The Carolinas.

This morning Penny and I took off early (like 6 am) for a few days in the Carolinas. After a breakfast stop at, you guessed it, Cracker Barrel, we started to notice that the air in our vehicle wasn't quite pushing cold air. To be honest, it felt more like someone was just breathing on us. We stopped at an auto a/c place in Jacksonville, Fl. to get it checked. The guy there gave us the predictable bad news, it's a $500 job and it will take like four hours to do. We said thanks, but no air will do us fine for the rest of the trip. We ended up going to our first stop, Greenville, South Carolina. Although it was miserable without the air, we made it, sunburned left arm and all (from holding my arm out the open window for 5 hours). Greenville is a beautiful place. Very hilly. The locals call the region "the upstate" because of the approximity to the Appalachian Mountains. There is a beautiful downtown with a very active arts community, lots of cool waterfalls, restaurants, bars, vacant storefronts and all the other things that most cities show off and also try to hide. There seems to be a lot of culture and pride for this community. The interesting thing about Greenville is it's small town feel with big city flare; there's a really amazing state of the art baseball stadium (complete with a Green Monster!) that hosts a Boston Red Sox minor league team; a huge civic area that holds thousands and a ghetto that can hand with any city in America. Tomorrow we will explore the area a little bit more and then take off for the Carolinas largest city, Charlotte, home of the Panthers (NFL) and Bobcats (NBA). Check again for updates.