Random Connections – Page 88 – A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

Dupont Forest in the Fall

October 25, 2013 Tom 1 Comment

The beautiful weather this week has made me want to get out and take photos of fall foliage. I especially wanted to catch some shots of the early morning light. So, Wednesday morning I headed up toward the mountains in search of some color.

My first stop was Caesar’s Head. I had planned to do some time-lapse photography. However, time-lapse is made more interesting with clouds, and this morning there weren’t any to speak of. I took a few shots from the overlook, with fall leaves framing the view. I also took a couple of shots across The Dismal toward Table Rock. Little pockets of fog had settled into the valleys across the Piedmont.

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2013 Upper SC State Fair

October 25, 2013 Tom No Comments

Entertainment, Local, Photography, Rambling

I really hated that I couldn’t stick around at the South Carolina State Fair a couple of weeks ago to get some photos of the rides at night. The lights are always amazing, and are perfect for long-exposure photography. So, I decided the next best thing would be to head to the Upper South Carolina State Fair on a weekday evening and take some shots.

When I arrived the parking lot was a bit sparse. I found a place right next to the gate. It was a Tuesday evening, and I wasn’t expecting huge crowds. However, this place looked like a ghost town. I’d like to chalk it up to being an off night. The Upper State Fair is a bit sleazier than the State Fair, and the lack of people just exacerbated the problem. It was downright creepy.

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Falls Park and Wings of Freedom Tour 2013

October 19, 2013 Tom 1 Comment

Local

B-24 and P-51 — P-51 Mustang and B-24 Liberator in Formation over Greenville

This weekend the Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour is in town at the Downtown Airport. Ken Cothran and I decided it would be a cool thing to do, so we headed out that way. The tour would include a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator, and a P-51 Mustang.

I picked up Ken Friday morning in Clemson and we headed toward Greenville. The airplanes didn’t open until 2:00, so we had some time. First a cup of coffee in Clemson, then we took a leisurely drive back on Highway 93, avoiding the more direct Highway 123. We drove through the towns of Central, Norris, Liberty, and Easley. We enjoyed the views, but didn’t stop for photos.

We decided to wander around downtown Greenville until time to head over to the airport. I found a perfect parking place right at the top of the entrance to Falls Park. We walked over the Liberty Bridge and took more photos of the falls.

Down in the park we walked toward the old Furman Arboretum and the smaller set of falls on the little stream.

An Autumn Paddle on an Inefficient River

October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 Tom No Comments

Paddling, Photography

South Edisto River-035 — South Edisto River

Saturday was the second Saturday of the month, and time for another Lowcountry Unfiltered adventure. However, in this case Upcountry outnumbered Lowcountry. Matt was the lone adventurer from the lower part of the state. Alan and I would make up the Upcountry contingent. Marc would join us from Columbia. After bouncing around several ideas for paddling venues, we decided upon something relative mid-state, equally inconvenient for all of us. We would be paddling a section of the South Edisto River beginning at Aiken State Park.

I got an early start and picked up Alan along the way. Our route left the Interstate at Newberry, and took us down through the country past Batesburg-Leesville, Wagener, and other small towns. We passed lots of interesting old stores, churches and other buildings, and both of us wanted to stop and take photos in the rising sunlight. However, we had an appointment to keep.

Our original plan was to paddle from the state park to Keadle Bridge. I had measured it at about 12 twisting river miles – quite a paddle. When we got a call from Matt saying that he was Windsor bridge, and for us to meet him there, I was relieved. That would cut four miles off of the trip, and make it more reasonable. I adjusted my GPS and we headed on down for our rendezvous.

Windsor Bridge was down a dirt road in the heart of Aiken horse country. There were lots of horse farms along the route. The river access itself was a single lane boat ramp covered in trash and graffiti.

The Last EdTech

October 14, 2013 Tom No Comments

EdTech

This week many of my former instructional technology colleagues gathered for the South Carolina Educational Technology Conference. This was the second year in a row that the conference was held in Greenville, and it’s being right here in my back yard presented a unique set of problems. Last year before deciding to retire, I had … Read More “The Last EdTech” »

A Visit to the State Fair

October 14, 2013October 14, 2013 Tom No Comments

Entertainment, Local, Photography, Rambling

State Fair Tilt Shift — South Carolina State Fair

For years I’ve wanted to visit the South Carolina State Fair. I’ve passed by the empty fair grounds so many times on my way to meetings at SCETV. Once I even attended a meeting while the fair was in session, but didn’t have time to stop. This year, now that I don’t have obligations during the week, I was determined to make it happen. I called Dwight, since he lives in Columbia, to see if he wanted to come along.

