July 22, 2006
Ride Leader-Mike Griswold

Fourteen bikes and seventeen riders met at the BP Saturday morning at 9 am with kickstands up at 9:30 am.  The morning was overcast and perfect for riding and we hit the first leg of the trip to Pearl Fryar’s topiary garden with a short stop at the Dairy Queen for refreshments.  The garden was truly amazing and a wonderfully inspirational destination for any visitor.  Mr. Fryar was there to greet us and took us on a personal tour of his garden and explained how he came to create his wonderful “jungle art” and his fabulous Seussian topiary sculpture.  The Cat in the Hat and Things 1 and 2 would be right at home.  The funniest part was that it all got started because the City of Bishopville wouldn’t give him yard of the month because he was outside the city limits.  Since then he has become a nationally renowned artist and gardener with many magazine articles and television shows featuring his labors of love.  There is an inspirational documentary film recently released about his life, “A Man Called Pearl.”  Curt and Sue and Angie have posted slide shows on the message board with lots of great pictures.

The second leg of the day took us to the School House BBQ, where we all enjoyed the delicious fare and rehydrated after the morning ride.

The next portion of the trip featured the NASCAR museum in Darlington where we toured the hall of fame and saw some of the most famous cars in the sport.  A few of us went up into the stands to view the track. A few of us dropped some cash for some nice souvenirs of the day.

We ended the day happy and exhausted at the Sonic in Lugoff with some wonderful memories and sore behinds. 

Many kudos to Mike for planning the ride for us!  Great job! We hope you will grace us with many more!  Can’t wait for the Beaufort overnighter!

Thanks!
Andrea Collum