100 miles and Some Disappointing Stupidity

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I went out on a ride of a little over 100 miles the other day, in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Escarpment near my home.  It was a wonderful day to be out: just the right temperature and with only a few clouds in the sky.

I motor north to Pickens South Carolina and follow US-178 from there to SC-11, the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway.  I am enjoying the ride, but need to stop for a necessary break.  I decide that Keowee-Toxiway State Park picnic grounds would be a good choice.  

This is usually a quiet place to stop, but not today.  It is dead, because it is closed.  If I go in there, I might become infected, I guess. 

With what?  Something they are now saying is no worse than the common cold!   

Stupidity.  I think about hopping the gate and seeing whether I came down with anything. 


(No, I don't hop the gate.) 

Oh well, Ill go on further and find another place.  I hope I can wait a little longer. 

I continue on SC-11 to the Tamassee DAR School.  It is housed on a beautiful 110-acre campus with housing and other facilities for children without parents at home.  This facility has been open for around 100 years, serving children who have no other place to live.  They have a faith-centered program, including an early childhood learning center, an after school program, tutors, help for troubled kids, and they instill good citizenship and values.  In other words they have been building solid citizens from the children they serve. This is one of several DAR schools in the country. 

I noticed on their website, after I returned from my ride, that they are having to terminate many of their services because of a South Carolina lawsuit and new federal guidelines that require kids without parents at home to be placed in individual foster homes instead of group homes such as the DAR School that have been successful, reliable, and loving places where they can grow up in a stable environment -- and have done so for a hundred years.  

The lawsuit cites the fact that there are too few foster homes available in South Carolina, so, in response, they are making it impossible for the DAR School to continue to provide the very thing that is in short supply! 

Now these kids will be in fewer and less stable foster homes. This is stupidity with real consequences for these kids.  Government is damaging their futures. 

The nearby thrift shop run by the DAR School as also closed for the same reason Keowee-Toxiway Park is closed.  

So government has pinched off even more of the funding they so desperately need.  


I am not enjoying the ride nearly as much at this point.  Nevertheless, I stop at one of the picturesque places on the DAR campus, to view the Flat Shoals River from the bridge over it.  

I make my way to the river bridge for some pictures.

The view from the other side. 

Well, that is certainly a nice view of the river here.  I feel a little less tense, frustrated, and angry, having looked it over.  

Here are some pictures taken in November of 2009 of the buildings and sculpture on the campus.  

A nice place for kids, certainly.  


...but I still need to make a stop someplace.  

There are several man-made lakes in the Upstate of South Carolina, with almost unlimited opportunities to enjoy the water from the shore, from a boat, or even as a SCUBA diver.   

There are two nearby places to launch boats onto Lake Keowee (and that have rest rooms): Falls Creek Access Area, on Landing Road near 162 Fall Creek Church Road, Salem, SC 29676, and Fall Creek Access Area, directly to the east from 595 Shallowford Road (State Rd S-37-44), Salem, SC 29676. 

I decide to go to the first one.  As I near the turnoff, I spot the signs. 

Ahh.  Relief, soon.  

But wait.  What are those red tinged signs?   They look familiar, for some reason. 

...and what is that block of concrete there for? 

...and this sign in the road. 

...and more blocks of concrete. 

Oh, no.  Now what'll I do?

I stop for a few seconds, then dismount, walk through an opening at the end of the giant concrete blocks, and find the nearest natural restroom.

Relief, at last.

I get out my lunch and a bottle of water and eat in peace, there where no one was likely to come.  As I walk about, I take a better look at the red-edged signs.

Temporarily closed, eh?

This closure surely doesn't look temporary to me, what with the concrete blocks and the ROAD CLOSED sign embedded in the pavement.  I had gone into the forbidden zone, risking life and limb, apparently.

When I am sated, I pack up my tank bag, and go a mile or so to the other boat launch, the one to the east on  Shallowford Road.  I fully expect that I will find the same thing.

To my surprise, I find this:

An empty parking lot.  There is one pickup truck with an empty boat trailer and a single car.

The ramp is open with no warning signs in sight.

This must be a (the?) safe place in the park system.  I feel as though I can breathe freely here.  If someone had come along, I might even have risked getting less than 6 feet from him.

What freedom!  Right here in South Carolina -- at a park no less.

I spend a few more minutes savoring the view, the clean air, the beautiful sky, then start my motor and meander my way back home.   


I really did enjoy my time out, but the unreasonable restrictions are disappointing, unnecessary, and stupid. 

We have lost many of our freedoms in the just the last four or five weeks.  Our economic system has suffered a devastating blow because of mandatory closures.  The news people mostly support our downfall.



The leftists have succeeded in causing us deep distress that we may never recover from. 

...all in the name of protecting us from what amounts to the common cold. 


Maybe the next thing they'll take away is our scooters -- since they have no practical or necessary benefit in the eyes of the leftist bureaucrats. 


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