We stayed with old friends, Ken and Carol, who moved to South Carolina about a year ago. They have a lovely, brand-new home. The upstairs guest room is huge, so we settled in.
Our touring group met up about 10:30. We shouldn’t have been surprised when this turned out to be another physically challenging day.
Let’s start with a bit of history. Greenville, South Carolina, was originally Cherokee hunting grounds, forbidden to colonists. Richard Pearis, a wealthy settler from Virginia, arrived sometime around 1754. He gained a foothold after having a child with a Cherokee woman. The Cherokee gave him about 100,000 acres where he established a plantation, the site of present-day Greenville. Pearis was a Loyalist in the War of Independence and fought with the Cherokee against the Patriots. His allegiance to the crown wasn’t tolerated. Patriots burned his plantation and jailed him in Charleston. He never returned to the Greenville area. Almost all Cherokee land was ceded to South Carolina in 1777.
I found an old graveyard on the internet I wanted to visit and we headed there first. We walked across a lovely trail by a creek in McPherson Park to get there.
Springwood Cemetery dates back to 1812 when Elizabeth Blackburn Williams expressed a desire to be buried in the family garden. There is a whole section of unknown soldiers of the Confederacy. We found the graves of a man who fought at Gettysburg and one at Fort Sumter.
Visiting old cemeteries is a passion of mine. The information printed on old headstones is fascinating. I think it’s fitting to remember the dead, if only for a moment.
Here’s a soldier who perished from a wound received at First Manassas, the battle that rattled the windows of Mount Vernon.
There are always baby graves. We found a few from the 1790s. Many of the older gravestones were difficult to read.
Our acting tour guide was Wendy, Ken and Carol’s daughter, and she was great at it. We headed for old town Greenville for a delicious lunch at a burger joint before our hike.
This is Falls Park, so beautiful, right in the middle of town, complete with hiking trails.
Cardinals are easy to spot.
No one can claim that Greenville isn’t green.
Next stop was the iconic Mast General Store, an old-time shopping emporium dating from 1883. The wooden floors creak!
I had to try out some of their candy. The salted caramels were especially terrific.
A whole group of us went for dinner at Smoky Dreams Barbecue where they shared fun facts.
“Thank late-1800s cattle barons and resourceful cowboys for delicious, slow-cooked brisket: the barons didn’t want to feed cowboys good meat, so threw them brisket instead. The cowboys soon figured out if they cooked it for a long time over a low heat, it wasn’t just palatable, it was awesome!”
I had pulled pork which was divine as was the cole slaw and beans. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Smoky Dreams is the epitome of a Southern barbecue joint. We sure had great fun, and enjoyed good company along with the fantastic food.
I might need to find a way to recreate their delightful chandelier.
No downtime, the evening was spent playing cards. Hard to believe it’s been almost a year since we played Bolivia. I saw fireflies!!!