Greenville Tea Party Part Deux - Update

UPDATE: The Greenville County Democratic Party will also be holding a "Save our Schools" rally at the same time and same location as the tea party. Between the two events, speakers include gubernatorial candidate Congressman Gresham Barrett (who was for the bailout before he was against it), Congressman Jim Demint, SC Senator Ralph Anderson, SC Representative Karl Allen, SC Representative Chandra Dillard, SC Representative Jerry Govan, Former US Congresswoman Liz Patterson, 2008 Democratic Candidate for US Congress Paul Corden, Greenville County School Board Trustee Leola Robinson-Simpson, Greenville County School Board Trustee Glenda Morrison-Fair, Greenville County Councilwoman Judy Gilstrap, Greenville County Councilwoman Lottie Gibson, Greenville County Councilwoman Xanthene Norris, Greenville City Councilwoman Lillian Brock-Flemming, Greenville City Councilwoman Diane Smock, Greenville City Councilwoman Jil Littlejohn.

Greenville hasn't seen this much political activity since Jesse Jackson and Kwesi MFume lead a group of protesters down Church Street to protest Greenville County's lack of recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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Original Post

On December 16th, 1773 colonists in Boston, MA dumped three shiploads of tea into the Boston harbor to protest taxation without representation helping to spark the American Revolution.

This past February a few locals gathered outside Starbucks on Main Street to dump a couple boxes of tea into the Reedy River in protest of tax cuts voted on by their representatives, sparking minor attention in the blogosphere.

In case you missed the first Greenville Tea Party, the sequel opens this weekend at the Bi-Lo Center.

From the Upstate Young Republican website:

The outdoor terrace at Greenville‘s Bilo Center will play host to the Upstate Young Republicans post-tax day Tea Party Protest on Friday night April 17th at 6:00 PM. The overwhelming success of February’s Tea Party that turned out nearly 2000 people made it necessary to move the event to private property. “Success sometimes breeds its own challenges,” said Carl Clegg, of the Upstate Young Republicans, “but these are the challenges that we like to face head-on and with the amazing support and financial contributions of Greenville’s conservatives, we will again unite the voices of thousands and say loudly ‘…government is the problem!’”


Apparently when less than 1% of the population attends an event in the Upstate it's considered an "overwhelming success."

Distance from downtown Greenville: 0 miles.


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63rd Running of the Block House Steeplechase



Saturday APRIL 18, 2009
Sponsored by the Tryon Riding & Hunt Club
Held at the FENCE in Tryon, North Carolina






Distance from downtown Greenville: 45 miles.


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Coastal Expeditions

Coastal Expeditions offers kayak rentals in Folly Beach, Mount Pleasant and Isle of Palms, SC. They also offer guided tours through the intercostal waterway and the Edisto River where you can stay in a treehouse overnight.

We had three dolphins swimming around our kayaks for about ten minutes on our most recent trip.

They also offer a ferry to Bull Island, home of the nation's highest concentration of alligators.


Distance from downtown Greenville: 222 miles



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Indie Grits Film Festival


The Indie Grits Film Festival will be returning to Columbia April 15th-19th. The films are screened at the Nickelodeon Theatre.

Distance from downtown Greenville: 104 miles


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Hospital Rock and Falls Creek Falls

Hospital Rock is a large cave located in the Mountain Bridge Wilderness area. It's accessible most quickly via the Hospital Rock trail at Jones Gap State Park. Getting to the cave requires a very strenuous 1.1 mile hike in. This is labelled as one of the "most strenuous and rugged" trails in the state. As Kimberli stated on her blog recently, there's a reason they call it Hospital Rock. The trip up is a doozy. (I had another name for it most of the way but this is a family friendly site.)












According to the SC trails website the cave was used as a hideout for confederate deserters.











A month or so ago, someone left a campfire burning nearby and damn near burned the place down. Story


After reaching Hospital Rock, should you have a masochistic streak, you can continue on the Hospital Rock trail another 3.3 miles to Falls Creek Falls. The mile after the cave is worse than the first. Whoever built it was apparently not a huge fan of switchbacks. I guess if you're running from the Confederate army you'd want the shortest path. During this section you may spend a lot of time in existential introspection examining why you would choose to do this to yourself, realizing why your wife never hikes with you anymore and determining that if you ever make it out alive, you're starting a new hobby. Macramé perhaps. But then, right at the 2 mile mark the trail levels out as you begin to walk near the ridge. It stays that way 3/4 of a mile or so then starts getting a little hairy for another mile before descending sharply (very sharply) and then running along a beautiful stream before reaching the falls.

If you really hate life (or the people you brought with you) turn around and go back. Otherwise continue on the Falls Creek Falls trail (which is mostly down hill) to the Palmetto Bible Camp then walk three miles up the road back to your car. Or you could always just park at the Bible camp and walk the 1.4 miles to the falls and back.


Distance from downtown Greenville: 25 miles.


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Official Blog Name Change

The city of Greenville is apparently upset with my using the word Greenville in my blog "without proper licensing to use said title." The city has threatened to withhold from me my portion of the stimulus package targeted for Greenville bloggers unless I pay the licensing fee. Instead I've decided to change the name to A Day's Drive from 'Round Here. The new address will be http://www.addfRoundHere.wordpress.blogspot.com/myspace-facebook.twitter. (All of which are soon to owned by Google.) All references to Greenville in previous posts will be replaced by this symbol , (assuming the color laudable lime green does not also threaten legal action).

Trailfest 2009 - April 25th & 26th

I've never made it this event, but it sounds like a good time. Trailfest is located in the quirky town of Hot Springs, NC. Both the Appalachian Trail and the French Broad River run through the middle of the town.

The festival features music, food, games, a chili cook off and some sort of duck race.

Distance from downtown Greenville: 96 miles.


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Blarney Bash

Slainte!

If you missed Return to the Green last weekend, Blarney Bash is coming up next Tuesday in front of Connelly's Irish Pub. The music is usually more classic rock than celtic but it's always a good time. And it features one of Greenville's best local bands, RetroVertigo.

Time: 4-10 PM

Distance from downtown Greenville: 0 miles.


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Augusta St. Haunted House?


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What's up with this place? It's located a block from Main Street between the SC Children's Theatre and Smiley's Acoustic Cafe, near the baseball stadium. It could be beautiful.

Distance from downtown Greenville: 0 miles.

Kaleidoscope Film, Food and Fine Arts Festival

If you'd rather take a drive to an event this weekend, Beaufort`s Kaleidoscope Film, Food and Fine Arts Festival occurs March 5-8th.

Beaufort is mainly known as the town where films such as the Big Chill and Prince of Tides, (among others) were filmed. Nick Nolte was even nominated for an Oscar for his role in Prince of Tides despite having the least realistic southern accent in the history of film.


Distance from downtown Greenville:
235 miles.


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