Random Connections – Page 147 – A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

Lake Fairfield Paddlefest

September 6, 2009 Tom 2 Comments

Paddling

My nephew, Chip, helped design all of the websites for Confluence Water Sports, which includes Perception Kayaks, Dagger Kayaks, Wilderness Systems Kayaks, Mad River Canoes, Harmony, and a bunch of other brand names. As such, he had an early heads up that Confluence was having it’s first ever public sale at it’s corporate headquarters at the old Perception plant in Easley. Demos and seconds were going to be offered at ridiculously low prices. So on Friday Chip and several of his work buddies headed over and bought a boatload of …well, boats. The most convenient place to try all of this out was at our little lake, so this weekend we held the first ever Lake Fairfield Paddlefest.

Late Friday afternoon the flotilla arrived – a total of six kayaks of various types to add to the five I already have in the back yard. Chip, his wife Anna, and two of his work colleagues, Ed and Chris, were there to give the boats a trial run.

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Friday Freaks – A Collection of Weirdos

September 4, 2009 Tom No Comments

Weirdness

In my RSS reader I’ve got a category called “Weirdness.” I’ve noticed a particular genre of website that I’ve been adding to that category lately. These blogs consist of single humorous image per post, usually associated with a specific theme. I think one of the first of these was the LOLCats website (which I could … Read More “Friday Freaks – A Collection of Weirdos” »

Digital Disconnect

September 3, 2009 Tom 2 Comments

General Technology, Music, Rants

Monday evening was the first rehearsal of the season for the Greenville Chorale. This fall we’re doing some of my absolute favorite music – Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil. We’re doing it in Russian, which has caused me no small amount of headaches – not because of the difficulty in singing, but because of inability to say no.

Musica Russica is a company dedicated to making Russian choral music available for performance. They have also produced an audio pronunciation guide for the Church Slavonic in the vigil. We have a license to provide the audio guide to the group, and Bing Vick asked if I could find some way to distribute it.

New Geocaching Restrictions

August 30, 2009 Tom 2 Comments

Geocaching and Maps

A new law was passed by the state of South Carolina and signed by the governor on June 2 that places significant restrictions on geocaching activities in Department of Natural Resources lands, including wildlife management areas and heritage preserve areas. This law seems to have passed under the radar of local geocaching organizations, and hasn’t gotten much discussion – until now.

The new law states the following (and I’m copying this directly from the USCG website as edited):

Section 50 11 2200 (C)

(C) The following acts or conduct are prohibited and shall be unlawful on all wildlife management areas, heritage preserves, and all other lands owned by the department; provided, however, the department may promulgate regulations allowing any of the acts or conduct by prescribing acceptable times, locations, means, and other appropriate restrictions not inconsistent with the protection, preservation, operation, maintenance, and use of such lands:
…
(30) geocaching;
…

(E) A person violating this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not less than twenty five dollars nor more than two hundred dollars or be imprisoned for not more than thirty days, or both.

In addition to the posting on the Upstate Geocacher’s website there have been several discussions on Facebook. So far most of the discussions have been level-headed and not reactionary. Most are recognizing it for what it is – an attempt to regulate all manner of activities on DNR lands. Notice the number (30) next to the word “geocaching”. This is just one activity in a long list that includes hiking, trapping, target shooting, and a variety of other things. If anything, it’s a recognition of geocaching as a possible activity that might take place on DNR lands. The phrase that tends to get over looked in that passage is the following:

provided, however, the department may promulgate regulations allowing any of the acts or conduct by prescribing acceptable times, locations, means, and other appropriate restrictions not inconsistent with the protection, preservation, operation, maintenance, and use of such lands:

This simply means that DNR would like to regulate these activities, and not ban them outright.

R. I. P. Shadow

August 27, 2009 Tom 2 Comments

Miscellaneous

This morning I got a call from Laura that I didn’t want to receive. She had taken our old cat, Shadow, to our vet. We had feared the worst, and those fears were confirmed by the vet’s prognosis – complete kidney failure. The only humane thing to do was to put him to sleep. Shadow … Read More “R. I. P. Shadow” »

Hope School Dedication

August 23, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

History and Genealogy, Local

Saturday I attended the dedication of the Hope School Community Center located on Hope Station Road near Prosperity, SC. This historic school is one of the few survivors of nearly 500 Rosenwald schools constructed in South Carolina between 1917 and 1932. Hope School served grades 1-8 in the African-American community for 28 years, from 1926 – 1954.

In the early 1900’s Junius Rosenwald was president of Sears Roebuck, and was instrumental in the development of their famous catalog. Rosenwald became interested in the state of education in the rural south, and developed a set of plans for schools that could be ordered and build easily, similar to the house plans that had been available through the Sears catalog. Rosenwald also provided funding for for many of the schools, targeting his efforts toward African-American communities in the south.

The Hope School was a two-room school built in 1925 on land donated by the Hope family. James H. Hope was state superintendent of schools from 1922-1946, and spearheaded many projects to reduce school funding disparities between wealthy and poor counties.

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Black Forest German

August 17, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Restaurants

I had decided to ride up toward Hendersonville and Asheville for a Sunday drive. While driving through Hendersonville I spotted Haus Heidleberg, and it reminded me of the hole that had been left in Greenville’s ethnic cuisine since the closing of Haus Edleweiss last year. That also got me craving German food. It was too … Read More “Black Forest German” »

Jocassee – Paddler’s Paradise

August 16, 2009 Tom 4 Comments

Paddling, Photography

I really wanted to get out on my new boat. With the entire day available for paddling, I decided to head up to Lake Jocassee. I had paddled Jocassee many times, but our excursions were always rather limited. I was stoked to get out on a boat that could actually get me somewhere and see parts of the lake I had not seen before. This turned into a review of a paddling destination as much as a review of the new boat.

It seems that I’m always starting off in a fog. That’s been more physical than metaphysical lately, with a foggy start to last week’s Edisto trip, and now with fog blanketing the Upstate. Most of it had burned off by the time I arrived at the upper boat ramp at Devil’s Fork State Park.

New(ish) Kayak – Old Town “Dirigo”

August 10, 2009 Tom No Comments

Gear, Paddling

I bought my first kayaks when I started working in Spartanburg Five, eleven years ago. The Perception Torrents have been great, fun boats, but there are several problems. First, these are wet boats. There are self-bailing holes in the bottom, so you are constantly sitting in water. Secondly, there isn’t any storage to speak of. … Read More “New(ish) Kayak – Old Town “Dirigo”” »

The Curative Powers of the Edisto

August 9, 2009 Tom 4 Comments

Paddling, Photography

This was not a good sign. Pinpoints of light danced across my vision as I checked last minute e-mail. The truck was loaded, and in a few minutes I would be heading south to Sumter to spend the night with my brother, Stephen. In the morning we would join the band of miscreants known as Lowcountry Unfiltered for another epic journey down the Edisto River. A migraine headache was the last thing I needed.

I had taken some preventative medicine and decided to go for it. The drive down was interesting, as various extremities alternately numbed and chilled. As long as I kept my eye on the road and didn’t look down the visual aura stayed to the edges. I managed to keep a couple of plain McDonalds hamburgers down and make it safely to Steve’s.

The day broke full of deep fog. We still had a two-hour drive to the put-in, and we speculated about how cool it would be to paddle through this. We might even stumble upon some ancient civilization, kept hidden until the mist burned off. Given our knowledge of the area, this was a real possibility.