A Brit in the US

A long time ago, I thought I’d been to a National Park called Chimney Rock. Thus, I decided to take me, myself and I on an outing to Chimney Rock. It transpired in the end that it wasn’t Chimney Rock but Ceaser’s Head (which has probably featured in another entry here). Having said that, I went off to Chimney Rock. As my normal workday starts at 4AM with my alarm I figured I could leave at a more relaxed 6AM and be there in time to spend the better part of the day wandering around with my camera. Thus I started out at probably about 8:30AM, going on 9AM. Funny how that kind of thing happens... The drive up was pretty easy - aside from my GPS wanting to route me along some crazy route rather than taking the most obvious route via the interstate. After a swift kick up the GPS’s arse, it decided to give me the route I wanted. That took me to the smaller roads around Lake Lure. Now Lake Lure looked wonderful. In fact it looked like a picture postcard. It also looked EXPENSIVE. Needless

Jerry rang. Apparently there was a catastrophic hurricane on the way. “Let’s go and see Givhans Ferry State Park before it gets destroyed together with Charleston”. Having little better to do, I leapt into my recently converted schoolbus and started the drive to Givehans ferry for the weekend. I started out by visiting Day Star as I’d had an agreement that I could get my bus a full service while I waited. Anyway, I turned up and they had no time but by then my back wheel was smoking and it wasn’t smoking cigars! It transpired after a $260 bill than the brake was binding. That was something I’d already figured given the low top speed I was getting and the slow acceleration. After charging me $260 and spraying the caliper with a $3 can of PB Blaster I was on my way. I figured I’d gamble that the bus would be OK for the trip. So I went down to Givehans ferry through all the small towns in South Carolina. I have heard tows off the interstate are costly and as I was not 100% convinced t