This was not where I started thinking about this week’s posts but sure where I finished. Most of the posts this week will actually be motorcycles, I know where did that come from. But today the main story. There is an old saying, “Man plans, God laughs.” Certainly true for me this past weekend, not the devastation but my plans. Jill’s brother runs weekend events for teaching how to safely drive motorcycles fast, ON A TRACK, I might add. I thought this would be a great way to try a new kind of photography. Since it was off south of Charolette in SC, I planed a weekend of activity for Jill and me, starting on Thursday with a drive to Highlands NC and a stay at the Skyline Lodge atop a mountain four miles east of town. I thought we would explore some of the waterfalls in the area, shop the quaint downtown and enjoy a nice dinner. On Friday the plan was to head to Greenville SC, another day of waterfall and short hikes leading to a walk in Greenville along the river that courses through downtown and a nice dinner I had planned. Than Saturday off to the track..
We did make it to Highlands, all day rain kept us from hiking and we saw only one waterfall that was near the road. (photos below). It was really running after 5 inches of rain in the 24 hours before we arrived. Up the mountain to the lodge and we noted the town was closed. Curious. No shopping, no ice cream and worried about dinner. We checked in and found out they had a restaurant but were unsure how much help would show up. (Not many!) It turns out the weather reports that I somehow missed had changed and worse weather was forecast for the area. They did not know how much worse. We did have a delightful dinner in a nice restaurant with the one waiter who was there and a cook, an assistant and the manager of the inn. We had power until about 6 AM. Torrential rains and winds up to 70 mph and zero contact with outside world. We were not sure what to do or what we could do. The staff spent most of the morning in the rain cutting trees that blocked access to the secondary road to get out of the hotel. At about noon two men arrived. They had come from Cashiers and said it was passable - barely. We made a decision to try, again, no idea what was going on. We did get to Cashiers - dodging a few trees over parts of the road and found out by asking someone how to get to Greenville and set off on that road. It was tough. We passed in 12 miles maybe 25/30 downed trees that access had been cut so there was a lane through or on the side of the road. Until we hit one that the people in the cars behind me joined in pushing it off the road enough to get past but to no avail as we made progress the one 4 wheel drive car that was ahead returned and said many big trees blocked the road. So we turned around and found another road with similar issues, trees, water and power lines everywhere but we snaked past. Until another road block but a lineman told me a road that would work, massive damage everywhere but after 4 hours we made the 60 miles to Greenville where we found downed trees, pools of water and power lines across the road. I made our way to the hotel where we had a reservation. It was the only one in Greenville with power! And they told us how to get to the only open restaurant. A mere hour wait at 4:45 was not too bad. The hotel was sold out early as people were trying to find shelter or power. The next day we traveled 2.5 more hours to the racetrack where the sun was shinning and the weather beautiful.
We were both exhausted and grateful, very grateful by the time we arrived home on Sunday night.
More tomorrow.
