spend a lot more time in the towns I did visit - Beaufort and Charleston spring to mind as examples.  I did the best I could with the time and energy I had, but South Carolina deserves another visit.

My conclusion:

As I noted in one of my posts, South Carolina seems to be having trouble leaving behind even the 19th century, let alone the 20th.  Even more than I found in Georgia, the Civil War seems to still be clinging to the people here, begging to be treated as last week's news, rather than the (somewhat disreputable) history of 160+ years ago.

Considering it took a massacre at a Charleston church by a white supremacist in 2015 to convince the authorities to cease flying the Confederate flag on the capitol grounds, SC seems to be showing they'll cling to the Lost Cause until it's pried from their cold dead fingers.  Literally.

This is the same state that refused to agree women could vote until the 1960s, even though that was imposed on them by the 19th Amendment in 1919.  These folks just seem to want to be the last fading flower of the Confederacy.

I have no idea how visitors of other races are treated here.  All I can say is that white visitors will undoubtedly find, as I did, that this is a lovely and gracious state with pleasant, helpful folks and beautiful things to see.  But I think as long as they've got this dead (literally) weight clamped to their legs, South Carolinians are going to keep on holding themselves back from a future that's theirs for the taking.

South Carolina - Day 17 - in Anderson campground

Anderson/Lake Hartwell KOA, Anderson

Saturday, 27 through Wednesday, 31 May 2023

I was here for 5 days and had a series of incidents that, cumulatively, were downright bizarre.

First I had a stroke of good luck: I'd gotten filled up with propane when we first checked in yesterday, and today it was chilly much of the day so we all wanted the heater.  But that was about the end of my luck.

Saturday night about 7:15, it started raining and kept raining overnight and then off and on, increasingly heavy until about 4:30 PM Sunday.  

Sunday morning I finally decided to go next door to ask the people in the next campsite to turn the sound down: for a really long time they had a sermon playing over the radio (or TV) and the sound was broadcast on their outside speakers, so it was impossible for me to ignore.  I tried to wait it out but the guy wouldn't stop sermonizing.   So I asked the guy next door to either turn down the volume or turn off the outside speakers (no one had been outside for hours), and for a minute I thought he was going to refuse.  But he did.  Weird.

I'd had a tough night anyway because first I couldn't fall asleep, and when I finally did I woke up at 10:30 in absolute fear because of a dream.  I dreamed I had Dexter on a leash and then suddenly, as if I'd been gassed asleep, I woke up in a foot of snow in the dark and I was holding a pair of 12' leashes with 2 big white dogs on them, running around in the snow.  A young guy told me he'd let people he pet-sat for to take Dext temporarily because they said they needed him.  I insisted he tell me where they lived so I could check on this and he said he didn't know their address or phone number.  (It was a dream so no logic required.)  I couldn't find the owner of the white dogs and was very worried about Dext.  The guy finally took me to a building with a very high chain link fence around a small yard with lots of dogs, including Dext who didn't have his collar.  When I called, the people didn't come so I climbed over the fence (it was a dream) but I couldn't lift Dext high enough to get him back over (even in dreams I'm not that divorced from reality).

I woke up very worried, knowing it was just a dream but still in the dream when I first woke up, and resisting getting up to check on Dext because it would wake everybody up and I knew he was fine.  But it was an awful feeling and, when I finally got back to sleep, I overslept to 4:15 and felt awful all day.

On Monday, Memorial Day, both Bucky and Jimmy got out - I guess the screen door wasn't completely latched and they fell against it when they were playing on the steps.  Anyway, instead of screaming I managed to speak very nicely and Jimmy jumped back inside right away.  But not Bucky.  He was out for an hour or an hour and a half.  I just couldn't go through everything I went through the first time he did this - kneeling on the ground (gravel instead of grass like the first time) and coaxing and so forth.  Fortunately, he got out close to dinner time and he got hungry.  I sat in the bench seat by the door, kept the screen door closed but left the outside door open, and called his name every few minutes.  Over and over.  Finally I saw him looking through the screen, though of course he ran off when I opened it.  But I set his filled dish down near the door and left the screen door open (and kept an eagle eye on Jimmy), and sure enough Bucky came in to eat and I closed the screen while he was busy.

