Before I begin the blog I have a few things to say about current events:
1. To all my friends I am so glad I have friends from all over and I mean all over the world- from different backgrounds and cultures. I love you and I value you. Every person has something to offer this world every person has worth.
2. Don't let the message of the protestors get drowned out by the noise of the rioters.
3. I'm not anti-cop by saying the first two things. I'm pro-cop because I have a family member who is a cop and bad acts by bad cops make her job harder and more dangerous.
4. No one should be judged by the worst example of their group whether that is occupation, race, or nationality.
I think getting out of your town, county, state and so on- meeting people who are different from you can really help our country.
A few years ago when the Total Solar Eclipse crossed the US I was introduced to the hobby of painting rocks. Meg and I were in Lake Girardeau Missouri and we found two eclipse themed rocks. We looked at the rocks and then googled it. It seemed like a fun way for people to share their adventure and experience so I decided to try my hand at it with this trip. Two of the rocks I made specifically for stops on the trip. The other two were more generic that I could leave anywhere. On the back/bottom I wrote #drivethe48 and jorkeohane.blogspot. Maybe someone will find one of them and read the blog :-) At first I was unhappy with my South Carolina flag but it grew on me as time went by.
We spent Thursday night at my Mom's place in Nashville since all three of us and both dogs were making the trip and left early on Friday. We had an easy six hours before we would reach our first destination in South Carolina and it was a nice drive as we drove down 40 until we turned off toward North Carolina across the state and into South Carolina to Greenville, SC. The first order of business was to get some lunch so we stopped at Iron Hill Brewing where we split two flights and I ordered the delicious pub burger.
On the way out Meg bought a four pack of one of their beers: Pog Champ. Two things about this beer 1. pogs and this beer are awesome and 2. Whiskeytown looks like he could have modeled the can.
And then we headed over to our main reason to visit Greenville: The Medusa Tree. The tree is over 80 years old and growing out of a cliff exposing its impressive root system. The tree is in Reedy River Falls Park. We entered the park and walked over a tension bridge which brought us to a fantastic view of Reedy Falls. The weather was awesome so lots of people were out enjoying the park and the day. There was a lot of construction around the park and I commented on it to my Mom. I think a man who was in the park with his two young children and wife overheard me because he came over and started talking with me about how he was from NY and they don't know what they have that they should stop trying to grow and be like NY. I told him we were also originally from NY and that I agreed with him. Then we went back to trying to find the tree. I was having a hard time following the directions I had online, I think the construction actually blocked the path I needed. My Mom stopped to ask a few people about the tree but they had no idea what she was talking about. But then Meghan spotted the tree from across a green. We walked up to get a good look at the tree and I left one of the painted rocks there.
On the way out of town we passed a statue that somehow- and I am not sure how- Meg realized was Shoeless Joe Jackson. So I pulled the car over and got out for a better look. Sure enough she was right. Turns out Jackson got started playing for a team called the Greenville Spinners and it was there that he got his nickname. His new spikes were hurting his feet so he took off the shoes and went to bat without shoes. A fan noticed it and the rest is history. Shoeless Joe always maintained his innocence in the 1919 scandal that caused him and seven teammates to be banned from baseball. Major League Baseball is one of the things I miss the most about NY. Nashville does have a minor league team, The Sounds, that I have seen a few times but it isn't the same. We had two teams to watch and many many great memories at both Shea and Yankee Stadium. During our senior year of high school Meg and I had worked together to write a report outlining baseball and how it mirrored current events through out the 20th century.
Our next stop was in Columbia, SC to see two public works of art by Warren Edward Johnson. The first one was a 39 foot tall fire hydrant where Gypsy Rover got to practice her "sit and stay." And the second was across the parking lot, Tunnelvision, a mesmerizing wall mural of a road through a mountain.
Before leaving Columbia we stopped at a small brewery hoping to get a drink and rest the dogs for a little bit since Domino, more so than Gypsy, gets stressed in the car. However while states are opening up River Rat Brew Company was still to go only. But they have some amazing names to their beers so I decided to be daring. I asked if I was only going to try one beer of theirs in a growler which would they recommend. The answer was Dogs on Surfboards. So I ordered a growler of the New England IPA and tucked it away in the growler cooler with the Pog Champ cat from Iron Hill. We did also get a six pack of their Astronaut Sauce because it is a great name and a great looking can.
