Random Connections – Page 67 – A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

Lost Roddenberry

February 19, 2015February 19, 2015 Tom 2 Comments

Entertainment

gene-roddenberry-star-trek-birthday — Gene Roddenberry

Quick, let’s play a game. What do the following actors have in common?

OK, that one was probably too easy. Each of these actors played a character named James Bond.

How about another one? What do all these characters have in common?

Right, that one was too easy, too. All of these actors played Batman at one time or another.

Now let’s make it a bit harder. What about these actors? They have something similar in common.

If I told you that the three actors above are Alex Cord, John Saxon, and Kevin Sorbo, would that help? (And, no, they didn’t all play Hercules.) OK, I’ll tell you. All three of these played a character named Dylan Hunt. More on that a bit later.

Here’s one last one. These three also have something in common. Two should be very recognizable.

The inclusion of Leonard Nimoy and Brent Spiner in the last set might make you think Star Trek. (Well, that, and the title of the post) But who’s this third guy? It turns out that all of the actors in those last two sets have been involved with projects created by legendary Gene Roddenberry. As Dwight and I were working on our list of science fictions predictions we started talking about Roddenberry projects, and Dwight suggested a blog post on Lost Roddenberry. So, here it goes…

Days of Future Past

February 16, 2015January 28, 2024 Tom No Comments

Entertainment, History and Genealogy, Internet, Podcast

Here it is! Here’s the first episode of the Random Connections podcast! The first episode is based on one of the earliest posts on the blog. I had made a list of science fiction predictions that would have come to pass by 2004 in a post entitled “Yesterday’s Tomorrows.” Ten years later I updated the … Read More “Days of Future Past” »

Old South Tour with the Upstate Minis

February 11, 2015March 26, 2015 Tom 1 Comment

Photography, Rambling

This past Saturday I joined up with the Upstate Minis for a run. Don Western from the group had put together an “Old South Tour” that would take us down through Laurens, Abbeville, Edgefield, McCormick, and Saluda Counties.

Several of us met at Century Mini and caravanned down to Laurens. There we met up with the others that would join us. There would be fourteen cars in all making the run.

Bridges, Bell’s, and Lakes

February 9, 2015February 9, 2015 Tom No Comments

Photography, Rambling

Ken had a craving. He wanted to visit Bell’s Diner in Toccoa, Georgia. I was more than willing to provide transport, and I was hoping that we would find some good food and interesting photographic opportunities along the way. We found an abundance of both.

I picked up Ken in Clemson, and we made our customary stop at MoJoe’s for a bit of caffeine. Suitably juiced, we headed west through Seneca, then over to Westminster.

New Venture – Podcasting!

February 4, 2015February 16, 2015 Tom No Comments

Podcast

Yep, you heard that right. I’m about to launch a new podcasting venture here at RandomConnections. I’ve got several episodes in various stages of research and/or production right now. Most of these are episodes are taken from previous posts, or are based on themes from previous posts. Right now I don’t have a timeline for … Read More “New Venture – Podcasting!” »

Trekking across Chester and Fairfield Counties – Catawba Country

February 4, 2015February 4, 2015 Tom 3 Comments

Photography, Rambling

Well, ain’t this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!

– Ulysses Everett McGill, O Brother, Where Art Thou

I felt a lot like Everett McGill, at least as far as geographical confusion was concerned. No, I hadn’t escaped from a chain gang, nor had I been robbed by a Bible salesman. Earlier in the day I’d had a nice visit to Chester, had a great lunch, and had found some ghost towns along Highway 321. Now I was in the community of White Oak, and saw that I was twelve miles from Great Falls. As it turned out, Great Falls was also a geographical oddity – twelve miles from everywhere.

Twelve miles…seems like a reasonable distance. You can get there in a matter of minutes, so it’s easy to convince yourself, “Oh, that’s not far! I can just scoot over there!” It’s just far enough away to be inconvenient, but close enough to be tempting. The problem comes as the day gets later and the dozen miles multiply, taking you further away from home.

Trekking across Chester and Fairfield Counties – The Ghost Towns of Highway 321

February 1, 2015February 1, 2015 Tom 1 Comment

Photography, Rambling

I’d spent a nice morning in Chester, and had a great lunch in the little time. However, it was time to move on. I hadn’t mentioned the original reason for this trip. A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from my friend Robin down at Sciway.net. Someone had submitted a photo of White Oak ARP Church as part of their SC Picture Project. Robin thought that the community might qualify as one of my ghost towns, and suggested that I check it out. I wanted to do that on our previous Fairfield County trek, but we never made it that far north. It wasn’t going to escape me today. Amazingly, though, it wasn’t the only potential ghost town I found along Highway 321.

Trekking across Chester and Fairfield Counties

January 31, 2015January 31, 2015 Tom 1 Comment

Photography, Rambling

I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I’d had a great day exploring Fairfield County with Houston and Alan, but I had missed some of the locations I’d wanted to hit. It just wasn’t feasible on that trip, since all of us had evening engagements. So, on Wednesday after MLK Day I headed out again, this time to explore a more northerly route than the one the three of us had taken two days prior.

It was the classic dilemma – how do I get to the places I want to go without being distracted along the way? I’ve just about decided that I need to get a VERY early start, possibly before the sun even rises. I need to be arriving at my target destination as the best light hits, rather than driving through it on so-so scenery.

Darby Road Discoveries

January 27, 2015 Tom 6 Comments

History and Genealogy, Local, Photography, Rambling

I got a message from one of my compatriots on the Abandoned, Old, and Interesting in South Carolina group on Facebook. She was telling me about a couple of old schools in the area that I might have missed. One of the schools in question was Double Springs School, just around the corner from Double Springs Baptist Church on Highway 290 north of Greer. My FB friend said that her father had attended school there, so I figured the claim was legit. I checked out one of the locations in Streetview, and, sure enough, there was a school I had completely overlooked.

Since was it was fairly close, last Tuesday afternoon I decided to check it out. I had to run up to Furman, so I was cutting across country, across the back side of Paris Mountain, to get to the location. Along the way, I made a few other discoveries.

Read More “Darby Road Discoveries” »

MLK Weekend Ramble 2015 – Part 3, Winnsboro

January 23, 2015January 24, 2015 Tom No Comments

Photography, Rambling

Houston, Alan, and I were on our annual MLK Weekend photo trek. So far we had visited churches, old schools, and cemeteries across Newberry and Faifield Counties. We had just wrapped up at Ebenezer ARP Church and were about to head into Winnsboro proper.

Along the way we turned onto the road that leads to the Anderson Quarry. We didn’t linger or stop for photos, but I pointed out the mine and all of the houses and other structures built from Winnsboro Blue Granite. Most impressive was the granite serpentine wall that encloses the Kincaid-Anderson Plantation on Landis Road. The Georgian house is made of brick, which seems out of character with the rest of the houses in the community. Apparently, this house was build first, and a ten-acre rock consisting of the blue granite was discovered, leading to development of the quarry. So, the house predates the quarry. Later out buildings are made of the granite.