Earlier in the day during lunch I bit the inside of my upper lip twice, and now it's hard to avoid - almost like a sore thumb sticks out in the way.

That same day the drawer with the broken latch that I thought I'd fixed showed it wasn't really fixed because every time I pulled the drawer all the way out to get something in the back of it, the drawer refused to close again.  Each time it did this I had to pull the drawer completely off its track and reposition it (and it was really heavy because of still having stuff in it) and then it would work again.  Until the next time.  So I had to fix it again, and this time I hope it stays fixed.

Also that same day, a full glass of wine tipped all over everything on the table, so I was not only out the drink but also had a big mess to clean up.

The full moon isn't until the end of the week so I don't know what's wrong.  Except Mercury might be transiting over some significant part of my chart - it does every year about now.  A friend who taught me astrology used to warn me about safety when I'd leave to go salmon fishing this time of year.  So maybe that's what it is.  Lucky nothing's actually been unsafe, just major nuisances.

The next day, Tuesday, I went into Anderson to the recycling center.  I got rid of everything except the plastic containers called clamshells, that strawberries and such come in.  So that was a good thing.

Then I took Dext to the local dog park, where there happened to be a lot of dust, some of which I got in my eye and it hurt so bad I left Dext in the park to go wash my eye out in the RV.  (The other dog owners told me I had a really loyal dog because he stayed waiting for me at the gate till I got back.)  It took longer than I intended because I managed to lose my contact.  It's hard to hunt for something intended to be unnoticeable (mine are gray) when you've only got vision in one eye - and I couldn't find it.  I never did figure out where it went.  So I took out the other one and wore my glasses and don't think I have a 2nd pair of contacts.  The problem is that I always wear them when I drive because I think better when I have them in.

Then I stopped at a laundromat and found that their signs never said how much the machines cost.  The different sized washers, for instance, said to put in "14" coins or "20" coins (which comes out to a lot more money than most machines ask).  Nothing said how long they run for, and same for the dryers.  The machines all worked okay but I was a little frustrated here.

Back at the campground I dumped the waste tanks and filled the water tank and swept the floors (a useless chore, with the kittens shedding every second and dirt/dust from the gravel outside).  Still, I managed to get a lot done despite the continuing string of semi-disasters.

On Wednesday things started out a bit rough: Jimmy pooped in the crate overnight yet again, and I had to do an extra load of laundry to get it all cleaned up.

But then my luck finally began to turn.  I found 2 more pairs of contacts.  They may not be very close to my current prescription, but beggars are definitely not going to be choosey right now.

The guy in the space across from me had a sign up saying he did RV repairs and this month he offered an AC tuneup for $99.  Since I haven't had anybody look at my AC unit in the 5+ years I've been using it, and since summer's coming when warm weather might be expected, I figured I should go ahead and do it.  This guy seemed to know what he was doing and said, while it definitely needed to be cleaned, it seemed in good shape.

I also agreed to pay them to wash the RV, because the last time I remember getting that done was in Las Vegas, which I think was in April, maybe, of last year.  Way too long ago, in other words.  These folks were a young couple who were full-time RVers with their 3 kids, and the whole family got involved with cleaning my RV.  I gave the kids $5 each for helping with the cleanup (with mom's permission, of course).  And here's the result:

You may not be able to see the difference, but before the wash, the front - especially the overhang - and the sides that stick out by the front doors were caked with bugs.  It was that horde of bugs I kept running into in Montana last year.  I was afraid they'd never come out after being stuck on for so long through so many changes of weather.  But they managed to get all of that off and turn what had become beige into white again.  Nice folks.

I saw the young mom spray herself with something unlabeled and asked, and she told me it was brown Listerine plus a bit of rosemary oil.  Both parents said it was an excellent mosquito repellant and they didn't have to worry about spraying it on their kids, afraid they'd get some in their mouths through their hands.

