South Carolina, especially in the Piedmont area, has many parks and shared public areas. Late this morning, we headed to a mixed use area and the Riverwalk. It's a beautiful area with homes, newer apartments, restaurants, wine bars, and the Riverwalk. Lined with huge old trees--poplars, sweet gum, white gum, silver maples, the Riverwalk follows a section of the Catawba River. The entire river is 250 miles beginning in Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. While on our walk, Bob saw yellow river cooters (turtles), Great Blue Herons.
The walk was beautiful and just what we needed--some exercise. It's obvious that Maryann and Robert are in much better shape than we are. It was getting warm, and, obviously, it was very humid. Colorado, like Arizona, is very dry, so the humidity was getting to us.
All our excursions took us through some beautiful tree-lined country roads. We saw mansions, shacks, trailers, farmhouses, lots of property on almost all of our drives. I found the area of Rock Hill, which was quite expansive, very interesting.
South Carolina has A LOT of really big churches--EVERYWHERE--and car washes. Very interesting. Maryann and Bob's home is located in an area close to shopping but far enough away that it seems more country, except that it is a housing development. there's a pool and her neighborhood is cute. Behind her house is a mansion, separated from her property by a greenbelt of mature trees. I am so impressed with the work that both Bob and Maryann do on their yard. Every morning, we'd have our coffee outside and do some bird watching. Bob has a program that can call in the birds. We saw hummingbirds, cardinals, Southern wrens, aplenty. It was fun to watch them flit from tree to tree or fence to tree.
Bob and Maryann have a wood carving of a parrot in their backyard. They have a Margaritaville theme--"it's 5:00 Somewhere. There is a local carver in the area whom they befriended, so we stopped by his place to talk to him and check out his animals and if he had any new projects in the works. This guy was so interesting--obviously well-read--and full of ideas. He talked about his next project which was raising a special breed of French chicken (Bresse). Yes, it involved some animal cruelty in the late stages before butchering, but I've heard of the type of chicken he spoke of and the process is pretty complicated. He seemed to know a lot about it and it really does sound like a great business enterprise (except for the animal cruelty part--which involves putting the chicken in a very small cage to limit their moving). He spoke of other aspects of his life that were really fascinating--I'd love to take him out for a beer. It was an interesting excursion.
After the Riverwalk, we decided to have lunch. Since we were in South Carolina, of course we had to have barbecue. So we headed to the Dixie Pig which shares its parking lot with a laundromat. Looking at the sign, it seemed like it was the Dixie Pig laundromat and not a barbecue restaurant. It was a hole-in-the-wall joint (aren't all good BBQ restaurants) and not a chain, but it had been highly recommended and it wasn't far away.
Holy Moly! To begin with, the menu, though not extensive, was one that made a decision on what to order very difficult. There were at least 5 items I couldn't decide between (among). I ended up ordering and practically inhaling a BBQ prime rib and pork belly sandwich on an onion roll. With that, I got a side of mac and cheese. Maryann ordered a pulled pork sandwich, fried corn, and fries; Bob W got fried-catfish which came with BBQ hash, a hush puppy, and fries. My Bob got pulled pork, cole slaw, a salad, and fried corn (on the cob). Everything (except my mac and cheese was scrumptious. I'm salivating here just thinking of it. Since we seated ourselves in front of a big illustrated dessert sign, we had to order dessert. Bob F refrained since he's been on a low sugar and carb diet after a high A1C at his last doctor's visit. Bob W ordered a peach cobbler, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It looked delicious and was big! Maryann ordered peanut butter pie (I tried it and it was one of the silkiest peanut butter pies I've ever had--and definitely deliciously rich. I love banana cream pie, so it was an easy choice for me to order the banana cream pudding. When I say it was the best banana pudding I'd ever had, I'm not lying or exaggerating in the least. It was creamy, full of banana and vanilla flavors that were not artificial. The dollop of whipped cream at the top was almost enough for me and there were some pie crust crumble at the bottom of the dish. Oh boy--did I crave it the next day, and the day after, and even now--well, you get the idea.
We returned to Waxhaw. Our last trip there was on a Monday and many shops were closed, so today we went into a number of shops. I also returned to the antique store for my $5 Buffalo check tin container.
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