South Carolina!

Last Thursday, I headed to South Carolina with Rach and her family to visit her brother and his family.  They had just had a baby, and we were planning on just "hanging out" and getting some quality family time in!

They live basically in the middle of nowhere, nestled somewhere between Anderson, SC and Greenville, SC.  The geography was kinda different from Kansas.  The rural area where they lived had a good amount of trees and forest, which was really cool.  Also random, but along the country roads you could find a $500,000 house nestled right next to a trailer park.  We actually saw this on a few occasions.  Odd....

3 out of the 4 total flights were delayed during the trip, which isn't too surprising, but we arrived in South Carolina around 1:00am Friday morning.  We had planned on getting in around 11:45pm, so the delay kinda stunk.  It was really eery getting off the plane and walking into an ENTIRELY EMPTY airport...

Creepy...

Training while I'm traveling is tough.  I don't travel often, so when I leave KC, my motivation for training is usually not packed with all my stuff.  Or maybe it's lost with other baggage... I was able to squeeze in a short easy run along the country roads.  I was really turned around and was having trouble getting my sense of direction, so I stayed fairly close to the house, and did some repeats on a nice country road with some rollers.

AAAAND that's all I did.  During the 5 day trip, I got one 45 minute run in.... Yeah, not so good... But I had fun! I already know I lost a little fitness due to my layoff, but I'm sure I will get it back after a few consistent weeks!

While we were there, we basically just lounged during the morning, and ventured out during the early afternoons!  Clemson University is about 25 minutes away, and Rach's bro is a project manager for one of the new buildings under construction.  We decided to meet him for lunch, and cruised around Clemson to check out an ACC school!

A quick peek at Clemson's football stadium

Slightly bigger than ol' Memorial Stadium at KU

I was really surprised to find out that Clemson is actually a fairly small school, with an enrollment around 15,000 students, which is less than half the size of KU.

Another little adventure had us going to Greenville, SC and checking out their downtown area!  There was a Main St drag, which contained tons of little shops and restaurants!  We stopped in a general store, and loaded up on some CANDY!!!

The candy section.  I consumed 2.15 lbs in a matter of a few hours.... 

After a short little jaunt (?) down the strip, we checked out a waterfall.  It was surprising to see, especially right in the middle of the downtown area.

Perfect nature photo, minus the suspension bridge

All in all, it was a great trip, and was really great to see Rach's family and kids (not Rach's kids...).  It was probably the perfect little getaway, especially right before my school semester starts and training REALLY begins for IM Kansas.

Now I'm quickly trying to get back in the flow of school, work, and training!

Thanks for reading!