South Carolina today

For all of you out there fighting the Christmas rush, I just want to share my experience at the post office this morning about 9:30am - just me and the clerk!  He says sometimes they have a couple people in line a week or two before Christmas ....

It was 36 degrees this morning at 9am; it does not snow in this area (other than a flake or two every other year) and there is no ice on the roads to speak of, so it would be a good place to spend part of the winter - as long as you had enough propane.

I'm out on the road again today because I'm running out of time.  I'm moving to Atlanta on Wednesday and there is more rain in the forecast the next couple of days, so I want to get some more sightseeing done while I can.

First stop:

The 1,617 foot long Stumphouse Tunnel is an oddity. Started in 1852 to connect Charleston to Knoxville and eventually on to Cincinnati, the Civil War—and lack of funds—brought construction to a halt. While there were various efforts by the Blue Ridge Railroad to revive the tunnel, none of them came to pass and it stands today as a monument to the efforts of pre-Civil War engineering.

The tunnel measures 17 feet wide by 25 feet high and about mid-way in, there is a 16 x 20 foot airshaft that extends 60 feet upwards to the surface.

In 1951, Clemson University bought the tunnel and used it to cure the South's first blue cheese. The tunnel's environment was later duplicated at Clemson, and the cheese making, that Clemson is now famous for, was moved there. 

And then a stop at the South Carolina Botanical Garden (not a good time of year to stop, but the walk was nice), the Bob Campbell Geology Museum (closed for carpet repairs), and Hanover House.

Hanover House was built between 1714 and 1716 for French Huguenot Paul de St Julien in the S.C. Lowcountry.

My last stop was to be Ashtabula Historical House, but it was closed for the season, so I stopped for lunch.

Lunch was at a local diner .... the parking lot had lots of cars (always one of my tests) ... which turned out to be a cafeteria.  They love cafeteria's in this area. Lunch was tasty - chicken, vegetable casserole, potato casserole, cole slaw, sweet potato pie, and the ever present iced tea.