And then we were on our way again to Latta, SC home of the earliest Cotton Press. It was built sometime around 1798 and oxen or mules would turn the press in order to bale the cotton. Its original location was at Berry's Crossing along highway 38 but it was moved to one of the Berry ancestors homes in 1948 to preserve it. On November 15, 1972 the press was added to the National Historic Registry. It was raining pretty hard and the field was very muddy so I couldn't get to close.
We then drove to Florence, SC to spend the night at the Laquinta Inn which is always a great spot welcoming of pets. Sadly because of Covid-19 they didn't have their breakfast though they had a "grab and go" which would probably be yogurt and maybe some fruit. It didn't matter too much because we were starting early the next day so weren't going to be spending time on breakfast anyway.
The next morning we drove to Lake City, South Carolina, and the tomb and memorial to Dr. Ronald E McNair. Dr. McNair was a physicist and NASA Astronaut whose life was tragically cut short in 1986 when the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded. On his tomb is a quote:
"I urge you today to go forth with the knowledge that you are better than enough, to go forth with the desire to accomplish, with the desire to contribute to our society go forth with a willingness to fight and a will to win." 1984 Commencement at University of SC
Behind Dr. McNair on the memorial are the many different facets and areas of his life that made him who he was: symbols for his family, faith, love of music, physics, astronomy, and tae kwon do. He didn't just speak that quote above he lived it. When he was nine years old at the local library a librarian refused to allow him to check out books threatening to call his mother and the police if he did not leave. He waited. I don't know details of the encounter between him, the librarian, the police, and his mother, but I do know he took out the books. In 1967 he graduated from High School as the Valedictorian and in 1971 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering Physics Magna cum Laude from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. In 1976 Ronald received his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT and became nationally recognized for his work in Laser Physics. In 1978 Dr. McNair was selected by NASA for the Astronaut program and in February of 1984 he became the second African America to fly in space (the first was Colonel Guy Bluford in 1983). On January 28, 1986 Dr. McNair was on his second space flight aboard the Challenger when just 73 seconds after take off the Space Shuttle disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean. Dr. McNair left behind a wife, two small children, and a legacy of brilliance and determination.
I mention Dr. McNair's love of music he was an avid saxophone player and had been scheduled to be the first man to play saxophone in space when he was going to play along with Jean Michel Jarre via telecast at Jarre's Houston Concert. The piece, Last Rendez-Vous is now also called Ron's piece. Here is video from the concert with Kirk Whalum, American jazz saxophonist and song writer, playing Ron's Piece:
I left behind one of my rocks there. I had painted it all black like the night sky with small silver dots representing the stars. On it I wrote "Ad Astra" which translates "to the stars".
Our next stop was a multi town- Turbeville, Manning, and Summerton- quest to trace the history of Francis Marion "the Swamp Fox" and the role he played in South Carolina's part of the American Revolution. The murals are done by several different artists and beside each mural was a plaque explaining the mural's historical significance and giving the name of the artist.
The first of the three towns we arrived at was Turbeville, SC. There were two murals in Turbeville. One showed the burning of a local estate home. The second showed Francis Marion speaking with local farmers and pioneers to recruit them to his cause.
We also stopped at a small tourism office and memorial park in Tuberville. It got us thinking about our own small town in TN and how we have so much history to share as well. It would be nice to have some place to educate visitors and locals on the historical significance of our town like Tuberville has done with the wall murals and their role in the American Revolution. The memorial also recognized the lives lost to war from the town. Among the names several stood out, there were two who I assumed were brothers William and Irwin Gibbons who passed away within days of each other during the European campaign in WWII. I could only find Sgt. Irwin on Find A Grave. Another name that stood out was William Coker since the main road we were on was named for his family. William was a Private First Class who was killed in action in the Phillipines Find A Grave. Another Coker, SGT Clifton, was killed in action in Guam Find A Grave. And then there was Carroll Turbeville who died in action at Leyte Find A Grave.
