And then we got lost in St George, SC

It’s been awhile since I blogged. We had a good, though strange, trip home. First, we got lost in the back roads of St. George, SC.  I wish I had taken pictures. This is the road (SC-15) I take to avoid I-95, which I hate with a passion. Got to St George about 10:30 am, a sleepy little town, pop. 2144, give or take. But today they were having a Festival and the main road (there is only one) was blocked off. It took a couple of tries to find a way around, but the important thing was that it led us wa-a-y into the innards of a small Southern town.

Eventually, with the help of several locals pointing us the right way, we made it back to SC-15.

It turns out, this was no ordinary (?) festival – it was the World Grits Festival! Apparently, this county (of which St. George is the County Seat) has the highest per capita consumption of grits in the world, so where else would you have the Festival?

It was complete with a Grits Queen and a warm grits bath (the Southern version of a spa). I wish I had stopped, parked the car and taken pictures, but didn’t because my Passenger (name withheld to protect the innocent) was completely freaked out by the time we got back to the main road.

Given current events, I should mention that most of the population of St. George is African-American - plus a smattering of what used to be called "poor white trash." We passed a lot of trailers, more in fact, than single family homes. But everyone we encountered was friendly and gracious, and if not for them, we would still be in St. George. I never felt nervous for a moment, and neither did the Passenger, who was only freaked out because  he thought I was going to stop and take pictures of him taking a grits bath.

The rest of the way was uneventful by modern travel standards, which means bumper-to-bumper traffic in Columbia and trying to check in for the night into the wrong hotel in Asheville.

It is so-o-o-o good to be home. If you have to leave East Tennessee, do it just before a late freeze at the end of March, and return the second week of April.  Ah-h-h-h…