Thanks to the emotional stress, this was a tough time, but I still got a lot done and, anyway, things all started to work out in the end.  Things always do for me.

South Carolina - Day 16 - Rev. War cemetery, Greenville, to Anderson

Anderson KOA, Anderson

Friday, 26 May 2023

I had two aims today: to visit a cemetery that dates back to the Revolutionary War, and to visit Greenville, a town I've heard of for years.  We left the state park by 9:30.

today's route

The drive from the state park and past Spartanburg to the church outside the tiny town of Moore took about a half hour.  I expected some trouble finding the cemetery because, after all, something that old outside a small church outside a small town must be out of the way.  Not so.

Google gave me impeccable directions, for a change, and the church turned out to be no more isolated than anything else in a small town area.  Apparently, the church has a very active congregation and is quite used to having folks visit the cemetery.

This was posted on a wall of the church.

I was surprised and pleased that this sign showed it was okay to take Dext in the cemetery with me - so many of them say no pets (because idiot owners can't be bothered to clean up after their dogs).  So we got a nice walk while I looked around.

As you can see from the map, the cemetery was immediately behind the church and, to my surprise, is still an active cemetery.  But it also has graves from those who served in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War.  In these general photos, you can see that many graves are marked with flags for veterans of those three wars (possibly because it was almost Memorial Day).

I was intrigued with the tombstone on the right for 2 women 
with their last names hyphenated.  The name on the left 
was for a girl who lived only 14 years, so I would think she
was the daughter of the other woman, except for their names.

Here are a few of the grave markers - 2 from the Revolutionary War, 2 from the Civil War.

And here are some other grave markers I thought were interesting.

War of 1812

Revolutionary War

The iron crosses on some
graves are CSA markers.

He was a Shriner.

From there, I tried to drive the 20 miles to Greenville, but Google was a serious difficulty.  The first turn it told me to make was only 4.0 miles away, not 4.5 as Google said.  And the road wasn't labeled "Spartanburg Rd." as Google said but was instead something else.  As you can imagine, I had the usual problem of having to find a place to turn around on a narrow rural road and backtrack and figure out where I should actually be going.  Google's directions are great when they are, and really lousy when they aren't.

Of course, South Carolina got in on the problem by refusing to label this road as US-29.  Both Google and the AAA map said it was US-29, but SC apparently wanted to keep that a secret and I was halfway to Greenville before I saw the first hint it was US-29 - and then it was just on a regular street sign, not a highway sign.

Google had told me US-29 was also called Wade Hampton Road, but at one point, Wade Hampton Road crossed Hampton Road.  Then, signs told me US-29 had reached a junction with SC-14, and that it was also called Main Street, but I didn't have a clue what town I was in.  The names of towns was also something SC often wanted to keep to themselves.  I was feeling like I was back in Georgia - do these states compete on which one can show the most disdain for directions for travelers?  

Sorry.  It was frustrating.

In Greenville, I was greeted by a sign telling me: "Pregnant?  We're here to help."  It was paid for by Birthright of Greenville, and their website says they connect pregnant women to resources they might need.  

My impression of Greenville's Main St. is that it's a lot like The Drag in Austin (TX) back in the 1960s, but it's much narrower and has a lot more trees.  As an example, I saw a restaurant that advertised sushi burgers.  It looked very pleasant, with lots of trees and shops, and I'd've liked to stop and walk around except there was a dearth of parking places that could accommodate the RV.  

Just down Main Street a mile was a place called Falls Park on the Reedy, Reedy being the name of the river that runs through town.  I'd hoped to park there and take Dext out, but I guess our timing was wrong.  We'd gotten to town near the lunch hour and the whole park, and its parking lot, were packed.  Something to keep in mind for a future visit.

We still needed to stop for a break, and I found a parking spot on a hilly street by a church.  Dext and I walked around the block, and then I took a closer look at that church and found this historical marker.

side 1

side 2

And this is Springfield Baptist Church.
It was a design I'm not used to seeing.

While I was in the big city (comparatively - Greenville has 70,000 people) I stopped at a PetsMart for more kitten food (it's incredible how much they eat - yes, I know - growing boys) and at a grocery store, hoping for a wider selection than in the stores in smaller towns.  

