Tom – Page 58 – Random Connections

The Streets of Greenville

October 22, 2015April 26, 2023 Tom 3 Comments

My late father-in-law had a problem with Greenville. He grew up in the wilds of Idaho along the Salmon River. However, he spent most of his adult life in large western cities, namely Los Angeles, where the streets are laid out in neat, tidy grids. Greenville’s streets always left him bewildered.

Whenever he gave me trouble about my hometown, I would reply that it makes perfect sense – Laurens Road goes to Laurens, Augusta Road goes to Augusta, etc. While that’s true, there are lots of other…questionable routes, and I could see how someone not from here would be very confused. Greenville’s streets are based on an early 19th Century design, and that pattern STILL influences our traffic.

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Blue Ridge Getaway

October 14, 2015 Tom No Comments

Photography, Travel

Laura has a birthday coming up, but finding a time to celebrate has been problematic. We had decided to go a getaway the weekend before her birthday, but nature dealt us a blow. Our original plans were to head to Charleston and visit the ACE Basin, then head up to Beidler Forest. Obviously, with all of the flooding in the lower part of the state, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, we decided to head north. I got us tickets for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. Turned out to be a peak fall color weekend, and a great getaway, even though it wasn’t Charleston.

Fall Paddle on Cascade Lake

October 13, 2015October 13, 2015 Tom 1 Comment

Local, Paddling, Photography

The week had been absolutely beautiful. After the rains of last week this was a welcome change. Now we had clear October skies, the kind that make me love fall. It was also warm, and seemed like the perfect opportunity for a paddling trip.

I ran down my list of easy solo paddling venues. There were a couple that piqued my interest, but what I really wanted to do was paddle up to Hooker Falls on Cascade Lake. I was hoping that fall colors would make for some scenic kayaking.

Waterfalls and Flea Markets

October 13, 2015 Tom No Comments

Local, Photography, Rambling

With all of the rain that we had gotten over the past couple of days I figured the local waterfalls must be running at maximum. In fact, I’d already seen photos on Facebook of Reedy Falls with tremendous amounts of water. I decided to check it out.

Taylors to Marietta – A Midweek Ramble

October 10, 2015 Tom No Comments

Local, Photography, Rambling

Even though I haven’t been able to finish my explorations of the Tobacco Trail, I haven’t been sitting idle. Once the rain stopped we had some spectacular weather, and I decided to get out and about. I hit a few spots in the upstate, so this is sort of a miscellany wrap-up of the week. This is part one of about a three-parter. This first part actually took place last week, before the deluge…

Tobacco Trail Flooding

October 9, 2015October 9, 2015 Tom 2 Comments

Miscellaneous

It’s as I feared. The floodwaters that inundated Columbia are now washing downstream. The image above is of Highway 301 between Manning and Turbeville, the very area I explored a couple of weeks ago. This image was posted on Facebook by John McLeod, a Manning Resident. He also posted this image just northeast of the … Read More “Tobacco Trail Flooding” »

100 Year Flooding

October 7, 2015 Tom 3 Comments

Local

aptopix_east_coast_rainstorm_south_carolina.jpeg-0fbd0_0 — Photo from Associated Press

The photos from Columbia have been astounding. The level of flooding is beyond anything we might have imagined. I have close friends that have been directly affected by the flooding, and getting back to normal will take months.

Here in Greenville we got lots of rain, and there had been some localized flooding, but nothing to the scale of the mid-state. Our area is almost back to normal.

The Lost Cajun

September 30, 2015 Tom 4 Comments

Restaurants

Normally I don’t review restaurant chains. I prefer locally-owned places, those restaurants and cafes that are unique to a particular community. I decided to make an exception for The Lost Cajun for a couple of reasons. First, there is a dearth of Cajun food in our area. Secondly, this is the first foray into our area by this chain. Since it was a rainy Monday, I decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to check out this place.

Spirit of 45 Military Vehicles on the Bankhead Highway

September 27, 2015 Tom No Comments

Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Local, Photography

There’s a reason I named this blog RandomConnections. The URL RandomThoughts was taken…but that’s beside the point. Time and time again the idea of “random connections” has proved itself to be the more appropriate title, as tenuous threads appear that seem to bind disparate ideas together. Such was the case this past week.

I got a forwarded e-mail from my brother, Stephen, with a note that a historical convoy would be passing through our area. The convoy would feature vintage military vehicles, and I thought it would be a cool photo opportunity. Little did I realize how closely this event would tie right into my recent research and explorations.

The Journey Home from Olanta

September 26, 2015September 26, 2015 Tom No Comments

Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

It had been a long day. I had gotten up early and driven down to Orangeburg, then followed the Tobacco Trail along US Highway 301 through Orangeburg and Clarendon Counties. I had crossed over into Florence County into the town of Olanta. I thought about pushing on to the town of Florence, but when I checked my GPS I saw that it was going to take several hours to get home as it was, so it was time to head back. Even so, I made a couple of stops and detours. These were interesting sights worthy of documentation, but I didn’t think they fit with the Tobacco Trail narrative.