SC + NC = columbus day weekend

One of my t-town roommates Niki moved to South Carolina a while back and I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to visit and check off another couple east coast states!

I hopped on a train after work, attempted sleeping and arrived in the early morning hours in Spartanburg,SC. I walked to a 24 diner – papas breakfast nook – and waited for niki to wake up! Meanwhile I made friends with this random dude who insisted on sitting down with me and telling me his travel history. Luckily for me, Niki arrived as I finished eating and at the end of his climbing/traveling/bumming around stories. He may or may not have insisted that we become fb friends…. Hahahaha, if you see a “bobby” on my fb it’s him…

After naps and showers Niki took me out to see Greenville, SC and wander for the day. It was a perfect, warm day. Greenville is BEAUTIFUL! There was a neat park along the river that made for a nice walk while sipping on starbucks! Duh… it’s me… Again it would be a PERFECT place to run. Some funky shops and (how did I almost forget) MOONSHINE tasting! It was a deliciously random day…

We went for pedicures and Niki cooked a bomb dinner for us!

The next day we woke up early to cross over to North Carolina! We went to Carowinds, an amusement park. Again we lucked out, nice weather and minimal crowds! We were able to tackle all the rides in record time!!! The park was covered in crazy looking skeletons and dummies for Halloween events. Our personal favorite was riding a facedown roller coaster over water with a trail of mental patient escapees (sp?)…. hahahaha

Niki cooked another BOMB dinner for us! Mason got me a t-shirt from his school! And we topped off the evening by watching the darkest, most twisted, graphic television show out there… american horror story… YIKES… thanks dudes, right before putting me on the night train home…

Arrived home, napped and wandered the taste of dc with my roommate! We listened to rusted root with capital as the back drop. Excellent people watching… yay Columbus day…

Virginia/old rag/luray caverns

Get me outta here! Work is ridiculous…. That being said any excuse to get out of town is a good one!

Mark had a genius idea to head into Virginia and go hiking! We both heard good things online about Old Rag Mountain…(insert joke here…hehehe) So we rented a car and left on a Saturday morning, made it to Old Rag late morning and did the 9 mile trail. It was gorgeous!! Nice to leave the rainy, cityscape for some sunny, beautiful scenery. The trail was not that difficult, but the rock scramble was challenging – in the most fun way possible…LOVED IT! Involving climbing and sliding and following light blue spray painted dots and the view from the top was truly amazing. (photo credit:mark)

We drove through skyline drive in the shenandoah national park… again so beautiful! Pictures don’t quite capture it!

Stayed the night in Strasburg, a tiny little town that was supposed to be hosting an Oktoberfest, but the weather changed and they closed down early….booooo! Most hilarious evening of attempting to find a bar in ANY of the neighboring towns proved to be fruitless… isn’t every small town supposed to have some dive of a bar, where all the townies hang out??? Apparently not…

Next day we checked out the luray caverns!!! Much like Wall Drug in SD there are signs EVERYWHERE for luray caverns. Interesting side note from the tour – some dude figured out how to play music on the stalactites (and yes I did have to look up the spelling on that) making it one of the largest instruments around. Our tour/admission included a car museum that was next door to the caverns which also turned out to be pretty interesting… amazing to think that my grandparents could have ridden in some of models…

Sadly, weekends come to end….booo going back to work….