And to some extent, there was a wider selection, except I've yet to find any kind of salmon in these east coast states other than Atlantic salmon.  Understandable, of course, but it's all farmed salmon.  That's practically fake food compared to wild salmon.  The farmed salmon in stores is so anemic it has to be artificially colored to look right to consumers; the fish have been fed a bunch of artificial nutrients and live their lives cooped up in a pen - they just haven't got the flavor or the natural nutrients you want when you eat salmon.  Certainly I don't expect fresh Pacific salmon here - it wouldn't be very fresh by the time it got here.  

But I don't see why these stores can't carry frozen wild-caught Pacific salmon.  Preferably caught by American fishermen.  If you see a product labeled wild-caught Pacific salmon that's from China or, in fact, any country other than the US, that fish was caught by pirates, fishing on the high seas for salmon that should be allowed to live long enough to get back to their home streams on the west coast.  This is actually something I know a lot about and, as you can tell, have very strong opinions about.  But I'm right.  And this is one thing that might make living in one of these east coast states much less attractive for me.  (We all have our standards to keep up.)

When we got to the Anderson campground, I found they'd given me my preference on campsites which was good news.  This is the one site that's both inexpensive, nearly level, and not directly in line with the too bright overhead light that kept me awake at night when we stayed here before.  Perfect.

South Carolina - Day 15 - in Croft State Park

Croft State Park, Spartanburg

Thursday, 25 May 2023

I spent much of the day here unclogging the bathroom drain - as much as I could.  The real problem is in the s-bend or u-bend or whatever it's called, and I can't seem to get the connection unscrewed to empty it out.  But at least the flow is vastly improved so I don't feel like I totally wasted my time.

And I spent much of the rest of the day working on the latch on one of the kitchen drawers.  It broke a couple of months ago, and I had a replacement already but have been reluctant to take the time to fix it.  That particular latch has broken maybe 6 or 7 times since I've been on this trip, and it's the only one that has.  I'm just tired of fixing it.  Especially because the drawer is big and awkward and heavy, and I have to completely empty it out and turn it upside down and take off the handle just to fix the latch.  Major nuisance.  But today was the day and it got done - and the drawer got cleaned out, which made the effort seem more worthwhile.

To balance those time-consuming aggravations, I took Dext out on walks around the campground.  Our particular section is pretty small - only 25 campsites on a loop - though because of them being on a steep hill, Dext doesn't like it though I tell him the extra exercise is good for us.  But there's a 2nd section down the road a short way and once we walked down there.  It too has 25 sites on a steep hill, but it's also near a boat launch so there's some extra area for us to walk in.  And extra dogs for Dext to meet.  He's doing really well with the dog-meeting stuff, and I'm proud of him.

This campground includes horse stalls and a show ring and separate trails and other horse-y paraphernalia.  We were lucky in never seeing an actual horse, though we did see a couple of horse trailers.  Still, on this afternoon I took a chance and walked Dext down to the horse stalls.  It turned out to be a much longer walk than I'd expected and included several steep hills, so we got a good workout.  If there were any horses down there, we didn't see them.  And it made for a nice walk and something new for Dext to see and sniff.

I picked up a handout in the office labeled: "3Rs Explosives Safety Guide," saying this was the "Former Camp Croft."  Apparently this area was, among other uses, a firing range during WWII, and while they don't think we're likely to find munitions here after all these years, they do want people to be aware that they might still be around.  A little unsettling.

One of the campers here had something I've never seen before.  He had a hammock strung up and above it, attached to the hammock cords, was a mosquito net.  So that arrangement allowed the net to be suspended above the hammock and still draped over the hammock.  Seemed like a good solution for when, like now, you have pleasant weather but way too many bugs for sitting out much.

No internet connection - I barely had phone service - but we managed to get along very peacefully without the connectivity.  As a sample:

That's Bucky.  His eyes were closed and I thought he was asleep
until the moment I pushed the shutter on the camera.

