Greenville, SC - Day 38

On the Blue Ridge Parkway

Raining this morning as we rolled out of Asheville through some of the Biltmore Forest (did not get to see the largest home in America - the Biltmore Estate, built by George Vanderbilt and now used for lodging and functions) - the contrast between the homes and country club surrounding the chateaux could not have been more jarring with some of the impoverished homes within a few miles. The Blue Ridge Parkway was beautiful in the mist and rain - the colors are absolutely at their peak! Over a mile of climbing today across 97 miles including up Caesar's Head - a rocky outcropping that the native Cherokee thought looked like Julius Caesar (ok, that's not at all correct). Couldn't see much today with the fog, but once we got below that it was still pretty looking out over our last state - South Carolina! Ascended about 1000 feet to the border and then down nearly 2000 so that was a good trade. My attitude toward hills has changed - it's not about the length, it's the grade - 1000 feet elevation change? but 7% grade? - no problem - just spin it up... As long as I can stay in the saddle we're good - and very few hills have grades equal to or more than 12% for any length of time...

It's fascinating that most of the churches as we made our way across the country had funny fall puns like 'Fall for Jesus' and 'Leaf it to Jesus' etc. on their signs but in KY and TN it was more 'Get Right with God Before Judgement' and 'Are people going to heaven because of you?' (which is troubling in some ways - I mean yes, serial killers should be encouraged attend church but still...). There seem to be more Southern Baptist churches than houses in many areas...

Greenville County was established in 1786 after a treaty with the Cherokee ceded the land in the area to the white settlers in 1777. The small town of Pleasantburg was incorporated as Greenville City which rapidly became a center for the cotton trade and then textiles. More recently, Greenville has become more of a tech center and has poured money into revitalizing the river area downtown (where we are staying - Lululemon, etc. - and of course ice cream!). It's the fourth-fastest growing metro in the nation with about 400,000 in the area.

My legs are just tired - tomorrow is 117 miles, but at least the vertical isn't as bad... I've given up on speed - it's just about finishing - which I intend to do... three days to go!