For a long time I wanted to visit Edisto Gardens and had been waiting for an excuse. I just woke one morning with no particular plan in mind and decided to find Edisto Gardens - even though there would be precious little in bloom at this time of year. I jumped into my SUV alone this time and roared off following my GPS to a vague address that I had pulled off the internet for the gardens. Anybody that knows me and my GPS will realize that when I say vague, I'm lucky to end up on the correct side of the state let alone the right address. I have an elderly TomTom unit that takes forever to lock onto satallites - I'm talking about ten minutes at times. Then it gets me to the general area before becoming somewhat of a muddle on the specifics, frequently misplacing my location by a few streets. It's pretty awful for accuracy but I own it, I paid for it and I've been using it for several years. I shall continue to use it until it ceases to function despite the inaccurate maps, the fact it won't now speak to me unless the temperature is over 80F and the fact it can't find its way out of a haystack at times. Why? Because I own it and it works well enough, most of the time. I don't think the money spent on a slight improvement would be worth the expenditure. It frequently is not.
So I arrived at Edisto Gardens and had a very pleasant wander around. It was chilly so I am not surprised that there was a little fogging on my lens for the photo below as I'd just taken it out of my warm camera bag. There really isn't an awful lot to say - it was a cool Sunday at the beginning of January and there really wasn't much to see though it was a very pleasant walk. I walked around a little of Orangeburg town and while I could see that it was by no means a prosperous town I never felt unsafe.
After the meal I meandered around for a while, looking at the non-existent flowers and plotting my return - in spring when the flowers will be in bloom.
On the way back was where all the fun started. For some reason unknown to anybody bar the people that make my TomTom, it navigated me back through backroads. One thing I noticed was that as soon as I crossed the county line into Lexington, all the backroads became dirt tracks. I ended up driving 30 miles along nothing but dirt tracks, which was quite interesting and very slow. As I said - there are enough reasons to dump that GPS but it always gives me such interesting routes that it could still be worth keeping. And thus ends the few hours in Orangeburg.
So I arrived at Edisto Gardens and had a very pleasant wander around. It was chilly so I am not surprised that there was a little fogging on my lens for the photo below as I'd just taken it out of my warm camera bag. There really isn't an awful lot to say - it was a cool Sunday at the beginning of January and there really wasn't much to see though it was a very pleasant walk. I walked around a little of Orangeburg town and while I could see that it was by no means a prosperous town I never felt unsafe.
I wandered around and found a pond not far from the road, where I stood and watched the ducks paddling around. There was quite a lot of birdlife visible. I didn't have my long lens with me or I might have been tempted to take close-ups of the birds, it being a reasonably bright day.
Wandering away from the pond, I wandered alongside a small rivulet. This was very close to the highway so I didn't spend much time there. I did, however pause for lunch. I actually stopped at the only eatery that seemed open and that was Maurices Gourmet Barbecue. I had heard some very negative things about Maurice's restaurant chain. I had heard that the owner would have considered the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan to be a dangerous liberal. In fact this particular restaurant was quite pleasant and the staff were a 50:50 mix of white and black. Clearly for this particular venue the reputation was wrong. The meal was pleasant but nothing stunning.
After the meal I meandered around for a while, looking at the non-existent flowers and plotting my return - in spring when the flowers will be in bloom.
On the way back was where all the fun started. For some reason unknown to anybody bar the people that make my TomTom, it navigated me back through backroads. One thing I noticed was that as soon as I crossed the county line into Lexington, all the backroads became dirt tracks. I ended up driving 30 miles along nothing but dirt tracks, which was quite interesting and very slow. As I said - there are enough reasons to dump that GPS but it always gives me such interesting routes that it could still be worth keeping. And thus ends the few hours in Orangeburg.