Month: September 2012

Marching Band Season

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Marching Band Season
Entertainment, Music

Furman Football

As my friend Duck Hunter pointed out on his blog, not only is it football season, but it’s also marching band season. The Furman Band has really been sounding good the last several years, and this year continues this trend.

Of course, we’ve taken more interest in the band the past several years since the son and daughter of our friends Alan and Mary have been in the band. Joshua graduated last year, but Caitlin still has a couple of years to go. So, we’ve been following the band’s repertoire closer than usual.

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Pickens County Ramble

Posted on By Tom 4 Comments on Pickens County Ramble
Local, Photography, Rambling

Cateechee School 2

I’ve been going a bit stir crazy. The weather has been perfect for hiking or kayaking, but with this lingering cough I just haven’t wanted to risk getting sick again. Laura was busy writing an exam, so sister Glynda and I decided to head out and find something to photograph.

For this ramble we repeated a trek that I had made with Duckhunter back last year. Our route took us north of Clemson and into some of the old communities of Pickens County.

From Greenville we drove to Easley, then followed 93 to Liberty, then on to Norris. From Norris we headed north to our first stop at the mill village of Cateechee. Glynda had never visited this part of the state, so it was new territory for her. We circled through the mill village and looked at the ruins of the mill, then drove around to the old Cateechee School.

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How Many Greenvilles?

Posted on By Tom 7 Comments on How Many Greenvilles?
Geocaching and Maps, Miscellaneous

Greenville_Sanborn_Map_Cover

Perhaps it was the fact that I’ve crossed several state lines recently. More likely it was because I’ve spent several late nights wide awake and coughing. Being sick can make you think weird things, but for some reason the following aphorism popped into my head…

There is a town called “Greenville” in every state. However, Tennessee is the only only one that spells it as “Greeneville.”

I don’t even remember where I heard that the first time. My first intent was to take this at face value and create a Google Earth KML file showing the location of each town called Greenville. (Did I mention that I’ve been sick lately?) That turned into a challenge to test the validity of this statement, and learn a bit more about Greenville, where ever it might be found.

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Rambling in Western Virginia

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Family, Rambling, Travel

Mabry Mill with Texture

After a successful wedding we had a couple of days to spend in Roanoke. I got no sleep because of coughing, but I still wanted to make the best of our mini-vacation.

We started with a fantastic breakfast at the hotel, then spent the rest of the morning helping Glynda recover. We got the wedding gifts and other paraphernalia packed away, and got her checked out of her hotel. I drove Aaron’s car, Glynda drove hers, and Laura drove our car up to the hotel where Houston and Lynda were staying, and we got together with them and Chip, Anna, and family for lunch.

Having just married off her daughter, Glynda was exhausted both physically and emotionally. She is normally one of our heartiest ramblers, but that wasn’t going to happen today. She stayed back at the hotel, while Houston, Lynda, Laura, and I set off to see what we could find.

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A Virginia Wedding

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Family

Katie and Aaron

This weekend Laura and I traveled to Virginia to see our niece, Katie, get married. Katie and Aaron had dated on and off for ten years, and had decided on was better than off, and decided to make it permanent.

We left Friday afternoon and drove part of the way up, spending the night on the road in North Carolina. I had been fighting a cold all week and coughing badly. I let Laura drive a good bit of the way, and it was a good thing we stopped for the night.

Saturday we drove on into Roanoke and checked into the Hotel Roanoke. My brother, Stephen tapped my shoulder as we were checking in, and we made plans for lunch.

Hotel Roanoke

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