Peckish Travels

Bob and I are back in blogging business. Still researching a final solution but have an interim measure in place that will keep us blogging with photos for awhile.

Our time in Boiling Springs will end this Sunday night but before that, we were able to meet up with friends from Austin last Sunday, as they were in Asheville visiting former work colleagues. We met up at a couple wineries in between Asheville and Boiling Springs. It was a great visit. We caught up on their news, news from Austin, as well as the activities they had been doing around Asheville.

Today, Bob and I went to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for a tour of the BMW plant there. It’s a popular tour, as we purchased tickets a month or so ago, and today was the only open option before we leave. The campus is beautiful, and we learned a number of fun BMW facts.

1, BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works. Not being car people, we did not know this before our visit.

2, The Spartanburg campus is currently at 1.2 million square feet, but they will be expanding.

3, The time it takes to create one car, from the 400 pieces of separate metal until it leaves the lot is 28 hours. The plant currently makes 1,500 cars a day and made over 416,300 cars last year.

4, The plant started with about 700 employees and now has 12,000.

The most impressive part of the tour was seeing all of the robotic systems in action, and watching the staff guide the robotic arms or do the manual installations that need to be done. The planning of the entires process and the development of all of the robotic tools seems impressive. I also liked the fact that staff have help cords that they can pull to get assistance from a Service Line Supervisor. The cord doesn’t sound an alarm, but rather a song that each Supervisor selects so that they can tell who is needed. No photos were allowed during the tour, so the photos below are from the outside and inside of the Visitor’s Center.

It has been a bit of an unusual day today. It started with a transformer going out near the house this morning, which caused the electricity to go out. This caused considerable consternation for Beth who was working online and who also had not yet had her coffee. Bob to the rescue for both. First showing Beth how to set up a hotspot with her phone to allow her to finish her job and then running her to Starbucks for the coffee fix. Happy wife, happy life as they say.

After breakfast we headed to the Galilee Church Road Trailhead for the Foote Trail. This trail is part of the Gateway Trail System that we had walked a couple of months ago. At that time, we had walked the three shorter trails in the park near the quarry but had seen the the park trailhead for the 4.5 mile Foote Trail. The Galilee Church Road Trailhead is at the far end of the trail and is located in a rural neighborhood. A deer shot across the road as we were nearing the trailhead, which could have caused any number of unpleasant issues, if we had hit it, but Bob saved the day again.

While we had a great walk, the day ended as it started with a hiccup that we’re still trying to sort out. We have maxed out our media storage for our current level of our blog app. The next level up is significantly more, so we’re seeing if we can make any changes within the current level before changing our membership status. Hope to be back in blogness soon!

First of all, how the heck can it be May already?! Our time in North Carolina is quickly coming to an end, and we’re still checking things out. We will leave much to come back and do.

The other night on the news, which is based out of Charlotte, we saw a story that covered the approval of a Social District, in Gastonia, North Carolina, a satellite city of Charlotte, with a population of about 80,000. The city is trying to revive business in the downtown sector and has created a six block Social District, which will allow adults to buy a drink (in a special cup) at a participating bar/restaurant, and then walk with it throughout the designated district. The designated hours for the district are from 11 am to 11 pm daily, except for Sunday when it ends at 10 pm.

We began our stroll around the district about noon, not to participate, but just to see what the area had to offer. We had a lovely walk on a beautiful day, but there didn’t seem to be much foot traffic, and really very few open businesses. Only one retail shop that we saw, otherwise, just a few bars and restaurants, but hopefully, the effort (and the construction of residential units underway) will attract new businesses.

After a rainy last couple of days, we wanted to get out of the house and see something new. So we ventured to Chimney Rock, a small community right next to the town of Lake Lure, which we had visited earlier. According to Google, the village population is 140. It is basically a tourist destination for people wanting to visit Chimney Rock State Park as well as enjoy the quaint three blocks of shops, restaurants, a children’s amusement park, a brewery, and a winery situated in a lovely area with mountains on either side. It also has a short but scenic river walk along the Broad River.

Luckily for us, the drive to Chimney Rock went through Lake Lure, so we got to see the lake at a much fuller level than when we had visited earlier. It was much prettier.

We elected not to pay the $17 apiece to go into the state park and just perused the Main Street of the village of Chimney Rock.

The following photos are from the short Riverwalk which runs at the base of the mountain with the state park and behind many of the restaurants, so lots of the restaurants advertise river views for their dining.

Yesterday, Bob and I took Cooper back to the Broad River Trail for another hike full of smells, and today, Bob and I headed back to Crowder Mountain to hike another trail to a different outlook. The first time, we hiked the Pinnacle Trail from the Visitor’s Center for views in multiple directions. Today, we drove to the Linwood Access to the park to do a loop trail that got us to an west facing overlook that had great views of the surrounding countryside, including the Veronet Winery that we visited a few weeks ago.

