South Carolina:

I'm not so sure about Franklin. Southside Virginia is a mix of a whole lot of nothing, charming towns and others where you go if you are looking to get your ass kicked.

 

I was covering the U.S. Amateur many years ago. I was out on the course one day and I overheard a woman talking with some other spectators. She remarked how surprised she was when they were going down the interstate and came across signs welcoming them to West Virginia; she wondered why that particular part of Virginia merited such special attention.

 

I include that area in the Shenandoah Valley.

 

Ok, but we are on the east side of the Blue Ridge in the Piedmont region.

 

I know. For me, Shenandoah Valley stretches through the national forests down there.

Good thing I'm not a cartographer, I guess.

 

I think it's more of a warning.

 

As is banjo music.

 

I consider it part of the greater Charlottesville area.

 

Have to love a state that started a gastly Civil war and now makes its living sucking down more federal tax dollars than it pays ,"Thankee" to all the rest of you sucker states." Leaving a wisdomful sports footprint across the south, these brainiacs left the ACC conference and have never been heard from thereafter despite scurrying into the SEC nest cause the non-conference Notre Dame Football TV model didn't quite work out. Leaving the ACC was SMU-esque sports suicide from which this program never recovered. This should be a major sports school but I'd wager that like no more than 35% of sports media could name the city in which this school resides. They live an enduring inferiority complex regarding UNC and sadly, UNC students don't know that the school exists.

 

stayed in a condo on Sunset Key when I went to a destination wedding in Key West about 15 years ago. Swank place.

Going to Charleston, S.C., next month for three days after three days in Savannah. Always love trips to the south, but yeah, SC is pretty backass in many places.

 

We ate dinner over there once for our anniversary. Table on the beach at sunset. It was pretty sweet. I was afraid to stray too far past the restaurant and explore the island, though. Seemed like one of those places where they fire warning shots at trespassers.
It's swanky, but the wife and I came to the conclusion that we probably wouldn't enjoy staying over there. Our thing is walking around the city, and Sunset Key would just feel a little too quiet and secluded. We always stay in a nice hotel right on Duval Street. Pass by it 10 times a day, can stop in if we need to, and for what we spend on four nights there we'd get one night in a Sunset Key slum.

 

#deepthoughts