We left Turbeville talking about how if we ever hit the lotto we would try and open a small museum in our town. I even have a property in mind that would be perfect. We would be able to display artifacts and even testimonials to comment on the significant historical, political, and agricultural aspects of Coopertown. I would also seek town permission to build a giant barrel (Coopers are barrel makers and in early census records many of the coopers in Robertson county lived in this geographical area hence the name.) :-)
The next town we arrived at was Manning which had the majority of the murals. For some more back ground and info Francis Marion was a military officer in the Continental Army and once the army was pushed out of South Carolina after the Battle of Camden Marion, or the Swamp Fox, stayed in South Carolina with his own militia. Rather than march into battle as was customary at that time Swamp Fox and his men used guerrilla warfare and would ambush and then retreat from enemy forces using the various swamps of SC as their hiding grounds. Him and his men are credited in the lineage of US Army Special Forces specifically the Green Berets.
One of the murals that stood out to me in Manning was the mural from Ox Swamp when Marion and his men lead the British on a 26 mile trek through the swamps as they tried and failed to catch him. It was there that Francis Marion was dubbed the Swamp Fox.
My favorite of all the murals was also in Manning. It was a simple mural of Francis Marion gazing into the water. Instead of his own reflection looking back at him there is an image of the fox. The artist Terry Smith from Land 'O Lakes Florida who did a number of the murals also inserted himself at the bottom left corner.
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| https://www.terrysmithstudio.com/ |
If you are ever near Manning I recommend taking time to find all 12 murals.
Next was Summerton where the last few murals were located on buildings across the street from each other were two murals one of a Patriot and one of a Redcoat.
There were several other murals in Summerton as well including one four paneled mural displaying Swamp Fox and his men's role in the Siege of Fort Watson.
After leaving Summerton we hit the road again but only for a little bit before we stopped at "Smith's." We had been seeing signs for Smith's since well before Turbeville listing all the delicious treats that could be found at this Exxon station and shop right off the highway. We stopped and sure enough inside the store was a variety of home made treats from Cajun style peanuts to fudge and everything in between. Next door was an ice cream shop that had Hershey's Ice Cream. We stopped inside to get waffle cones, a perfect lunch for a road trip. I've never realized before that Hershey's Ice Cream is different from Hershey's Chocolate I assumed it was an off shoot. But nope it was founded in 1894 by five brothers with no relation to Milton Hershey.
Our next and originally final stop was in Walterboro, SC, at Low Country Regional Airport. There we found a memorial to the Tuskegee Airmen who trained at the airfield before leaving for Europe during WWII. The Memorial was constructed by the Hiram E. Mann Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. in honor of Mann who trained at Walterboro and flew 48 combat missions during WWII.
The state quarter honoring the Airmen captures their accomplishments simply: "they fought two wars." The unit was a result of segregation rules in the military. Out of it they created one of the greatest fighting forces in US history. They were tested and questioned and challenged every step of the way in ways that no other airmen were.
That was our last planned stop. We began a path back to TN this time through Georgia. But as it happens we found some interesting sites along the way for example this old Police car in Olar, SC.
And then there was a vertical sun dial in Barnwell County, SC, which is accurate to within 2 minutes on June 22nd and within 16 minutes on other days.
Finally we had one more unscheduled stop. Saturday May 30th at 2:30 pm SpaceX was set to become the first private company to launch astronauts into space. It would also mark the first time in nine years that American Astronauts would be launched from American soil. So we pulled over at Georgia rest stop #63 in Columbia County and we watched on my phone as the Falcon Nine carrying the Dragon Capsule with Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley inside left Cape Canaveral Florida. Here is a link to my past blog post about the Launch of the Falcon Heavy.
This launch had been rescheduled from Wednesday. Had it been changed to Friday this would be a much different blog because I would have absolutely driven to Cape Canaveral to watch the rocket in person. However having to work on Sunday meant there was no way I could make the 12 hour drive home in time to get to work, unfortunately.
After that it was a straight drive home with just one stop at Johnny's Pizza and Sub in Kennesaw, GA, to eat dinner. Then we got ourselves and our exhausted pups home.
Up next in the quest to #drivethe48 is Arkansas!
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