North Carolina, South Carolina and now Georgia

When I last wrote we were just arriving in Marston, North Carolina, which is near Pinehurst and where we were meeting up with Fran’s former boss and a couple of co-workers for the July 4th weekend.
We had a great time visiting with our friends and lounging around their pool.  The highlight of the weekend for me was playing one of the Pinehurst golf courses.  If you are a golf fan then you know that the U.S. Open men’s and women’s tournament was just held here on course number 2.  As my skills are not up to that level, and number 2 is closed for repairs, we played number 3.  This is a much shorter course and more in line with how I play.  I have not played in many months, and generally do not play 18 holes, so this was a challenge for me.  Although I did not shoot below 100, I did play the entire 18 holes on one ball, so I take that as a major accomplishment.  It was a beautiful day for golf and I had a great time.  Following golf we met up with the rest of our group for lunch on the patio of the Pinehurst clubhouse, which overlooks the 18th green of course number 2.
Here are some pictures of our visit with our friends:
  It is 5 o’clock somewhere!
Fran and her former co-workers
  The whole group.

While in the area we took a drive to Fayetteville, where Fort Bragg is located, to see the Airborne and Special Forces Museum.  We actually visited two museums as there is an 82nd Airborne museum on the base and a much nicer, and larger, Airborne museum in downtown Fayetteville.  While at the 82nd museum we ran into “Larry the Cable Guy” who was visiting.  Not sure what his visit was all about but he had a large entourage which included local TV news crews.
Here are pictures from the nicer Airborne museum in downtown Fayetteville:
Entrance area
  Vietnam helicopter exhibit.
This museum is free and the exhibits are just fantastic as they are life size visuals of equipment and events.


We had a great visit with our friends.  After Pinehurst we moved on to Roebuck, South Carolina, which is just outside of Spartanburg.  While here we caught up on our chores but did take a drive into nearby Greenville, South Carolina.  What a beautiful city.  It has a very nice restored Main Street that is tree lined with many shops and restaurants.  They also have a small historic district and a beautiful park, Falls Park, in the downtown area  We stopped to walk through the park and then have lunch at a French bistro that overlooks the falls.
The falls at Falls Park
They have a walking bridge, Liberty Bridge, in the park that is a curved suspension bridge.  Pretty cool!
Lunch at the bistro,
We have now moved to Helen, Georgia, which is in the mountains of north Georgia.  We will be here for a week.
Route: From Marston we picked up US 1 to US 74 to Interstate 485 to Interstate 85 into Roebuck, South Carolina.  From Roebuck we took Interstate 85 to highway 17 into Helen, Georgia.