Thursday, May 30th 2002

Weather:  rainy and humid on my drive thru  N. Carolina...Sunny & beautiful in S. Carolina.... high's in the mid 80's for both states

Total Miles To Date 824 miles

Money spent today:

90.00 Holiday Inn Express

28.50 for gas

Total Spent Today

$118.50

Total Spent To Date

288.01

Clearly the Holiday Inn Express is not the most economic way to go...$90 for a room is not something I will repeat again.

Up around 8am...watched some morning show TV, took a nice shower and got some free apple juice at the continental breakfast they offer.  (hey, if I'm paying that much for a room, I might as well use it).  

9:40am On the Road Again (bad reference as per BS)...A very boring drive...nothing to note here, except that it's pouring on this leg of the trip

12:30 Cross into South Carolina and surprise, surprise...here comes the sun....and excuse me, isn't Georgia the peach state....Why are there so many side of the road peach stands?....wait can this be....yes, it's true...a combination peach stand / fireworks store....that's what everyone needs.

1:40 arrive at My Aunt and Uncle's house in Simpsonville, SC...it was nice just to relax after a non eventful drive.

4:30 my uncle gets home from work and we all go to downtown Greenville, SC...yeah, I know what you're thinking....but surprisingly enough, it's a really cool town.  This town is the way TV shows portray cool small towns that you think never exist.  Downtown Greenville is basically a strip, but with nice restaurants and boutique type stores.  It's a very young town with a lot (I repeat, a lot) of beautiful blonde women...well, I guess, welcome to the south....

Now, right in the middle of the strip is a little inlet that leads to a little park.  Every Thursday night there's a live cover band (not bad, but not great) and the local radio stations and sponsors set up tents alongside the beer vendors which then pretty much everyone in town come and hangs out....It was really quite quaint.  Once again, can I say how many beautiful  blondes are down here....

So, my aunt, uncle and I went to an outdoor cafe on the strip and had some dinner and then proceeded to walk around town before the concert started.  THIS IS THE CLEANEST TOWN I HAVE EVER SEEN.  I might as well be on the set of Dawson's Creek (not that I watch that crap).  

Anyway, after the concert which wasn't bad (a nice assortment of songs from Barry White to Van Halen), we, as well as pretty much everyone in town, went to the local ice cream store across the street...Now this place was mobbed...They also have a unique way of serving ice cream.  You select your flavor and your toppings.  They slab out the ice cream onto a board and place the toppings on the ice cream.  They then use spatulas to mix the ice cream and the toppings before they put it in the cone of your choice...a very time consuming method, but it works and apparently people like it by looking at the line.....

Anyway, on the other side of town was the older people concert (now, when I say other side of town, I mean 2 NYC blocks away).  This concert was more oldies oriented with the oldies radio station present as well as wine vendors....people brought lawn chairs and stuff like that, but I didn't stay for that show.

10pm  Came back to the house and the three of us chatted for a couple of hours and off to bed I go....

I can't wait for tomorrow.....Atlanta...hopefully take a tour of Coca Cola and CNN (damn Rudi  isn't back from assignment- only Bret will understand) 

notes:

Scariest thing I saw today:  

People waiting outside the gun shop right before 10am waiting to get in (I guess their 7 day waiting period was over)

Radio Promotion that I would never do, but I wish I could go to:

The Yoo-Hooters contest....basically, a wet t-shirt contest where instead of water, they douse you with Yoo-Hoo...The winner gets tickets to see Green Day/Blink 182

Would you stop at a gas station named "Mr. Waffle"

Jason, thanks for noticing I was gone..

Emily, sorry I didn't call you to tell you I was alive

Joanna, I'm not mad at you

Lou, what do you want?

Total Miles Traveled Today 

245 miles