This trail, while unsigned at the start as well as the top, was the busiest trail we have been on. Luckily, we met a friendly local who confirmed we were on the correct trail and that we would have a 300+ step climb to the top.

Bob and I had company this weekend when Bob’s brother Eric flew his plane down from Alexandria, Virginia to the local airport for a visit. He gave us a heads up, and we cleared his stay with our homeowner before his arrival. He gave Bob the name of an app that allowed him to track his plane’s progress. We headed out to the airport in time Friday afternoon to watch his arrival and assist a bit with unloading and then covering the plane in anticipation of Saturday’s storm/rain.

From the airport, we drove up to Tryon to the International Equestrian Center. There was a dressage event this weekend but nothing horse-related happened while we were there, but we got to show him around. Then we headed to the Mountain Brook Winery that we had visited a few weeks ago to catch up over a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers. Bob made dinner after we got back, and Cooper the dog made a new friend.

On Saturday, Bob and Eric went to the Shelby Cafe to introduce Eric to livermush and then onto Cowpens State Park to view the film of the battle and history there and walk the Battlefield Trail. The rain ended about 2 pm just in time for the Boiling Springs Webbstock, which closed down part of Main Street for music, vendors, face painting, etc. It turned out to be a great temperature and weather for it. We enjoyed perusing the area before heading to El Acapulco, the local Mexican restaurant for dinner.

Ever since we arrived in Boiling Springs we’ve heard of the Earl Scruggs Center in the old courthouse in the main square in Shelby. Along with Don Gibson and Bobby Bell, Earl Scruggs is a local boy that went on to much bigger things. Today we decided it was time to check out the Earl Scruggs Center to learn more about this local and American icon.

I think we appreciated the museum more having been in the area for some time, as we learned more about the community as well as Earl Scruggs and bluegrass music. The museum started out with an informative film that provided information on Earl Scruggs’ career, including his partnership with Lester Flatt, his wife’s management of his career, and his continued growth including performing and playing with his sons.

Earl Scruggs was born in the Flint Hill section of Boiling Springs, North Carolina. He would have almost been our neighbor! He was born into a musical family on a 40-acre farm, and he helped with both the family’s farm and mill work before making it as a musician. He taught himself the 3 finger playing style on the banjo for which he is famous at age 10.

Flatt and Scruggs wrote the theme song for the Beverly Hillbillies and their song “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” was featured in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde.” The song won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for the National Recording Registry works of unusual merit in 2005.

Scruggs received 4 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a National Medal of Arts. He became a member of the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (as was his wife Louise for her management work) and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

There are parks yet to explore, so Bob and I headed out with Cooper today to check out South Mountain State Park, the largest state park in North Carolina. The park has elevations up to 3,000 feet, a waterfall dropping 80 feet, and more than 47 miles of trails.

It was a scenic 40 minute drive from the house. We didn’t do the waterfall trail, as it was marked strenuous and we weren’t sure how Cooper would do, but we did a 3 mile moderate out and back trail that was well shaded and a lovely introduction to the park.

What a lovely day! Maybe it takes the rain to make us really enjoy the sun because after some more rain earlier this week, it was lovely to be outside enjoying the sun and temps in the high 70s.

I started the day early to head out to the Thermal Belt Rail Trail for a 24 mile training run. All went well, and I just have 1 more long run to do before the marathon in Australia on May 28! This afternoon Bob and I headed to Shelby for a quick book return and pick up at the library before heading out towards Kings Mountain to visit Veronet Vineyards and Winery, another local winery that we had seen advertised.

The winery opened at noon. We arrived at 12:15. We followed 2 cars into the parking lot, including one van, 2 more cars were behind us and the parking lot already seemed to be full! However, the staff were friendly, there was plenty of seating, both inside and out, and the views were lovely! The wine was yummy as well. We had a lovely walk around the grounds as well as a relaxing sit (both inside and out).

To end the day on a great note, Chef Bob is making Squid Ink pasta with mixed seafood, a favorite dish of ours, inspired by a dish we had in Venice.

This afternoon, Bob and I took advantage of the 70 degree weather to take in a college women’s lacrosse game between the Gardner Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs and the Campbell University Camels (situated in the town of Buies Creek, NC, a 3.5 hour drive from Boiling Springs). This was our first time watching lacrosse, and we enjoyed the fast pace of the game.

The lacrosse team plays in the football stadium, so we were glad to be able to check that out as well. Since it was an afternoon game, the attendance was pretty low, so we were happy to add some fan support.

Walking up to the grandstands, there was a series of plaques about various football players or coaches of note at GW. See below.