Trish & Anne RV Adventures

On Monday, June 3 we got up early (for us) and drove to Greenville to see our friend Catherine – the last time we were there, it rained the entire time so we didn’t do much. Once we got settled in we drove over to Paris Mountain State Park to take a walk around the lake – it was relatively flat so was good for a walk on a warmish day. There were also some horses in a field across the road.

Here we are at the water outfall over the dam at one end of the lake.

Another view of the lake and a footbridge built by the CCC – yes they were everywhere.

After our walk we went to one of our favorite lunch spots in Greenville. It’s the Pita House and it’s not far from Catherine’s. They make their own Pita bread, and the hummus and falafel are just wonderful. Hopefully next time we remember to split a sandwich. Of course we stopped for some ice cream on the way back to Catherine’s, and then relaxed until it was time to go to trivia. It was the first experience for us all playing DJ Trivia at Spare Time – that’s a big entertainment complex with bowling lanes, an arcade and escape rooms. DJ Trivia was in the bar – and they had lots of screens to display the questions, so if you couldn’t hear is wasn’t a big problem. (At Morse Tavern, where we play New England Trivia every Tuesday, we sit near the MC so we can ask him to repeat the questions off line.) This was interesting because the the first 3 rounds were all multiple choice. The final round you had to know the answers. And there were no phones for the entire time! I asked permission to take a picture of Erin the MC – and one of the questions from the last round. We got this one right, because although we didn’t go there on our last trip, there were signs for it. Every round ended with a double or nothing bonus question – where you could double or lose the points from that round. But the very last question was double of nothing for all the points – we had to give it a go, but did not have the right John, so ended the night with zero points. But it was a fun evening and the pizza was good.

We got up Tuesday and decided to go for a walk before it got too hot. Catherine took us to the Cancer Survivors Park, which is a walk along and over the Ruddy River, which runs right through Greenville. That is me overlooking the river and below me a shot of the structure that was casting those shadows. We looked and could not find any descriptions of the other sculpture, which Catherine said was relatively new.

The park is designed to support everyone touched by cancer, with plaques like these along the way, and a space for gathering, as well as enjoying the comfort of nature.

That’s a live turtle but when I first looked across the river, I thought, “How did those people get there.” It took a moment before I realized it was a statue.

Here are some shots of the river – with mostly shade and the river running it was a comfortable walk.

Just caught this great blue heron taking off, and those kids should not have been on those rocks – we think they were with their grandparents.

And this is the Spirit Bridge – dedicated to the “survivor spirit” in all those touched by cancer. (Not the same bridge as in the photo above.)

And I have to leave the park with this other plaque that was under the pavilion.

After our walk we went to a late breakfast at this newish spot that Catherine had not been to. The deli was an offshoot of the Pound Cake business that sold their wares at local farmer’s markets. It was so late (11:15am) they were no longer serving breakfast, but we asked for some forgiveness and the cook said okay. That fueled us up for our afternoon adventure.

We had scheduled a tour at the BMW plant in Spartanburg. This is the entrance to the Zentrum Museum, which is also the start of the tour.

Here are some of the cars that were in the museum. To me, they are some old ones, a red one, a blue one, a first one and the tiny one. But here is some more info from left to right and top to bottom. The Ihle DIXI, a modified racing roadster that produced from 1930 to 1933, it pioneered the kidney shaped twin radiator grille that became signature to BMW design. The 319 was another successful racing roadster turned into a street car. – it was produced from 1934 to 1937 and with an inline 6-cylinder engine with 15 horsepower it reached a speed of 72 mph. The red one is a Z1 from 1989 – it also had an inline 6-cylinder engine with but with 168 horsepower – it also had vertical sliding doors and an entirely thermoplastic body. Then there is the Z8 from 1999 – intended to be an exclusive short run, they increased production when it was featured in a James Bond film. Then there is the first car made in Spartanburg – it is an Alpine White BMW 318i that rolled off the production line on September 8, 1994 and it is signed by over 700 of the associate that worked on it. The Isetta was designed by an Italian firm but was retooled by BMW for production in Germany in 1955 – the Smart Car of it’s day.

Here is a photo of a an aerial view of the plant – it is 8-million square feet and has 11,000 employees. They currently complete about 1,500 vehicles a day, of which 60% are exported to 120 countries. It was the fastest factory start-up in automotive history – 23 months from groundbreaking to first car assembled. They make the BMW X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, and XM Sports Activity Vehicles here. They are in the midst of an expansion to enable them to make all electric vehicles. They are also building a battery assembly plant nearby.

We went on the Best Fit Body Shop-Glimpse Tour – it was just a 50-minute tour, but we got to see many robots at work welding the hood on and also attaching the doors. We also saw them inspecting the cars after the paint shop (which adds 20 pounds to the cars weight) and deciding if they needed touch-up before heading to the loading docks. All the cars are made to order – either for a dealer or an individual. We were not able to take any photos in the plant, but I snapped these from the movie that was playing in the visitor center. There were robots everywhere – there are over 2,000 in the plant. I was fascinated by the fact that the robots had multiple heads that they changed out based on what they were doing.

The robots give the associates a ride into the car to do some of the work they need to do – this keeps the strain off of their backs. I didn’t get a picture, but there is also a point where they tilt the car frame so the associates can attach things to the bottom of the car.

That’s the wiring harness going in – it weighs 80 pounds, so a robot puts it in and then the associates arrange it and do the connections.

Here s a shot at the driving track at the BMW Performance Center that is right down the road from the plant. Here (for some $$’s) you can experience driving in multiple BMW’s – on the track, through an “off-road” course, and even virtually. We were told if you ever buy a BMW to ask/tell your dealer you want to pick it up at the Performance Center — you and a pal get the day long experience for free!

It was back to Catherine’s, where we played some Mexican Train Dominoes before Catherine demonstrated her air fryer for us by cooking us some great chicken and potatoes for dinner. Then it was back to Aiken. The beginning of the ride was very rainy – we even pulled off the highway to give the rain a chance to let-up. We were glad we took the highway back even though it was a longer ride by mileage because it was not the two lane, sometimes narrow roads with lots of turns that was the way we had driven up.

This year’s adventure in Greenville was a blast!