Mini road trip: fall festival fun

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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses a mini road trip to various fall festivals in South Carolina, highlighting experiences at the Central Railroad Festival, an Oktoberfest in Walhalla, and a local festival in Clinton. The focus is on the activities, food, and unique features of each festival.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • The Central Railroad Festival features a model railroad museum and is historically linked to the railroad's establishment in the area.
  • Participants express appreciation for the multi-room railroad setup at the festival.
  • The Walhalla Oktoberfest includes German food and a beer tent, with a suggestion that it may be more crowded in the evening.
  • The Clinton festival includes carnival rides, a barbecue contest, and a fireworks show, with a personal account of enjoying pulled pork and chili cheese fries.
  • A participant draws a cultural connection to Basque rural sports in relation to lumberjack activities at the festival.
  • There is curiosity about the activities of the lumberjack during the show, with humorous suggestions about what might occur in the Octagon Pit.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally share positive sentiments about the festivals and their experiences, but there is no consensus on the specifics of the lumberjack show or its activities, leading to playful speculation.

Contextual Notes

Some statements reflect personal experiences and cultural references that may not be universally understood, and there are varying interpretations of the lumberjack show activities.

jtbell
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On Saturday, I took advantage of a crisp sunny day to visit two festivals in small towns a couple of hours' drive from home.

Stop 1

My first stop was at the Central Railroad Festival in the town of Central, which is nowhere near the center of South Carolina. It's way up in the northwest corner of the state, not far from Clemson and its university. The name comes from its location midway between Atlanta and Charlotte, on the railroad which was completed between those cities in 1873. In fact, the town was founded by the railroad company.

central.jpg


Here I learned that goat milk soap is a thing.

goatmilksoap.jpg


In keeping with the festival theme, the Norfolk Southern Railway, which now owns the railroad, sent a couple of trains through while I was there.

train.jpg


Central is home to a railroad club which operates a museum a block off Main Street. They have a large model railroad that winds through several rooms, on two levels.

layout1.jpg


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This is quite cool especially the multi-room railroad setup.
 
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So nice. Beautiful. Thanks
 
Stop 2

About a 45 minute drive from Central via Clemson is Walhalla. It was settled by immigrants who fled Germany after the failed revolutions of 1848-49. Therefore its annual fall festival is an Oktoberfest.

oktoberfest.jpg


Most of the food and activities were similar to other festivals in the area.

midway.jpg


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One food truck specialized in German food.

heidelberg.jpg


And there was a large tent where visitors could buy large mugs of beer and listen to a German-style band, which was taking a break when I took this picture.

tent.jpg


I suspect the festival was more crowded in the evening, but I wanted to finish my two-hour drive home before dark.
 
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Stop 3 (a week later)

A week after this day trip, my town (Clinton SC) had its own festival. This time I could simply walk downtown, about a mile, instead of driving.

panorama.jpg


There were a couple of carnival rides for the kids.

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And a "Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show".

paulbunyan.jpg


And the usual festival food. Here I got some chili cheese fries.

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chilicheese.jpg


The main theme here was a barbecue contest, with about 6 or 7 booths and food trucks. I decided to go with this one, and get some pulled pork.

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After I got home, I didn't need any dinner. Nevertheless, I wasn't completely done with the festival, because around 9:30 there was a fireworks show. We couldn't see it from our house, but we could definitely hear it!
 
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jtbell said:
And a "Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show".
What does the Lumberjack do when he jumps into that Octagon Pit? Does he 'wrassel' something short?
 
berkeman said:
Does he 'wrassel' something short?
They should at least have some beavers in there. :cool:
 
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