A Trip South

With the heat and humidity unbearable today, Sonny and I decided to find something fun to do.  Of course, this was after I spend an hour outside pulling weeds and was dripping with sweat!  So we thought over a few options - Cowpen's Battlefield, Kings Mountain .... but decided to take a drive down to Greenville, SC.  We started out our married life in Greenville 37 years ago.  I have heard a lot of good things about the downtown restoration and park area and have been wanting to check it out. 

Along the way, we were searching for some good old South Carolina peach stands.  SC takes it's Blue Laws seriously!  All the major fruit stands were closed.  We did find one on the other side of Gaffney and Sonny was able to buy some rock hard peaches.  That's how he likes them.  Me?  I like them soft with the juice dripping down your arms while you're eating them. 

This is the watertower along the side of the interstate in Gaffney - the peach capital.  What does it remind you of?  A BIG BUTT???  That's what I think of!

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We stopped off first in Taylor's, a suburb of Greenville.  That's where our first house was.  I had seen it last year and hardly recognized it.  There was a fire some years ago and the owner's made a lot of changes during the reconstruction.  It really looks good.  The neighboring houses definately show their age - unlike "our" house.  Then we headed on downtown.  Wow!  I was really impressed.  They have really done a good job of making the downtown a pedestrian friendly city with lots of shops, pubs, restaurants.  Unfortunately, not many of them were open today.  We walked all around the downtown area and sat outside at one of the local restaurants and enjoyed a couple of ice cold beers. 

There were a lot of statues all over town.  This one is of Joel Robert Poinsett who was the first US minister to Mexico and a US Secretary of War in the 1800s. The poinsetta was named in his honor since he introduced it to the US.

This man I am hugging is Mr. McBee.  He was an entrepreneur, philanthropist and industrialist back in the 1800s.  He bought up extensive properties in Greenville and gifted a lot of them to the city for its first churches and schools.  He was instrumental in moving Furman University to Greenville.

This gentleman is Max Heller who was the mayor when we lived in Taylors.  Under his leadership, the revitalization of downtown became a priority.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon.