Category: south carolina

Photo Post 8: The Sno-Cap at Sunset

Slightly omitted from the previous chapter was the reality that this trip to Columbia was not a complete success at all, especially on the wallet. The previous day, I had my tires rotated, and I then celebrated our arrival at the children’s museum by mounting the curb and blowing one of them. At first, I would have said that Columbia’s not a good city to be looking for obscure tires for a weird little Mazda on a Saturday afternoon, but then I got home and looked up my tires and learned that I was lucky to find one at all. Even the big Kaufmann Tires chain has only three in all of Georgia. Anyway, I drove around and around. Businesses started closing and I was hobbling around on the spare doughnut going from store to store looking for something to use. It took two and a half hours to find the tire, then I collected Marie and the baby, and hit the three restaurants that we wanted to see. Continue reading “Photo Post 8: The Sno-Cap at Sunset” →

Zesto, Columbia SC

Our readers in Atlanta are probably loosely aware that our small chain of Zesto stores is not entirely unique. Thanks to the wonderful work of Roadside Architecture, we know that there are Zesto restaurants, called, in some cases, “Zesto Drive-In,” all over the country, but they’re slowly but surely vanishing to time. The corporate chain, which launched in 1945, only lasted for a few years. A newspaper story on the wall of the store in West Columbia, SC claims that it disintegrated in 1951, but the Atlanta Zesto says that their one-time corporate owner, Taylor Freezer Corporation, didn’t halt operations for another four years. This left all of the original franchisees independent and able to grow, expand, or mutate at their own pace, no later than 1955. Continue reading “Zesto, Columbia SC” →

True BBQ, West Columbia SC

When people talk about the best children’s museums in the country, there are three cities among the hundred eighty-odd that are on everybody’s top ten lists: Indianapolis, Boston, and Columbia. EdVenture is only ten years old, but it has an amazing reputation. It is huge and sprawling and has indoor and outdoor exhibits and I have been wanting to take the baby for several months. I had decided that we’d go in February, because we always end up in South Carolina in February, and was really looking forward to finally seeing this place. It did not disappoint. Continue reading “True BBQ, West Columbia SC” →

Jackie Hite’s BBQ, Batesburg-Leesville SC

Back in the fall, when I circumnavigated South Carolina, the road took me through the small twin towns of Batesburg and Leesville, which are home to a pair of celebrated and famous barbecue shacks. (In case you didn’t read that awesome adventure, start here.) I knew before I started that I would only visit one of the two, so I flipped a coin and settled on Shealy’s, which turned out to be the better known and larger restaurant. I enjoyed Shealy’s a good deal, and as I read about their friendly rival, Jackie Hite’s, I knew that I’d have to make a return visit. Continue reading “Jackie Hite’s BBQ, Batesburg-Leesville SC” →

Circumnavigating South Carolina – part seven

So, at last, we come to the close to the story about my South Carolina trip. About 800 miles in two days, but there were still a few stops to make. The first two were in the town of Greenwood, home of Lander University. Only the second stop was planned; the first was irresistible. Continue reading “Circumnavigating South Carolina – part seven” →

Circumnavigating South Carolina – part six

In today’s chapter, the tragic story of a traveler not eating what he intended to eat.

I made terrific time from Manning to Orangeburg, because I-95 connects the two towns. Once upon a time, US-301 had crossed over Lake Marion as a high two-lane bridge, but when the interstate was built, they rerouted 301’s traffic between the cities onto it, and the pair of new bridges, two lanes north and two lanes south that were newly built. The old bridge is now a pedestrian fishing pier, and Lake Marion is itself quite beautiful. Continue reading “Circumnavigating South Carolina – part six” →