Spring Break 2013

It may be hard to believe, but I've never had a Spring Break before.  I wasn't at UM during spring semester.  BYU doesn't give days off...ever...let alone a whole week.  So, for the first time in my far too many years of college, I got a Spring Break.  How did I spend it, you ask?  Daytona Beach? Nope, not really my age group.  Vegas?  Too far away.  A cruise?  If only.  Nope, I decided to get back to my roots and spend some time in the great outdoors.  I went camping up in South Carolina.

It's been a long time since I went camping, and with a week long break, I thought it was the perfect time.  My Home Teaching companion, Dave, and I set off Monday morning for the 7 hour drive north.  Yes, 7 hours is kinda far to go camping, but have you seen a topographical map of Florida?  They consider ant hills "mountains" here. 

Day 1
I had found a free spot to camp for our first night.  It's a spot not far from Greenville on Forest Service land.  Basically, we just drove to the end of the road, put on our backpacks, and hiked down the hill to the creek below.  We had to clear our own tent sites, gather our own firewood, and boil our water straight from the stream.  No services here.  The nice thing was, there wasn't a soul in sight for miles.

Breakfast

Day 2
I wanted to do some hiking and since this first campsite was very undeveloped, we drove about 20 miles to Table Rock State Park.  It was pretty overcast that morning and even started drizzling while we broke camp, but that didn't phase us.

We got to Table Rock around 11:00.  We set up camp in time to do a hike, so we set off on Pinnacle Trail.  Stats: 7.2 miles round trip, 3425 feet elevation.

Bald Rock overlook

Visibility was pretty low, but you could see the fog sticking to the trees down in the valley and it looked like a forest fire. 

It started raining right when we pulled into camp, so we ended up spending the rest of the night in our tents, eating jerky, fruit, and trail mix for dinner.

Day 3
The rain broke sometime in the early morning and we woke up to a beautifully sunny day.  A perfect day, in fact, to hike to the top of Table Rock and enjoy the view.  Trail stats: 6.8 miles round trip, 3124 feet elevation.

Somehow failed to get my own pic of Table Rock so I "borrowed" this from Ourupstatesc.info

Our campsite is down near that little peninsula in the lake.

We made it back to camp relatively early in the day so we had tons of time to cook and just sit by the fire and relax.

I had a genius idea while shopping for supplies before the trip to make a stew out of beef jerky, carrots, and potatoes.  It. Was. Delish.

Day 4
We decided to break camp before breakfast and drive into Greenville, SC for some down home diner breakfast.  We weren't disappointed.  We asked a couple of older gentlemen we met in town where the best breakfast place was and they led us here.

This is one of those local, family owned diners where the waitresses have been working there their whole lives and they call you things like "Hon," and "Dear," and "Sweetheart."  I fell in love with the place instantly.

After getting nice and full on some country cooking, we drove to downtown Greenville.  This was a place I had dreamed of settling down someday with my family.  My visit only confirmed why that was an awesome idea.  You could tell that they had put a lot of money making their downtown the place to be.  Trendy boutiques, restaurants, art galleries, and fine arts centers.  Not to mention a beautifully developed trail/park system along the river that runs through town.

They did have a slight water sanitation problem though

Statues were everywhere. Like, seriously, on every corner.

Outdoor stage for community plays, free concerts, etc.

Greenville really was a beautiful town.  It was so much better developed than I had imagined before.  There are definitely parts that were quaint/old-fashioned, but I was surprised by how progressive and fancy the downtown area was.  Looks like it has become the financial hub of western South Carolina.


Now, I'm back in Gainesville with only one more day left until school starts again.  I'm feeling slightly sad about that.  Definitely not ready to start up again.  I could use another week, that's for sure.

Road trip

I made it.  3 days and 2221 miles later, I'm in Gainesville.  I had planned on doing this in three parts, each night updating on how that day's voyage went.  This turned out to be a little over-ambitious.  Turns out I get really tired after 14-16 hrs of driving and am not really in a blogging mood.  So, you're getting a 1 post overview of the trip.

Day 1: Orem, UT - Lincoln, NE

 

Literally the only thing in Sinclair, WY

To save some money, I reserved camping sites in Lincoln and then Nashville.  I pulled into Lincoln at about midnight MDT.  The RV park was nice and it was good to get a warm shower.  Didn't take long before I passed right out.


Day 2: Lincoln, NE - Nashville, TN

Metropolis, MO...Population 6,000

Ohio River

I don't have any pictures of my entering Tennessee because it had gotten dark and I didn't want to try and take a picture from the side of the freeway with cars rushing by at 75 mph.

Now this is where the trip goes a little off-track.  As I said, I had reserved a campsite in Nashville.  It was next to J. Percy Priest Reservoir and I was excited to spend a night next to the water.  Well, when I got to the campground at 11 PM, guess what greeted me.  A locked gate across the entrance.  Yep, the campground had been locked down for the night.  Nobody in the guardhouse.  It wasn't like the campground was closed.  There were RVs there, but there was no way to get in.  There's no local phone number posted, just the one for the national reservation service.  So, I called it at 11:11 CDT, and the office had closed 11 mins prior.  Awesome.  So, here I am, 600 miles from my destination, tired, stinky, with nowhere to sleep.  I drove around the bay looking for another campsite but there was nothing.  So, I made an executive decision to go ahead and plow through the night and just get to Gainesville.

Day 3: Nashville, TN - Gainesville, FL

Sunrise outside Atlanta, GA

Atlanta

I made it!!

Barring a 2 hour nap somewhere in TN, I drove through the night and got into Gainesville at about noon on the 31st.  Sorry there weren't more pictures from this stretch, but there's not much to see in the dark.  1 of the disadvantages of driving through the night.

Thoughts on the trip

1. The United States is HUGE, amazingly varied, and beautiful...
2. Except Wyoming.  Sorry people from WY, but that was the ugliest state along the trip.  Bleak, brown, and barren.
3. Surprisingly enough, Nebraska was my favorite.  Maybe I just caught it at the right time of the year, but it was beautiful.  The corn and grain fields were the most gorgeous shades of green and they stretched on as far as the eye could see.  The towns were small and quaint.  Very Midwestern.  I wish I had taken more pictures.
4. When you're really tired, you are able to sleep in very uncomfortable positions in a cramped, fully packed car.
5. Human butts are not meant to sit for 40 hrs straight.  It's still a little numb.

So, anyways, that's my trip.  I'm here.  Safe.  Now the search is on for a place to live...