South Carolina - Day 14 - Cowpens, Spartanburg, back to Croft

Croft State Park, Spartanburg

Wednesday, 24 May 2023

I intended to stay in the campground today, but when I discovered we seriously needed kitty litter and couldn't wait until tomorrow, I decided today would be the day we visited Spartanburg and a nearby national battlefield.

today's route

It took us less than an hour to get to the Cowpens National Battlefield.  I'm not actually much interested in battlefields but I went to this one because I couldn't believe the name.  Cowpens?  Pronounced like the 2 words "cow" and "pens."

And it turns out the reason for the name is that this area - a large grassy though wooded area - was used by local farmers as an unfenced cow pasture.  And this is the area that Col. Daniel Morgan specifically chose as the ground to face the British.  Here's the background, based on the brochure by the National Park Service.

By 1778, the Revolutionary War had become stalemated (remarkably enough, considering the odds).  The British decided to stop attacking the northern colonies and start on the southern ones.  By 1780, they had captured both Savannah, GA, and Charleston, SC, and intended to sweep through the Carolinas and on into Virginia.  (Does this suggest southerners weren't very good fighters?)

But in the fall of 1780, the "overmountain men" came across the Blue Ridge Mountains and whomped the British at King's Mountain, SC, helping boost the morale of the Americans.  At this time, Gen. Daniel Morgan had so harassed the British in South Carolina that Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton took his forces after them.  These men were, in many ways, the opposite of each other, though both had distinguished themselves militarily.

In January 1781, scouts warned Morgan that Tarleton's men were on their way, so Morgan marched his men to this area, the cowpens.

Before dawn, he formed his men into 3 lines, hidden behind low hills as they watched Tarleton's men advance.

The visitor center explained the battle in 2 ways - one was in banners hung (unfortunately) up by the high ceiling, and the other was a painting.  I'll start with the banners, that are descriptive if you can read them.  References to "Washington's cavalry," by the way, aren't to George but to Lt. Col. William Washington.

In less than half an hour, with British losses far outnumbering the American losses, Tarleton and a few remaining men retreated, though Washington and his men chased them for some miles.

Gen. Cornwallis had entrusted some of the best of all the British troops to Tarleton's command because of the importance of defeating Morgan.  You may have noted that in several places, Tarleton's men were described as being cold, hungry and tired after marching all night.  Historians believe that Tarleton attacked the Americans despite the condition of his men because all his previous battles had been against inexperienced troops, when he had won easily.  They think he was overconfident as well as intent on beating Morgan and believed that on this day he could grab an easy victory over Morgan.  Here's the way a painting depicts the battle:

See below for an explanation of each element of this depiction.

This painting explains more clearly than the banners the significance of Morgan's battle plan.  He ended up catching Tarleton in what they call a "double envelopment."  In other words, Tarleton was nearly surrounded.

It worked like this: Morgan's orders were for the first line of soldiers to fire a couple of rounds, then retreat behind the next line; that second line would fire a couple of rounds and then also retreat behind the third line.  The British misunderstood what they were seeing, believed the Americans were routed and started chasing them.  

Suddenly the militia did an about-face and started attacking the British, aided by the cavalry who moved in from the side.  Another group of militia had reformed behind the British hidden by a hill and suddenly charged at them from the rear.  The British were shocked, hungry, tired and demoralized.  The Americans ended up with more than 700 prisoners out of the original force of highly trained British troops.

The British loss at Cowpens, following so soon on the British loss at King's Mountain, led 2 months later to the battle at Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina.  There, Gen. Nathaniel Greene met Gen. Cornwallis in a battle that technically Cornwallis won, but with losses so much heavier than Greene's that it caused the British to retreat.  In fact, it led Cornwallis to decisions that resulted, seven months later, in his surrender to George Washington at Yorktown (though Cornwallis refused to attend the surrender ceremony himself, claiming he was sick), and ultimately the end of the war.

And that's what this place was all about.

Outside the visitor center is a memorial, dedicated in 1932 (which seems a little odd to me, coming more than 150 years after the battle).

There are inscriptions on all four sides.

