Driving The Ghost Road

The wife and I have just returned from another visit to Charleston, South Carolina. It has become our destination of choice for a quick get-away. She loves most any place with a beach, and I enjoy being around the ocean. The mix of sea, sand and history really appeal to us. The four-plus hour drive, however, might cast doubt on the “quick” part of the get-away.

Every trip, though, the drive has been monotonous. A good part of the drive is interstate, and travel by interstate is fine if time is your only consideration. But if you want to the actually get a feel for the places you pass through, you must leave the super-slab. As the late Charles Kuralt once remarked, "Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."

We decided to take a more meandering route back home, and see what small town, rural South Carolina held for those who were adventurous enough to visit. If you allow yourself to become immersed in the communities you pass through, if you read the signs, actually notice the homes… the actual drive can be so much more interesting.

We were prepared as we left Charleston to see the mundane and ordinary. Every place has those. We also were ready for the odd and unique. Most places have something to fit those categories. However, we were hoping to be surprised. We hoped to discover a thing, a place, a fact that made the whole side trip magically worthwhile.

One thing my wife and I do when we travel is read signs. Whether they be billboards, signs for churches and community events, road signs, they are all pieces to a larger puzzle. These are the things that provide depth and context to a community as you pass through. (In Walterboro, South Carolina last year, a sign at a convenience store advertised a free YooHoo chocolate drink with the purchase of two packs of Skoal chewing tobacco. I’d love to know if anyone took them up on that offer. Eewww…)

We shared a moment of time with communities named Givhans, Springtown and Ulmer. In one county, nearly every rural road was a lane - Happiness Lane, Huckleberry Hill Lane, Heaven’s Path Lane. Our favorite was Pumpkin Girl Lane. We stopped for a Coke at a gas station that looked pretty sketchy from the road, and wasn’t a lot better inside. But the woman behind the cash register smiled and wished us a “blessed day”. On a lonely stretch of rural South Carolina highway, we were passed by an SUV doing at least 80. They were around us and out of sight in 20 or 30 seconds. We had enough time to see their University of Tennessee tag on the front as they approached, and their Cherokee County, GA tag on the back as they sped off.

We left the two-lane road behind in the town of Bamburg, turning onto the four-lane US 301 for the drive back into Georgia and on to Statesboro. The adventure seemed over. For a couple of minutes.

We noticed an abandoned old motel on the highway. Sad, I thought. No business for it here. There was almost no traffic on the road, prompting the wife to wonder aloud why it was four-laned to begin with. Later, we did notice that the road itself looked pretty old. Must have been for lanes for a long time. Further south, where US 301 and 321 meet, then split, there were more abandoned businesses. In Allendale even more. Restaurants, truck stops, motels.

It finally sunk in… this had been one busy stretch of highway at some point in time. But now it was a shadow of its former self. Wifey called it a “ghost road”. And that’s what it is.

From Bamburg south to Statesboro, we saw one old business after another, closed up and left behind. Rusting, dilapidated ghosts of an era before the interstates, when travelers from the Northeast passed through on their way to Florida. When I-95 was opened through South Carolina and Georgia in the 1970s, the days were numbered for these motels and diners.

A little research after we got home confirmed our suspicions. Running from Delaware to Florida, US 301 had been one of the two main routes (along with US 1) from the Northeast to the Sunshine State. These communities we had driven through, and countless others along the route, had welcomed tourists, truckers and others on the long hauls north and south. Now, they were forgotten. Some, like Allendale, looked to have never recovered.

We took the back roads in hopes of finding something unique, unexpected. We hoped to discover something special, and we did. This one, though, is rooted is sadness and abandonment. These old motels and diners, many with broken walls and fallen signs, sit along the roadside as if waiting for the right time to awaken and come back to life. Certainly would be nice if some of them could.

To see pictures of some of these places, and to read more, check out these links…

Memory takes the back road

Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in Allendale

Mr. Gleck's Five Flavors Blog: Route 301

Old Paradise Restaurant and Motel - Screven County (also from Mr. Gleck)

All About My Pet Peeves

I stumbled across Common Errors In English by happenstance, and I felt right at home. My greatest pet peeves involve the often gross misuse of our English language. This wonderful site spells out the most common mistakes, explains their correct usages, and often provides deeper insight into how these errors arise. I love it!

