Talk about a crazy couple of days! Needless to say I have had my fill of driving, traffic, interstates and rain from Virginia to South Carolina!
What a nightmare! I was so exhausted from driving and dealing with terrible roads, awful traffic and every rain storm in three states I was quite fried when I arrived at the hotel in Greenville SC. I will say that my reward for driving through the insane weather, which nearly kept me from going into North Carolina due to a nearly flooded bridge, was a beautiful rainbow when the sun broke through the clouds!
I was a little sad that I was so delayed in my arrival time though, I had been told that Greenville was a really cool place to check out and explore and since I had arrived long after it was dark and with the amount of work I had to get done that night I knew I wasn’t going to be able to swing going out to explore that night. However, an artist is never defeated! So for my morning workout I decided I was going to drive to downtown Greenville and go for a run, that way when I was done I could walk around and photograph to my heart’s desire!
I am so glad I did too! I always said, long before leaving on this trip, that if I were to ever find myself living on the east coast I would settle in North Carolina. Now I have decided that anywhere in the Carolinas would be a good place for me to settle down. I say that because Greenville looks as if it was created for people like me! As I was walking down the main section of “downtown” I noticed that a good portion of the river front was a combination of downtown Peoria, IL. and riverfront Richmond, VA.
Nearly every river front shop was an art studio, nearly every medium of art you could imagine. There were photography studios, jewelry galleries, cooking schools, painting studios, “pin up” art galleries and nearly on every corner were coffee bistros.
If you are artistically inclined at all this would be a cool place for anyone to check out, even if you aren’t inclined but can appreciate the arts or a true lover of coffee…this is the place to visit. Though if you are going to visit downtown can be a little tricky to find so just search for the Marriott Courtyard Plaza and it will basically take your right to it. What I love most about just walking around with my camera is not only being able to capture the beauty of the locations I am able to visit but I am also able to observe life as it happens.
I feel like too often we, as people, get wrapped up in the day-to-day and don’t pay attention to anything outside of our own little bubble which is one reason that I enjoy going out and exploring so much. Because this is my own time to just experience life, to see life in the different cities and towns I have visited, to see the little details of culture that comprise that area and how every town or city carries themselves in a manner that is unique only to them.
I have spent most of my time on the interstate to Virginia and back. Very little time was spent traveling the highways of America and more in the pass lane interstates. Traveling from Greenville, SC. to Augusta, Ga. making my way across SC Hwy 20 and Hwy 71. What a difference it makes to be taking the highways verses the interstate! I prefer this style of travel because traveling the highways you are able to SEE America and not just drive past it all. Even though I was still driving past it, I felt like I was more a part of the scenery rather than just riding past it all wiz past the window.
What I did see past, on and all around my window was some serious rainfall. So serious that when I finished my run this morning (yes I am the crazy kid running down the road in the pouring rain to get my workout in) my phone alerted me of a weather advisory for flash flooding! If you were weary of traveling in crappy weather that kind of warning would make anyone cringe…thankfully I am not usually weary about traveling in bad weather situations, so we were good!
Countless times though I would look to the side of the road and see massive flooding of pastures, low dips in the ground that would gather water, storm drains gushing rain water like an open faucet and what were once contained lakes had flooded over the banks and rose to concerning levels.
Going into my fourth state with this campaign (Tenn., N.C., S.C. and Ga.) I am definitely feeling more like I know what I am doing, before I left as if I was scrambling to get my barrings but now I have a lot more confidence in my abilities.
Stay safe out there if you are caught in this crazy weather!
Traveling Photographer Out!
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