A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
Wilmore Camp Meeting circa 1960, Wilmore, Kentucky My Background Growing up in a Pentecostal preacher’s household, one of my earliest memories is attending camp meeting each summer at Beech Springs Campground near Pelzer, South Carolina. Those earliest memories were of an open wooden tabernacle with sawdust on the floors. The activities lasted all week with … Read More “Finding Camp Meeting” »
The ghost town of Ferguson has been on my mind quite a lot lately. I’ve written a couple of articles about it and my blog posts about the town continue to be the most popular. I’m involved with a project dealing with Lake Marion and Ferguson that I’m not at liberty to discuss online, but … Read More “Return to Ferguson” »
Thursday was Sparkleberry Swamp with the Tri-County Blueway Paddlers. Since this was a Second Saturday, it also meant that it was time for a trek with Lowcountry Unfiltered. We would be doing a trip through yet another cypress swamp, this time along Ebenezer Creek in Georgia. I drove down Friday night so that I wouldn’t … Read More “Cypress Adventures – Part 2, Ebenezer Creek” »
Both my late father and Laura’s father served in the US Navy in WWII. Dad talked a little about doing MP patrols in Paris and being stationed in Guam, but really didn’t talk about the war. Mr. Wright was also reticent to talk about the way. I guess some experiences are just too hard to discuss. Now they are both gone, and those stories with them. However, there is one story from Mr. Wright that was told to Laura, not about WWII, but his later service in the Korean War. It was the story about how his ship, the USS Walke, was torpedoed in the Sea of Japan.
The past several days have been a marathon of kayaking trips. I’ve done three paddles in five days for a total of 21 miles. Each of these trips had some similarities, but there were some significant differences. The first trip was on Thursday of last week to Sparkleberry Swamp with the Tri-County Blueway Paddlers.
We only have two more sessions left in our Lost Communities course, and I have been remiss in posting the information for the last several sessions. In these past sessions we’ve traveled along the Broad River, looked at what’s under the state’s lakes, examined some railroad towns, and explored some Native American sites. Session 4 … Read More “Lost Communities – Sessions 4, 5 &6” »
During our Lost Communities course for OLLI someone said that they wanted to got with Scott Withrow, my co-teacher, and me on one of our adventures. We confessed that we had never actually gone on an adventure together, but independently had been exploring many of the same areas. We decided that it was time for that to change. We had both wanted to explore the Broad River area for the following class, so we decided to do that together.
I have missed our Second Saturday trips with Lowcountry Unfiltered. For one reason or another we’ve had conflicts with trips, or the weather wasn’t right, or the plans just fell through. It was great to get back together with the guys. This time we ventured into the Land of Unpronounceable Names in the heart of Berkeley County with a kayak trek from Huger Creek to Cooper River, a stop at the historic Pompion Hill Chapel, then back along the Cooper to Quinby Creek.
I’ve been remiss in my blogging lately. I’ve had a series of technical glitches (to be elaborated upon in a future post) and I’ve gotten completely wrapped up in my new endeavors. That means I’ve also missed one of our Lost Communities classes, so we’re up to Session Three. I’ve promised to post links to the class materials on this website, so here we go…
It’s been far too long since I’ve posted something here. The long and short of it is that I’ve been crazy busy getting things ready for my OLLI course and getting things ready for church. I’ve played with probably a dozen musical groups, but I’m even having to scale that back with my other obligations. Since the course seems to be taking so much time, I thought I’d give a quick rundown of what’s happening there.