Ohio State QB To Transfer TO GSU

Ohio State #2 quarterback (and Fort Valley, Georgia native) Antonio Hinton is expected to transfer to Georgia Southern and compete for the starting job. The announcement could come as early as this weekend. His coach at Peach County High, Rance Gillespie, is now the offensive coordinator at GSU.

This kid came out of high school with huge potential, and was expected to become a star at Ohio State. Columbus, Ohio is a long way from Fort Valley, and last year Hinton got into off-the-field trouble. It looks like he's trying to make his situation better by coming back to Georgia, being close to family and reuniting with Gillespie. He was red-shirted in 2006, so he's still got three years of eligibility remaining. Hinton is a dual-threat quarterback, and could fill the hole left by Jayson Foster.

PETA - A Scary Look At Who They Really Are

A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to meet David Martosko of the Center for Consumer Freedom. I intended to write about it then, but as per normal, time got away from me. It was most certainly an eye-opening meeting. His job is basically to monitor groups like PETA and the Humane Society of the U.S. (or HSUS), with the goal of promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choice.

(Please note: the Humane Society of the United States is not the same thing as your local community humane society. For example, the Humane Society of Savannah / Chatham County, GA clearly states on their web site: We receive NO money from any other animal welfare organization including the Humane Society of the United States! For more info on how local societies distance themselves from this fringe organization, just check out this Google search.)

Mr. Martosko was speaking before a crowd consisting of mostly livestock producers. I'm not in that line of work, and was curious why he was chosen to address the group. Within 30 seconds, it made perfect sense. He held the audience captivated for an hour, explaining the threat those groups pose to American animal agriculture. That's the production of meat, by the way.

Through the use of video and audio clips and literature from PETA and HSUS, he exposed their dirty little secrets. They want to shut down the production of meat in this country. They want to forbid the owning of pets. They want to end all medical research involving animals. They want to legislate their bizarre, twisted sense of morality. PETA killed more than 19,000 animals between 1998 and 2007, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture.

Some of the more bizarre quotes to come out of these groups, as well as quotes from other folks about these groups, can be found at these links...

PETA

HSUS

Environmental Working Group

Greenpeace

My personal favorite quote comes from PETA president Ingrid Newkirk, in the September 1989 issue of Vogue Magazine...

"Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it."

Well isn't that nice. The lives of lab rats are more important than human life. Wow.

I can't even begin to share all the things Mr. Martosko brought to light. Many can be found at the Center's web site (linked above). The one thing he said that hit home was this... His organization has made a tremendous number of claims, some certainly outrageous ones. But they freely present their evidence to back them up. More importantly, they've never been taken to court over any of their claims. If they were not true, why wouldn't these organizations sue? They don't sue, because they know the claims are based in truth.

I'd encourage all of you to check into it with an open mind.

As for me, I'm still a member of PETA - People Eating Tasty Animals.

GSU Alum Curry NBA's Newest Head Coach

Michael Curry, a star on the court for Georgia Southern and later a role player for several NBA teams, was named head coach of the Detroit Pistons yesterday. Curry's NBA career ran from 1993 to 2005, and he'd been an assistant coach in Detroit prior to becoming head coach. Congrats to another successful Eagle!

Think He Votes Democratic?

Asked by some newspaper whether the Congress should continue funding for Public Television and NPR, National Public Radio, this fellow gave a classically idiotic answer.

"Congress should continue paying for it because if they don't, the taxpayers will end up paying for it."

Yikes! Makes me wonder two things...

First, did the folks at the newspaper catch this, and decide to print it anyway?

And second, how many people reading the newspaper agreed with him?

(Thanks to TaxingTennessee for the heads up.)

Zero-Tolerance Insanity #6

A ten-year-old student in Winchendon, Massachusetts was suspended from school last week for bringing a Memorial Day souvenir to school. Bradley Geslak, a fourth-grader at Toy Town Elementary School, was given two empty rifle shell casings from blanks used during a Memorial Day ceremony. He was given the casings by a uniformed veteran at the ceremony. Bradley's dad and both of his grandfathers are veterans, so the ceremony and the souvenirs meant something to him.

Unfortunately, Bradley brought one of the shell casings to school, where he was promptly suspended for violating the school's zero-tolerance policy for weapons. The shell casing was confiscated and apparently won't be returned.

So a ten-year-old now has a weapons-related suspension on his record. The school's principal, Deborah Peterson, as well as Superintendent Brooke Clenchy, should be ashamed.