I walked Dext around the area a couple of times - big green field and bright warm sun, so it was a pleasant area.

After restocking our kitty litter supply at a Chesnee grocery store, we headed back to Spartanburg and a historic neighborhood there - Hampton Heights.

I'd read that the oldest home in the neighborhood dates from 1885, though most houses there were built in the early 1900s.  Like many of these areas, it became neglected during the mid-century, when tastes moved to other housing styles like the ranch style.  But in recent years the area has become more attractive, so the owners are making the houses more attractive, and now it's a very pleasant area.  

I parked on the street across from a park, but it turned out to be only a lot-size wide, not big enough for Dext to get a real walk.  So we walked around the neighborhood for a bit and I found these:

This is a sample of one of the larger houses there.
I love that porch.

There were so many trees there that I couldn't get a decent shot at most of them.  Very pretty and peaceful area.

At that park I found this unusual lost pet notice:

I hope they were able to find the cats, though December was quite a while back.

On the radio driving back to the campground I heard several items of interest: Stevie Nicks is 75 years old (it seems like only yesterday . . .).  It's been a year since the Uvalde shooting (it feels like a lifetime ago . . .).  And a young woman said she thought birth control should be illegal (sometimes I despair . . .).

And then we were back at our pleasant, though quite hilly campground, and we parked sideways in our campsite as we'd done yesterday.

South Carolina - Day 13 - Mary McLeod Bethune, Columbia, to Croft St. Park

Croft State Park, Spartanburg

Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Although Google claimed today's drive wouldn't be much over 3 hours, I knew I'd be driving in the Columbia area and figured I'd need extra time.  Which, of course, I did.  It took us 7 hours.  We left the campground at 8:40.

today's route

Leaving Poinsett State Park, we passed a sign at a side road: "STOP - DO NOT ENTER - AIR TO GROUND BOMBING."  The day before, while we were minding our own business in the campground, we all heard what sounded like bombing alarmingly close by.  And though I didn't have an internet connection I did have my trusty AAA map, and that said this state park was right next door to a USAF Gunnery Range.  And later the internet confirmed Shaw AFB is located at Poinsett, and it's a huge training ground for military pilots.  Glad they were aiming accurately.

In a field, I saw every cow in the field mobbed together head first, except one standing with the others but with his head pointing out instead of in and one other that was lying down there.  I think cattle behavior is really interesting.

The town of Sumter, "Uncommon Patriotism, Progressive Spirit," seems proud of its speedway.  And an area in town with iris gardens around Swan Lake.

I saw a lot of very tall, old pecan trees and a sign saying pecans were for sale.

We passed acres of corn and a crop that looked like wheat.

I was aiming for a location in a rural area where a remarkable woman had been born, and where a community facility has been established.  I couldn't find online when they were open but did find that some people had tried to visit but found the facility unaccountably closed.  That meant I went with no expectations other than to see what I could see, and that's about what I got.

Mary McLeod Bethune, born in 1875 to previously enslaved parents, was the only one in her family who went to school - so when she got home each day after walking 5 miles each way, she taught the others what she'd learned.  She continued to be that kind of person throughout her life.  For a summary of her remarkable life, you can go to this link.   https://www.womenshistory.org/mary-mcleod-bethune  And if you want a great deal more detail, the Wikipedia page has it.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Mary-McLeod-Bethune

That was the only place I found to park because . . .

. . . the gates were locked up.

I couldn't read any signs at that distance, but I'm
assuming this is the house of her birth.

A view through the gate of the grounds - the
house is on the right.

This summary of her accomplishments
was on the brick gatepost.

Well, at least I tried.

In an oddly apropos moment, I heard on public radio an interview with a woman who is now the president of an advocacy group, and she's a strong proponent of showing up.  She said for some years she's been going to public hearings on all kinds of subjects - local water quality and land use issues - all kinds of things.  And she said if you show up at a public meeting, you may get heard; whereas if you don't show up, nobody knows your point of view.  She said just by showing up, she individually and her group members have made a difference in public policy by being willing to give public officials their point of view, and their reasons for it.

In one of my earlier lives, I was a public information officer for a controversial public agency.  It was part of my job to hold public hearings, so I'm in a position to say that she's absolutely right, and too few citizens are aware of this simple (though time-consuming) technique.

South Carolina does something I don't remember seeing anywhere else, and that's giving streets names like this: S-31-64.  Lots and lots of the roads - especially outside urban areas, though not exclusively - have names like this.  It's been confusing for me because until recently I've been ignoring Google's instructions that include road names like that.  I've gotten some really weird info from Google about street names from time to time, and I just assumed these names were part of it.  But I've been finding lots of places where these do seem to be the only names the streets/roads have, at least according to the road signs.  I wonder how the local folks refer to them.

At Bishopville (I guessed because there wasn't any name sign on the highway), I came across the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden.  It's a 3-acre site that was created by a man named Pearl Fryar who spent his off-work hours in the garden.  He taught himself topiary work and his gardens show his love for the craft.  Myself, I prefer nature in its natural state, but I can see these gardens were a labor of love.

I passed the turn for the South Carolina Equine Park.  And realized I'd forgotten that horses are big in some parts of South Carolina - Aiken, for instance, back over in the west, not far from Anderson/Lake Hartwell.

I passed a plant labeled WEYLCHEM, which I managed to translate to some kind of chemical company.  I looked them up and learned they "specialize in Grignard chemistry" which of course is meaningless to me.  But I also learned that someone is impersonating this company on Facebook and offering jobs - and the company is emphatic that they don't have a Facebook presence.  Do you suppose the scammers are looking for the kind of personal information people routinely put on job applications?

I heard on the radio that Arizona grows 20% of the lettuce we eat in the winter, and that these fields are watered by the Colorado River.  That water source, of course, is in the news, given the dire state of water levels in the Colorado.  I guess we'll be feeling the pain from the river level all over the country through the crops they can't grow, so we can't eat them.

South Carolina names a lot of its highway interchanges for people - in memorium, usually.

I crossed the Broad River (it is) and on I-26 found many many miles of road construction.  Each side was 2 lanes with the shoulders blocked off by jersey barriers.  The road surface was uneven, including 1 section that canted traffic off the road, and the bumps in the road pushed me to almost tump over while a semi was passing.  It was a scary area and seemed to go on for a long time.

I passed the turn for the Battle of Musgrove Mill State Historic Site, which I'd never heard of.  It was a battle during the Revolutionary War where the Americans attacked what they thought were equal numbers of British troops.  But the British had been reinforced and the Americans weren't in a position to retreat, so they took positions behind logs and so forth and very nearly beat the British soldiers.  Just one of the skirmishes that happened in the guerilla warfare that the war and terrain inspired.

I found gasoline for $3.15/gallon.

Kudzu is very evident everywhere.  A nature website calls it "the invasive vine that ate the South."

When I was only one mile from tonight's state park, I came across some sort of terrible problem.  Many multiples of emergency vehicles were blocking the small road.  I could see a long line of fire trucks, ambulances and police cars but no hint of what had happened or where I should go next.  I pulled into a nearby driveway where a Fox News guy was sitting in his car, intending to ask how to get around the blockage - when a guy pulled up next to me in a pickup and asked if I wanted to get around this.  And when I said where I was going, he said to follow him, which I did.  He took me along 3 small local roads that ended up on the same road I'd been on but past the blockage - and in fact he took me right to the entrance of the state park.  Really nice guy.  I doubt if I would ever have found my own way out of that maze of streets without his help.

At the park office, they hadn't heard anything about it, so I was able to tell them to watch Fox News tonight to learn.  I lost my TV antenna so can't do that.

When I tried to empty my waste tanks, I ran into a problem because of the configuration of the dump site.  Ended up spilling some blackwater and had to clean it up.

The campsite I was given had a definite slope that would have been hard for us to take, but it was also a wide site, and I ended up parking sideways in the site, rather than the lengthways the park had intended.  It still wasn't a perfect solution but much better.

After all that, we were settled in our site by 3:20.