We are in Gaffney, SC now. We have been slowly traveling up the east coast until we reached Myrtle Beach where we then headed inland towards Gaffney. The drive from Myrtle Beach to here was very different from our drive up the coast. As we moved away from the coast we passed hundreds of fruit/vegetable stands. As soon as you passed one you would start seeing signs for the next one. We are also starting to get into the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. Found a really good restaurant around Lexington, SC. It was called Lizards Thicket and they serve regional Southern home cooking. You order your meat and then get your choice of either 2 or 3 vegetables and bread with your meal. It was only $6.99 with 3 vegetables. They must have had 30 different vegetable dishes to choose from. I had collards and green beans with my fried chicken breast. If I ever went back there I would just have the vegetable plate as all the vegetables we tried were great.
Not too far down the road from Lizards Thicket was a a country market so we decided to go in for a visit. I was able to load up on fresh tomatoes, peaches and pink eyed purple hull peas. Alss got some peas they had frozen and some fresh country ham. One of the things I enjoy when traveling is going to farmers markets or country stores and getting fresh produce. It always taste better than what you get in a grocery store.
We had an appointment here to have the 2 year servicing done on our coach at the Freightliner Oasis site located here. We were in Gaffney last year to attend a class offered by Freightliner on the chassis and motor for our coach. That is where we found out about the Oasis network which is a group of businesses that have dedicated bays for servicing motor coaches. They also have staff that have been trained to handle motor coaches. We used one of the centers around Houston but were not real impressed with them, they really were more interested in dealing with the big trucks. The one here is at the location where they give the class and Bruce wanted to come back here for this servicing. Freightliner has a factory here and you can go tour it. Here in Gaffney they actually have spots for you to park your coach and attach to electric power so you don’t have to worry about food keeping cool in the refrigerator. You can actually spend the night there if you want but we elected to stay at the local KOA park since we had reservations there already. We just had to get up early to drive the 10 minutes to the service center.
As part of having our coach serviced we were having it weighed so they could make sure the tires were set at the right pressure. We needed to have the tanks (fresh water, grey and black tanks) as close to normal weight as possible. We emptied the grey and black water tanks. Our fresh water tank was carrying the last of our good well water from our old house. We had to contaminate it by putting in fresh water from the RV park. I guess it will be a long time before we have fresh well water again.
We had the servicing done on Friday and everything came back looking good. You think it is expensive to have your car serviced, have a motor coach done.
We decided to do some shopping and go to the movies while waiting on the servicing rather than waiting in the customer lounge area. We have been looking for an ice pick for about 3 months and have had no luck. We have checked numerous Bed, Bath and Beyond’s and Wal-Marts as we have been traveling. I have checked the gadget section of every grocery store I have been in since we have moved into the coach. We decided that ice picks are considered deadly weapons are are no longer sold to the general public. We have been considering going to a flea market to find an old one that we could clean up. There is an outlet mall in Gaffney and they had a kitchen store with two ice picks. The lady told me I am the first person to ever ask her for one. We have it now and will probably not have a need for it again.
The movie was not that great but it was something to do while killing time. After the movie we had a late lunch at FATZ, a cafe chain in the area. Next to the cafe is a water tower for the city. It is the most unique water tower I have ever seen and is apparently a tourist attraction for the area. I guess they are really proud of the peaches they grow around here. I have eaten a few of the real peaches and so far they have all been good.
Peach Water Tower
Water Tower
The Fatz Restaurant serves a style of cooking seafood named for the area of Calabash in South Carolina. It is a delicately seasoned, lightly breaded and fried fresh seafood. Also had chicken served in the same style.. Basically you make up a runny batter with milk, flour and seasonings. You soak the chicken or seafood in it before deep frying. It is a very light type of crust on the food, not as heavy as some types we have tried.
While at FATZ, Bruce and I got into an interesting discussion. They serve rolls with poppy seeds on them. From the poppy seeds on the rolls we got into a discussion on poppies and I then explained to Bruce how to harvest the opium from the poppies and process it. He is now wondering why I know that much about opium. He wanted to know what I had been doing on all those trips overseas. No actual experience, just book knowledge. About ten years ago I read a novel about a family involved in the opium trade in India during the Victorian time period. Very interesting look at that time period and the impact of opium on the familes.