Driving out to Old96

Its funny when you can reach parts of other states faster than a city in your own state! So today was my 3 hour-ish drive to theOld 96 in SC – 5 counties make up the area but I visited only Greenwood, Abbeville and Edgefield. (It takes longer to drive from Atlanta to Savannah.) But then again, this isn’t exactly a tourist or holiday destination either – no beaches or mountains here. My drive in was pretty uneventful although I must recommend stopping halfway as you enter SC – the river sort of divides the two states and is really pretty, especially in the fall. I had lunch at Kickers. 

It was then onto Greenwood – the most city-like among the different counties. I checked out the Benjamin E Mays complex here as well as their Emerald Triangle – not really a triangle though – consisting of their arts center, community theater and museum. Simple and small and sweet. An extension to the museum is at another location – the railroad museum. In fact, I would like to visit the railroad museum once it is all done up – they are working on the interiors of the cars they have and hoping to raise enough sponsorships to complete the project soon. They have seven vintage train cars, one acre of space and great plans. The cars date to the early 1900s and include a steam locomotive engine, a dining car, sleeper car, passenger car, office car and a caboose. 

Greenwood is probably your best choice in the area for small businesses, restaurants or hotels. About a half hour away is Abbeville and they have a few nice B&Bs here that are worth staying at. It’s a small town with a square and all the residences around. First impressions – gosh, this is really small town Americana, pretty rural. They have one newspaper, and one guy who runs it. One Mexican place, one Chinese place. A few Dutch kitchens – and no it has got nothing to with the Dutch but more with Mennonite history, more on that in another post. A walk around the square for an hour was sufficient to cover some of their local historic venues. They do have a history tour you can do and all the important structures have plaques you can review about the events that occurred there. Unfortunately, it was a no-show period so despite the fact that Carrie-the musical was on atthe Opera House I couldn’t watch it. Most places are also closed here on a Monday night so my dining options were pretty limited. Walked around the square and saw Nattys – a crepe place – was open for the evening and so that took care of dindin.