There are so many wonderful places to visit in the world. There are places even locally that the locals just know and ignore. They pass them every day but nobody has ever documented them. This is a crying shame as many are just vanishing before everybody's eyes.
A few weeks ago, I went on a trek with my good friend Glendoria. We went down to Blackville. I'd been on a hunt for Menonites and indeed I found some. Out of respect I took no photographs of them. I did, however, find that Blackville was quite interesting. I don't know anything about Blackville other than it's a very quiet town and the day we were there it seemed to be almost dead.
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| Abandoned and gutted building in Blackville, SC |
Above is the dead center of Blackville. This is the building I first noticed when I arrived, standing there gaunt. I've done my best to make this photo look old-style
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| Abandoned filling station, Blackville SC |
Not far away was this lovely abandoned filling station. What impressed me greatly was that all the windows were intact and that the few things that had been left inside were still inside. There was no apparent vandalism nor theft. Mind, in an area in which Mennonites live, their pious nature probably rubs off beneficially upon the local population.
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| Burnt-out cottage, Blackville, SC |
Still in Blackville was this lovely burnt-out cottage. It's clearly quite small and a home for either a single person or a very small family. Having said that, this is probably the kind of cottage that the early pioneers and the pilgrims would have had several families sleeping in.
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| Yard full of cars, Blackville, SC |
Still in Blackville, I found a yard full of old cars. This was not some redneck's yard full of broken-down cars that have been obtained for nothing in order to strip parts out to sell or to use. This appears to be somebody's prized collection of old cars. Many were in the open but quite a lot were under cover and clearly under some form of restoration. Whoever owns this lot certainly loves cars and has a collection from all eras.
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| More old cars in the yard in Blackville, SC |
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| Old cars under cover in Blackville, SC |
As can be seen from the two above photos, the individual owning this lot really has a passion for cars. Sadly, I never got a chance to meet the owner as I was only in Blackville for a few hours on a mission to meet and talk with Mennonites.
I did find Mennonites and they were very pleasant people. They were very guarded because I suspect they were afraid of being treated as a tourist attraction. Conversations with them were like a chess match, as my friend Glendoria noted. It was an exercise in manners and diplomacy. I really liked the Mennonites.
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| Abandoned house, Blackville, SC |
After bidding Blackville goodbye, I passed this abandoned home just outside the town itself. Glendoria was amused by the arrangement of empty bottles on the windowsill. Again - it's dilapidated and abandoned but not vandalized.
Our route was a bit circuitous. I would have liked to have shown a track of where I went but unfortunately Blackville and for about 50 miles all around is a deadspot for my phone. Thus, my Google Latitude tracker couldn't display my route. Glendoria's phone worked just fine as did my backup phone.
Essentially, we took backroads. I started in Lexington then drove to a spot between Dixiana and Pine Ridge to pick up Glendoria and then we drove through backroads down to Blackville then visited The Healing Well on the route back before doing a slight detour to Hampton so Glendoria could see her mother.
The whole area is absolutely phenomenal. It's littered with old abandoned buildings and businesses. Just my cup of tea for a real photo trek.
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