Aiken, SC

I am writing this from Cherokee, North Carolina on Monday, March 19. It is raining right now and that is the only reason we are not out hiking and fishing in these beautiful Western North Carolina Mountains. We came here to see the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and found the rest of this awesome place. I will write all about this area in coming entries. For now, I will go back a couple of weeks...

We left Poinsett SP on March 5 and made the drive over to Aiken SP, just south of Aiken, SC. We loved this campground. The cost was about $20 per night with water and electric. The park was almost empty the three days we were there. They have good Verizon cell service and good OTA TV, but we had very little time to use either. There is a paddling trail in the river and a few hiking trails in the park. I would have loved to take advantage of the area, but we had other plans. I took almost no pictures while we were there, so this will be a short entry.

I was in Aiken to visit an old friend. Tony and Debby are friends from my working days. Tony was my boss at one time in my career. He was by far the best boss I ever had. I learned what it meant to be respected and appreciated. I really enjoyed work back then. Oh well, that all changed when I got to see what the other side of the fence looked like after Tony retired at 47. Tony and Debby came to see us in Missouri last July, and invited us to come see their home in Aiken when we were in the SE US. 

While we were thee, we went on a tour of Aiken to see the history of the area.

There are many old homes that look like plantation homes. This is also one of the top horse areas in the US. The sandy soil is perfect for training horses. We saw horse farms everywhere we went.

The thing that Tony and I have in common (other than work), is golf. We both love to play. They live in a gated golf community and he plays 4 times a week. They have a very active social calendar including poker and ladies activities for Debby and her friends. We played 27 holes and had an awesome time on two of the courses in the development. We played with his normal mens group, which are much better players than I am, but they made me feel quite welcome.

Here is one of their signature holes. A downhill par 3. We both ended up in the bunker on the left off the tee.

One of the best people I know.

We had a great visit. Kim really enjoyed her time with Debby also. The plan from there was to head north to the Smoky Mountains. That was the plan, but it changed. We had to make a detour to Asheville, NC along the way. That is the best part of traveling the way we do. If Kim sees something she wants to do, I quickly agree and off we go. That will be a repeated theme to our trip back to Missouri.