Originally posted on my Thrillhead Blog

Greenville

Greenville is a small city in South Carolina that has been wonderfully revitalized. Today, the city has been transformed to a “walking town”. Paths and gardens are everywhere, and if it weren’t for the dang summer heat, the walking here would be fantastic.

Mainstreet is full of shops and restaurants.

Read about the history of Greenville here:
http://www.greatergreenville.com/neighborhoods/historic_greenville.asp

Falls Park

The highlight of Greenville is Falls Park.

Falls Park is known for these falls which lie on the Reedy River. The Reedy is named as such because- well, it had a lot of reeds growning around it back in the day. Of course, these reeds have gone the way of the Cherokee that once inhabited the area- they are all gone!

The gardens at Falls park are spectacular. The land was purchased in 1967 for public use. However, the gardens didn’t start becoming realized until 1990.

Read more about Falls Park here:
http://www.fallspark.com/history.asp

Table Rock

Lots of interesting sights surround the Greenville area. One of them is the Table Rock State Park, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachians. We didn’t visit the park, but we passed by it. The rock that bears the parks name dominates the sky.

Read more:
http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/park-finder/state-park/350.aspx

Twin Falls

Twin Falls is also known as Reedy Cove Falls, Rock Falls, or Eastatoe Falls. There is about a 15 minute hike to get there through lush South Carolina forest.

Despite what it seems in the picture, the falls drop down over granite for more than 70 feet!

That concludes my South Carolina portion of my trip. Next, we headed up to North Carolina to visit the Cherokee Reservation, the Biltmore and Asheville.
More to come!

Originally posted on my Thrillhead Blog

So, I’m in South Carolina for a family wedding, remember? Yeah, my cousin is getting married. So, I thought I’d post some pics of some of my family at this event.

Okay, so lets back up first. Some speculated whether my cousin would actually have the wedding or not. No, it wasn’t a matter of cold feet. My cousin got so sick with an intestinal virus that instead of going to the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, she went to the hospital. Yeah. Okay, fast forward. She made it through the wedding. And here she is, still at the church, with her father, sister, and stepsister (bridesmaids) behind her.

She still looks pretty good even when dancing. No sign of her breaking down and puking all over the floor. This is a good thing

Me and my cousins- the bride and her sister.

My step cousin and my “baby” cousin, brothers of the bride. My baby cousin is not so baby anymore! Just home from the Army, having been stationed in Korea for over a year, he is happy to be back.

My cousin’s daughter is the cutest one in the family though!

She loves the camera! If I hold up the camera, she smiles and says “cheese!” Future model perhaps? If she’s like her mom, she has the genes!

Originally posted on my Thrillhead Blog

So, my cousin is getting married. She now lives in Greenville, South Carolina. What this means? I’m spending the 4th of July with a family reunion of sorts in the South.

I began by flying to Ohio, where my mom lives. She and I drove down to South Carolina yesterday. It was a longer drive than we expected, but it was likely due to the fact that we took a slight detour to visit Cumberland Gap.

Cumberland Gap is a bit of a ways off the Interstates. But, it sounded like a fun thing to see (it involved Daniel Boone, and who doesn’t love Daniel Boone?)- so we went to see it! So, what the heck is Cumberland Gap you ask? Well, see it’s this valley that goes through the Appalachian mountains. What makes this valley particularly important, is that it breaks a stretch of the mountains that spans about miles and miles as a ridge without a gap in between, except for this one.

What does Daniel Boone have to do with Cumberland Gap? Well, he made it famous. Some people say that he discovered Cumberland Gap, but that’s incorrect. Cumberland Gap was discovered in 1750 by Dr. Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician who became an explorer. But, in reality, that is also a lie. Dr. Walker would never have found Cumberland Gap had the Cherokee and other tribes not had a trail running right through it already. They’d probably known about it for centuries.

Okay, now, back to the Daniel Boone part. Daniel Boone was famous for being an explorer. He explored Kentucky- one of the first areas to be explored beyond the original 13 colonies. His name is pretty much synonymous with the state. Boone helped bring settlers to Kentucky by making the territory more known and by leading a group through Cumberland Gap in 1775.

Anyway, this is what the Cumberland Gap looks like today.

Sometime in the 1930′s or something the white man got all egotistical and decided to build a road to what is today called the Pinnacle Overlook. This overlook provides spectacular views (duh!) over the Appalachia of 3 states- Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. I suppose this road is all well and good in the long run as it lead to the area becoming preserved as a National Historic Park. Today you can still drive that road and also enjoy the amazing views. Oh, and you can hike something like 50 miles of trails if you want to as well.

From the parking lot to the overlook you cross over the state line between Kentucky and Virginia.

And then the wonderful views.

Me with Tennessee behind me.

Anyway, that ends today’s history lesson folks! I hope you all learned a little something new In case you didn’t, here’s some reading material for ya.

Cumberland Gap
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/cuga/luckett/index.htm
http://www.nps.gov/cuga/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_Gap

Daniel Boone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Boone
http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/boone/

Stay tuned for more Southern adventures. Upcoming: Greenville, the wedding (yeah, remember, that’s why I’m here!), Asheville, the Biltmore, and hopefully the Smoky Mountains!