A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
My, how time flies. On May 14, 2004, RandomConnections first came online. 20 years and nearly 3000 posts later, and the site is still going strong. I know I’ve said this before on other anniversaries for the site, but here’s a brief history… In 2003 I started experimenting with blogging. The first iteration was at … Read More “Twenty Years of Random Connections!” »
I needed to do something totally unrelated to dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. For several months Debbie Weeks from the Upstate Cemetery Preservation Alliance has been inviting me to join them on several outings, but the timing just never worked out. This time the planets aligned and I was about to join them. … Read More “Antioch and GPR” »
We knew there was a storm coming. We had charged up all of our devices and power blocks knowing that we would lose power. We had stocked up on a few things that we could cook easily on a camp stove. We were ready. …or so we thought. Hurricane Helene really did a number on … Read More “Going to Helene and (almost) Back” »
It seems that my paddling group, Lowcountry Unfiltered, has fallen apart. We’ve all been pulled in different directions and Second Saturday trips are no longer a given. There’s another Facebook paddling group called Carolina Splash Mob that has paddling trips just about every weekend. My plan was to join them on Saturday for a trip … Read More “Paddling Keowee on a Busy Saturday” »
…or, rather, catfished AFTER a family reunion. Most of my ancestors have stayed right here in South Carolina and lived within a couple of hours drive of where I now live. That makes genealogy a bit easier for me. Especially on my mother’s side you just have to head down to the Greenwood-Abbeville-Edgefield-Saluda area (AKA, … Read More “Catfished at a Family Reunion” »
For well over a year now I’ve been playing in a Bluegrass jam at Fireforge Crafted Beer in downtown Greenville. The jam is hosted by Matt Puriton and Sam Kruer and features some amazing musicians from around the upstate. Each week I’m amazed at the quality of music that comes out, and we have a … Read More “Bluegrass at Fireforge” »
This story starts back last winter. It was a cold Wednesday morning at the Pickens Flea Market and we really wanted to get a fire going in Ralph Perry’s ancient 1902 vintage stove. The problem was that there was nary a match, lighter, nor flint amongst us. This being the flea market we were eventually … Read More “Looking for a Match” »
Five years ago I went down a rabbit hole. I started obsessing about the architect of McCarter Presbyterian Church, where I had served as music director for a number of years. I wrote about my research in a 2019 blog post about the Oeland Family and their involvement in the construction of multiple churches across … Read More “A Legacy of Faith” »
Today, August 3, 2024, would have been my father’s 100th birthday. He was born August 3, 1924. Dad died on November 3, 2011 at the age of 88, and I have missed him just about every day since then. It seems that he and my mother have been visiting me in my dreams more and … Read More “Dad at 100” »
I’ve been wanting to get on the water as much as possible. Greg Springsteen had told me about a new outfitter group that rents kayaks and runs a shuttles on a specific section of the Saluda River. This just so happens to be a section of the Saluda that I’ve never run, but has been … Read More “Saluda River from Hunt’s Bridge to Farr’s Bridge” »
It seems like our numbers at the Pickens Flea Market Musician’s Circle have been getting smaller and smaller. We’ve lost some of our players to old age and illness. I looked back at some of the photos I’ve taken over the years and lost count of the number of players that are no longer with … Read More “Living It Up at the Pickens Flea Market” »