Our trip to Greenville didn’t start with a bang, but it certainly ended with one. I’m a big believer in not over-planning things. If you try to plot and plan for every moment of an excursion, you rob yourself of some freedom and get so locked into a schedule you feel you have to keep that you can’t take fun detours here and there. You end up like Clark Griswold…Dinky dies and Aunt Edna dies and your wife’s sketchy cousin bums $500 off of you you’ll never get back and you finally get to Wally World AND THE MOOSE OUT FRONT SAYS THEY’RE CLOSED! So, I just sort of decided on Friday, “hey, let’s go knock Greenville and Anderson off our list tomorrow.” Tucker and Gracie were ready for a big day, having gotten a bath and hair cut Friday morning, (you’ll see from the pic at the bottom of this entry that I was in need of both a bath and shave) so I just figured we’d roll out early and see what happened. That “fly by the seat of our britches” attitude did lead to some fun detours but there is a difference between having a lax agenda and being dumb…and I was the latter. When we walked in downtown Union, we didn’t encounter many people. We passed more folks in Spartanburg, but being on the Rail Trail most of them were engrossed in their walking and biking. In downtown Greenville there would be A LOT of people, A LOT of other dogs and A LOT of general distractions for Tucker and Gracie. “Oh crap,” I said, as we parked and I looked at the throngs of people I’d somehow not considered before leaving the house. For the first time, my wife Ashley (who is recovering from some surgery) was along. We decided it would be best if I walked some energy out of Tucker and Gracie before she joined us for a short portion of the walk. What I wasn’t sure of was how I’d even get through the early portion of this adventure. Walking them on their leashes would allow entirely too much leeway for them to wander off toward people, animals, vehicles and anything else that might catch their eye. So, I made the executive decision to walk them using their roadie riders. Those are basically harnesses that have about a two-foot strap on the back with a loop at the end that you put a seatbelt through (because you do not want giant dogs bouncing freely around a moving vehicle). I got them out of the car and DADGUM were they excited. Even with very little in the way of room to wander, I thought it best to get out of the crowded main drag until they’d calmed down, so I turned to a more open area that featured some benches, public restrooms and maybe a fountain or something (I was honestly too occupied to notice). Almost immediately we were spotted by a group of younger people who looked positively goo goo eyed at my dogs. I really wanted to stop and talk and let them pet Tucker and Gracie, but they were just too wide open. They were both in an exciting, unfamiliar place, sort of like the first time I visited New Orleans as an adult. When I went there I saw, you know, some stuff I don’t often see in Union. Let’s leave it at that. Their senses were likely on fire and it was literally all I could do to hang onto those roadie rider straps and keep them moving in the same direction at the same time. My back and shoulders were sore the next day from the workout they put me through. Since I’m doing a sort of travel log, I should probably have noted what street I was walking on, but I didn’t. There was a parking deck at one end and at the other, the road t-boned into another near a Wild Wing Café. We walked back-and-forth for a solid 20 minutes. I do remember passing a number of people dining on a sort of covered patio. Some of them waved or smiled and others just looked a hair nervous. Oddly, the larger of my two dogs (Tucker) is of no threat when you are eating. He will just sit patiently and stare at you with those big brown eyes that convey the message “if you love me you’ll give me a French fry” and you can’t resist and he gets a French fry, usually. Gracie takes a less dainty approach…she’ll just lunge at your plate and jump on you and try to forcibly take what she wants. I didn’t let them get close enough to anybody for the guilt trip or simple assault to take place. There was a family waiting to go in another eatery that basically flagged us down. “You have your hands full, it looks like,” the lady said. “Yes ma’am. They’ve never been here…it’s kind of like walking two horses,” I replied. Her husband playfully petted them both, as did their kid. They said goodbye and went inside to eat. After a few more trips back-and-forth, I decided it might be OK to go back up to Main Street, but as I headed that direction, another couple stopped us. “Man, those are some big dogs. How do you walk them both at the same time?” “It’s a struggle, buddy.” This guy said he and his wife actually have a Goldendoodle, so he understood what I was going through. “But ours weighs about 50 pounds,” he said. I told him that when Tucker was a puppy, the vet told us he’d likely be on the big end of the scale for his breed…so, like, 75 pounds. As of his last weighing he was 98, which is part of what hatched this idea to walk he and Gracie in all 46 counties (exercise and weight loss). I moved on and got back up to Main Street. I must say, downtown Greenville is significantly different than it was in the recent past. I’m trying to think of a nice way to say it used to be dirty and unappealing but there really isn’t one, is there? Now, it’s clean, well-planned, there’s tons of shops and restaurants, it’s very walkable, pet-friendly and they have lots of events that draw people downtown. I haven’t spent a lot of time in Greenville. My cousin lives there, I had a very forgettable stint at a radio station elsewhere in the county and I come over for concerts occasionally (The Peace Center is great and RIP Handlebar), but it’s just a really nice, welcoming place. It wins my most improved award (a coveted and prestigious title I’m sure city leaders are proud to receive). Once we got into the more cramped confines of Main Street, we didn’t have nearly as many interactions with people. That’s understandable, since they are walking in one direction and you’re going another, usually. We did get some smiles and hellos and “ooh, big dogs” comments. Eventually, we came upon a street musician, specifically a guy playing the violin. I should point out here I have a cousin accomplished enough on that instrument to teach lessons who has assured me a violin and a fiddle are the same thing, with the only difference being the music played on it. Since this gentleman was not telling of a contest between Johnny and The Devil, I think we’ll go with violin. Tucker’s head stayed on a swivel trying to check out all his surroundings, but Gracie sat down and stared intently at the guy. I don’t know what he was playing, but in the middle of what was, for her, chaos and craziness and “holy crap what’s that” she found some peace and a serene place for a moment. I wanted to throw a dollar in the guy’s jar but my hands were full. I decided we’d come back when Ashley joined us and tip him as a thank you for entertaining my dog and to support the arts in general. We walked back to the car and got Ashley. We got someone to take a group shot of us, but about then I heard some fairly loud music. This wasn’t another busker, though. We were near a red light and a motorcycle was stopped right in front of us. “The fire is sweeping, our very street today…it’s just a shot away.” It was “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones blaring from his bike. A great song…and “a shot away” is what we like to refer to as foreshadowing. As the last bit of that song faded out and “Fast as You” by Dwight Yoakam cranked up (so the guy had good taste in music), the light turned green, he gave it the gas and as he did his motorcycle backfired. Tucker is deathly afraid of loud noises, bangs especially. When we walk at home, if he even hears the echoes of gunshots from the shooting range a few miles away, he panics. When there is thunder he hides under a table. He TRIED to bolt away from the noise but I luckily held a firm grip. Granted, he nearly ripped my shoulder out of its socket, but I held tight. The walk would have to come to a hasty end. So, we made a quick trip back to the street musician, Ashley put a dollar or two in his jar and we got back in the car. We were done with Greenville, but weren’t done walking for the day…
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November 2021
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