Crowne Plaza Hotel Greenville-I-385-Roper Mt, Sc

The rainy remnants of Ida continued to follow us North to Greenville, SC. It was so gross out that I refused to leave my somewhat unsanitary feeling hotel room. The next morning we loaded into a pretty nice theatre at Furman University. Mixed among our regular collection of middle-school and high-school students was a small band of 11 local university students. But ...

My daughter, Julie, her friend, Heather, and I went hiking at Table Rock State Park July 31. We hiked all the trails. It took 6 hours to do to the Pinnacle Mountain Trail, Mill Creek Falls Spur, Mill Creek Pass Trail, Ridge Trail, and the Table Rock Trail, plus 3 falls, 1 cut chin, and 1 bee sting, but we made it.

... Northern California including Sequoyah National Forest, Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, Jelly Belly Factory,

Week 3- Pacific Coast Highway to Monterey, Big Sur and Los Angeles, then San Diego.

Last few days travel to Phoenix to recover before returning home July 16th.

... to Baker, NV, hike Great Basin NP. Stay at End of the Trail...er. Saturday, May 30th - Hike Great Basin NP, spend second night in Baker at End of the Trail...er. . Sunday, May 31st - Hike GBNP or Cathedral State Park. Drive to Pioche, NV. Spend night at the Overland Hotel & Saloon in Pioche, NV. Monday, June 1st - Drive to and hike around Red Rock canyon or Valley of Fire State Park ...

I've been 'back home' now for two full days. Weird. I haven't really been 'back home' for going on eight years, so its a bit of a time warp feeling. What's worse is that besides today (since I've borrowed Mom's wheels), I'm still carless. I haven't been carless in this town for going on eleven years! Talk about a strange feeling. Luckily, I've got this upcoming trip to focus on and plenty of unpacking, packing, rearranging, throwing out and donating to do in the next four days to keep me ...

... where we probably ate more than the 3 gallons we bought. Larry is a guy who thinks in a way remarkably similar to Malc - Oh look the more we have the cheaper they are!! So we ended up making jam with one of the gallons. Sadly the peaches aren't ready yet. On Saturday we got up early and were out for 7am as our host took us to some beautiful countryside, we paused at Caesars Head State Park where at the 'head ...

... at some stations and a sound control that you could personalize - was very good. The hotel seemed worn in some areas, i.e. carpeting and walls, some doors, elevator and some of the staff were not the friendliest in the world, i.e. would look right at you and not acknowledge or greet you. Service staff seemed to be the friendliest but as you climbed the food chain, the greetings grew less and less. Overall - I would give this place a 7 - 7.5.

We rode in sub 40 degree weather(extremely cold) into Greenville, to the Blood Connection. there all the cyclists were split up to go with a sponsor to take us to a specific event that each of us would be the main attraction. some went to schools, others went to blood drives, still others went to a group home. I went to a Rec Center to speak to the employees right before their blood drive. I hope I made an impression, it is ...

... for a great Wing-Ding. We spent the rest of the morning and some of the arvo meandering through the throngs of bikers looking at the vendor stalls. The hall in which the displays were set up was absolutely huge - it ...

... lots of kinds of (stale) bread from local businesses and the tourists can hand feed most of the animals along the way. The only animal that you want to be very careful how you feed them is the smaller cousin to an Ostrich called a Rea. Reas have such a small brian, they can't distinguish your hand from the food, so you'll probably be bit and their bite isn't very nice. Also,around the Thanksgiving to New Year's Holidays, they put on a Christmas Lights show that is very special.