A Quick Tour of Spartanburg with My Parents

Yesterday we went down to Spartanburg with my mom and dad.  They wanted to see our fixer-upper that we bought in May, and while we were there, also see the campus of Spartanburg Methodist College.  So that's what we did.

My cousin Judy also wanted to see the house and to see Mom and Dad (Judy is the wife of my mom's cousin Bob), so she drove down from the Charlotte area to join us.  And then, before we left each other, we had a wonderful late lunch at City Range Steakhouse, which despite it's name, does have vegetarian and pescatarian options.

I wondered about the wisdom of giving a house tour at this point in our renovations, this very early point before we've done very much.  But seeing the house at this "before" stage will make our renovations even more impactful (she says with hope in her voice).  The house impressed the visitors with its size--much bigger than people thought from the pictures.  My mom had been expecting a neighborhood that was much seedier, so the solidness of the neighborhood impressed her.  Everyone agreed that this screened porch was the place where they would spend a lot of time:

realtor's picture of screened porch

The campus also impressed my family members.  I was surprised to find that the door to the Ellis building was open.  That's the building where I have my office and where, so far, all my classes have been located.  We peeked into a classroom, but I didn't take them up to see my office.  It felt too much like we were trespassing, even though the door was open--plus, my locked office should be behind a locked outer door to the office space, so why make us all walk up the stairs?

As we left the building, which is at one end of the campus, we looked up the street to the rest, which I described.  We also had a bit of a driving tour as we drove to a different exit.

When I describe the school as a small, liberal arts college in South Carolina, my mind goes to my own alma mater, Newberry College, a much smaller campus, at least when I attended.  Like many a campus, both schools have an open space of lawn, around which are dorms and classroom buildings.  But SMC has another space of lawn at the other end of campus.  It's not as large as a state school--it's no UVa or UNC-Chapel Hill.

After our delightful late lunch, we drove back to our main home in Arden, NC.  Even though we finished lunch at 2:00, we had a late supper at 6:30, a supper of sandwiches.  I went to bed before the sun was down, at 8:15.  Music Week has been wonderful, but I am tired!