Shenandoah Band, Part II

Teresa and I took off again this past weekend and this time we ended up in Saluda, NC to see the band Shendandoah play again. This time they were playing in a nice place, but still in the middle of nowhere, called the Saluda Mountain Jamboree.

As only we can do, we take a 2 1/2 hour drive and turn it into 5 hours. We took the back roads all the way there, not hitting the freeway once. It is nice and we went thru some towns that we have never seen previously like Lula and Taccoa, Georgia we well as Clemson, SC.

We arrived mid afternoon and checked in to the Saluda Mountain Lodge. Don't let the name fool you, it is NOT a lodge but a nice motel on top of a big hill that was recently renovated to include some wood ceilings and nice paint that look like it COULD be in a lodge. However, it was a nice little place, very clean, so it worked out well.

The concert that evening was great, Shenandoah sounded great as always. A little local band called "Legends" played first so we had to suffer thru that a little bit. The crowd was nice and really got in to the music so the band seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot. The old dude, Bob, that owns the place kept going up on stage with Shenandoah, grabbing the mic, and shouting stuff to the crowd. Bob actually played the guitar on one song with them and sounded pretty darn good! We hung out with the band afterwards until midnight then they headed home, we went back to the "lodge" for the evening.

A couple of observations:
- We saw a pick-up truck with bullet holes in the tailgate, spooky.
- Super nice people run the place and the crowd was very nice.
- Kids were enjoying the concert with their parents, and nobody was 'text messaging' like the kids around here.
- They served beer and wine (in little bottle).. and people drank the wine straight from the bottle, like they were drinking beer. Cracked me up.
- Saluda is a cute, quiet town and Teresa and I would go NUTS living there.

Sunday morning we woke up, greeted by a beautiful day. We headed out to take the long way home again. First stop, Tryon, NC to have a little coffee and check out the nice little downtown area. We then headed off towards Etowah, Brevard and Highlands, NC. The last town, Highlands, is a nice town way up in the mountains, about 4,000 ft elevation. We looked at a couple of neighborhoods but realized it is a pure tourist town, dead during the winter and busy during the summer. Most homes there are owned by people from Florida who come up for the summer. That means EXPENSIVE! The weather was nice up there at 4,000 feet, the trees are just starting to bloom.

We headed home after Highlands and arrived last night, about 7 hours after we started out. Seems we set a personal record for how long a 2 1/2 hour trip can take us yet again.