Tuesday, April 14, 2015

April 14, 2015 Greenwood State Park: Terra Emeralda

There is just a short nature trail here, a loop behind camp ground number 1.  It is raining and warm as I enter a green world.   Emerald, sage, vert, verdigris, malachite, beryl, aquamarine, chartreuse, lime, kelly, olive, Mittler's green, Prussian green, bronze green, Lincoln green,yellow green, grass green, forest green, spinach green, moss green, pine green, Nile green, jade, viridian.  I am in Terra Emeralda, the trees fleshed out with new leaves, the ground covered with new green muscadine vines.  The light filtered through the dark clouds illuminates this verdant world.  I search the roots of fallen trees for arrowheads and find only a large brown frog.  I can imagine the early settlers of the town of Greenwood naming this place "green wood".

The birds sing:  jeepers, jeepers, jimmy, jimmy, leave her, leave her, we do it, we do it, like the motto of the CCC who built the structures in 1938, "We can take it".  There is a small fishing pier with names carved on its rails: " Aika, Jason, Zornies were here." Picnic tables are nearby.  The lake is as green as the woods.

I visit the Drummond Center and the Ranger takes me to open the doors onto the stone terrace and an astonishing view of the lake.  The is a small photographic museum here devoted to the State Parks, the CCC and the people who had lived on the land as share croppers or owners.

I came up from Columbia on I-26 West, took exit 74 onto highway 34 through Newberry and continued 25 miles over Bush River, Beaver Dam Creek, Little River and the green Saluda.  There are blue, purple, pink and white ragged robins in the fields, red clover, then through the little town of Silver Street and took a right on hwy 702, then two miles to the park.  Near the entrance, there is a "Grand Daddy Greybeard" in full bloom, dripping a beard of white blossoms.

Leaving, I continued on 702 until I saw a sign that said a Piggley Wiggley was 3 miles down  Wilson Bridge Road on a sharp left.  Turned left on Cambridge Road which took me immediately to the Piggley Wiggley in the town of Ninety Six. Here I visited   the D and L Flower Shop in an old building, next door to Linda's Then Again and in front of Hairidice Styling Salon.

I went back on Cambridge Rd (246) until I met hwy 72 which took me through the edge of Greenwood and over the lake.  I had lunch looking out over the water at the Subway in the Sunoco Gas Station, the best Subway view in the world, where a man sailed up in his small boat, cut off his Evinrude and mounted the steps to the Subway (just like driving up in a car) and got his bag lunch to go back into the boat.

Hwy 72 continues on to Clinton where I took Hwy 56 which crosses I-26 again.  The sun is breaking out though the big white clouds as I arrive home.


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