Category: Miscellaneous

Laura and I love Christmas lights. Each year we go on several expeditions around our area to seek out those over-the-top displays. This year, though, with the help of social media and one particular website, we were able to streamline our search, making our light treks more efficient.

First Outing – from Fountain Inn Northward

I’ve already documented our trek to Pacolet and the lights we found there and along the way. Over the weekend we headed down to Fountain Inn to see their lights. One neighborhood always puts out luminarias and has a series of elegant displays. Unfortunately, we were prevented from entering the neighborhood by a local policewoman. She said that only residents were being allowed in. If we wanted to see the lights, we would have to buy tickets to ride through on a horse-drawn carriage. We decided to skip.

Fortunately, there were lots of nice lights along Main Street north of town. We enjoyed these as we drove from Fountain Inn on up toward Simpsonville. Here we found a couple of good displays. Down in the Powderhorn neighborhood there was one house decorated from top to bottom. Just north of Powderhorn is the neighborhood of Poinsettia. With a name like that, you know that they have to do something for Christmas. There were quite a few elegant displays, and a few excessive light displays.

From Simpsonville we continued north, then turned onto Highway 14. Just across from the Heritage Lakes subdivision there was a small neighborhood that also had some great lights. All in all it was a good outing. We had seen some good lights, but we wanted more. That required a bit of planning.

Read More “Upstate Christmas Light Spectacular” »

A couple of weeks ago I visited the small Spartanburg County town of Pacolet, and noticed that they were wrapping everything in Christmas lights. I decided that we really needed to come back after dark and see what was going on. So, the other evening Laura and I headed out to see the end result.

Really, there is no good way to get to Pacolet from Greenville. It’s completely out of the way, and this could turn out to be a bust. To make the most of it, our plan was to drive straight there, then slowly make our way back through various other neighborhoods looking for lights. So, we headed up I-85 toward Spartanburg.

As we reached downtown Spartanburg it looked like their Christmas parade was just breaking up. Somehow we managed to skirt the worst of the traffic areas. As we headed south out of Spartanburg things seemed a bit…dim. In fairness, this passes through an industrial area and there aren’t that many lights, but even as we approached Pacolet it still seemed very dark. Laura was skeptical.

Read More “Pacolet Lights” »

This past weekend was Homecoming at Furman University. More importantly, though, it was my graduating class’s 30th reunion. Hard to believe that it’s been that long. The weekend was spent reconnecting with classmates and old friends.

In past years I’ve tried to take off Friday so that I can spend the day up at Furman. Of course, that wasn’t a problem this time. I met Jim Davis and his wife Jenny, and we took a quick tour of the newly remodeled student center. Of course, we had to have lunch in The Paddock. Jim was able to have his first [legal] beer on campus.

Read More “Furman Class of 1983 30th Reunion” »