Monday, June 03, 2019
It's time for another trip to Brevard
There are four ways to get to Brevard. One way is to head north along US-276 from Greenville, South Carolina. It's mostly a nice, leasurely drive with the exception of a 1,500′ (460m) elevation change over five miles (8km) of switchbacks and blind curves through the Caesars Head State Park (straight as the cardinal flies it's two miles (3km)). We took this route once (note the emphasis)—while I had a blast driving, Bunny lamented the lack of strong sedatives and refused to even look as I drove this section (even my Dad commented on the drive—“You took that route?”).
This route is no longer under consideration for us.
The second way is to head south along US-276 towards Brevard. We don't take this route mainly because we're not north of Brevard, and secondarily because of the 2000′ (600m) elevation change over eight miles (13km) of switchbacks and blind curves (also two miles (3km) as the cardinal flies).
The third way is to head east along US-64. This is a nice road, no excessive elevation changes, no switchbacks, and once you hit Rosman, the road widens into a fast, four lane highway running along the Proclamation Line of 1763 right up into Brevard from the southwest. We don't take this route because we aren't west of Brevard.
We take the final option—west along US-64 into Brevard. The road along this stretch is two lanes, running through an area that's too built up to be rural, yet not built up enough to be suburban (much less urban)—perhaps “ruburban?” For us, this is the easiest option as it's also very simple—I-95 North to I-26 West to US-64 West.
The only issue we had this year in driving was mostly in South Carolina, For some reason, every semi-truck driver in South Carolina was headed north along I-95, then west along I-26 and trying to pass each other.
This wouldn't be that bad except that both I-95 and I-26 are only two lanes in each direction, and the traffic would pile up behind two semis as one would s-l-o-w-l-y pass the other. This was just in South Carolina (more like “Slow Carolina”). Florida, Georgia and North Carolina did not have this issue.
Go figure.
But twelve hours and 750 miles later, we're safely ensconsed at The Red House Inn and had an okay dinner at The Square Root, as is tradition when we roll into town.