We had planned to do this on Thursday, but I had looked at my calendar wrong, and discovered a conflict. Yes, retired people do have scheduling conflicts. Fortunately, Dwight was able to shift his schedule, and we were able to head down on Thursday.

October 9 was opening day. Gates opened at noon, so we headed on over and got into a VERY long line.

However, the line split into several openings, so when the time came, it moved more efficiently that we thought it would. At noon a recording of the Star Spangled Banner played over the loudspeakers, and we were off.

Our first stop was not the ticket booth, but a security check-point. There was a magnetometer and the works. I was loaded down with camera equipment, but the thing that held me up was my little Barlow knife. They wouldn’t let it through. I could either surrender it, or walk it back to the car. Knowing that the line was moving fairly quickly, I chose the latter rather than lose a knife. Fortunately, the security lady let Dwight hold my place in line so I was able to skip ahead.

Even though the gates were open at noon, only the exhibits opened at that time. The midway wouldn’t open until 3:00. That was OK, though. I had been lamenting the demise of all of the agricultural exhibits at the local county fairs, so that’s where we would have started anyway.

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Remembering Merrittsville

October 14, 2013October 14, 2013 Tom 33 Comments

History and Genealogy

I’m trying to catch up with my blogging, so I’m about a week behind. Last week was a busy one.

October 8, 2013

Tuesday evening Glynda and I made a trek up to Landrum for a showing of a film entitled “Merrittsville: The Lost Village of the Dark Corner.” Merrittsville is one of the towns on my ghost town list, so I was very interested to hear what they had to say about it.

I had a little bit of information about Merrittsville. I knew it was once on the North Saluda River on land now inundated by the Greenville Watershed Reservoir. That meant that it was completely off limits – we couldn’t even venture along the banks to see if something remained of the town. Merritsville School was once located just below the reservoir dam, but is now long gone, demolished to make way for the water utility. North Fork Baptist still stands, and Laura and I have attended a wedding for one of her students there.

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Crazy Week

October 11, 2013 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

It’s been one of those weeks where things have been happening too fast to document. Most of these are major, cool things, but I just can’t get to all of them. Here’s a quick rundown… Monday – Chorale Rehearsal Tuesday – film on a ghost town in Greenville County shown at the Landrum Library Wednesday … Read More “Crazy Week” »

Fine Art America

October 5, 2013 Tom 1 Comment

Photography

I had noticed that several of my photographer friends had posted photographs to FineArtAmerica.com for sale. I decided to give it a shot. I passed a milestone on Flickr, with over 23,000 images, so I figured someone might be interested in purchasing a copy. So, my some of my photos can be found for sale … Read More “Fine Art America” »

Exploring Estatoe Creek

October 4, 2013 Tom 4 Comments

Paddling, Photography

It was another beautiful October day, so I decided it was time to take one of the boats out for a solo paddle. I wanted a place fairly close that wasn’t a place I paddled frequently. At the last minute, I decided upon Lake Keowee, launching from Keowee-Toxaway State Park and paddling up the Estatoe Creek branch.

Keowee-Toxaway State Park is located on either side of Scenic Highway 11 on the western edge of Pickens County. The park borders two sections of Lake Keowee. Years ago Laura and I had taken my canoe on the southern part of the park, which borders the main body of the lake. I remember it as a typical South Carolina lake, full of motor boats, lined with houses, and generally not appealing to paddlers. Not long ago we stopped at the northern section. A dedicated canoe/kayak launch had been built, but directly across from the launch was the Cliffs golf course. Again, not too particularly appealing. However, I could see that from this location one could explore some more remote reaches, and that meant it had potential.

I arrived right about noon. One drives past the Jocassee Gorges Visitors Center on the way to the launch. The building that now houses the center is the former Holly Springs Baptist Church, donated to the state in the 1970s and restored. Since I wasn’t sure of my timeline, I didn’t stop this time.

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