For instance, one time I picked up eight steel folding chairs for $4 a piece. Those are always good to have in the garage. Another time, I bought some brand new Timberland hiking boots for $3. I’ve bought everything from picture frames to audio speakers to specialty barware. The best things to buy are steel products like a boxspring frame for my homemade guest bedroom set and non-electro-mechanical garden tools like a grass seed spreader. You can tell right away if the products are in good shape, they last forever, and you end up saving a ton of money.

A few years ago, I bought a used bike. I had been looking for one that would be useful to ride to work, meaning it needed fenders to block water spray and a rack to hold my laptop bag. After a lot of fruitless searching, I found the perfect one at a consignment store for $60. It’s an old 10-Speed Raleigh Sprite Mixte (circa 1978).

I just learned Raleigh rolled out a new line of single-gear (non-”fixie”) urban bicycles aimed at the yuppy/hipster demographic. It’s called the Raleigh One Way, and it retails for $750.

The One Way: ($750)

My Bike: ($60)

Thrift stores are the best. Of course, you have to be willing to make five fruitless trips before you find something you really like. But when you do buy something, it’s usually a steal. The fact that your money goes into the coffers of a charity is just icing on the cake.

For more information about cycling in Greenville, click here.

If you didn’t know about the walking trails, you’d think the area was just a wasteland around the abandoned Conestee Mill and dam. It’s going through the early stages of redevelopment (and gentrification) as new community ballparks, commercial interests, and natural areas are established. The biking and walking paths wind their way around the lake, which is really more of a swamp, and it’s all fed by Greenville’s Reedy River, which is a glorified creek. I wish the trails were a full loop so we wouldn’t have to backtrack, but otherwise it’s a pleasant way to spend a morning. We walked almost four miles and got back to the car before the sun got too high. (parking and trail map)

I forgot to bring the camera, so I had to take pictures with my phone. Click on the first image to enlarge, then use your right arrow key to advance:

This is what it looks like when nearly 100 riders, their team cars, race staff, and emergency responders whiz by at 40+ miles per hour.

By the way, Hincapie finished second this year. And I’ll reiterate what I wrote last year:

“This is a one-day race for the American title and fans have two ways to partake in the event — they can travel to Greenville to watch the race live or they can constantly refresh the #uspro hashtag on Twitter. There is a helicopter feed that you can stream online, but it lacks audio and the view is often obstructed. Are there really no companies out there who will sponsor/underwrite a portion of the cost of covering the event properly?

I hate to overgeneralize, but cycling is predominately a white-collar hobby and fans are usually both financially and emotionally invested in the sport. A real broadcast would break even at worst.”

What we saw on the tour was pretty impressive. All but three of the homes we visited are within a mile of our house. I was expecting a lot of pretentious preening from the self-styled “urban homesteaders” about organic, local, in-season, slow food, sustainability, etc. You know how I feel about all that. We got some prosthelytizing, but no more than you would expect at any other cult event.

As hard as it is for me to admit this, the wife was right. We technically own a quadruple-sized lot. Since our house is so small, that means we have a lot of area to ourselves. Most of the places we visited not only had smaller back yards than ours, but they were also situated closer to their neighbors’ houses than we are. That doesn’t necessarily mean I want to raise and care for chickens (although fresh eggs would be great for my diet), but it does mean that we might have to expand our operation a little bit.

After the tour, we tried to catch the end of the annual Derby Duck Race downtown.

Click on the first image to enlarge. It may take a moment to load, then use your right arrow key to advance:

Paris mountain has a swimming lake, campgrounds, and lots of biking/hiking trails. It was our second time to the park, but our first time to really get out and hike. We decided to hike the Sulpher Springs Trail. It’s mostly a mountain biking trail, but a third of it is hiking-only. When we started walking, we noticed that almost everyone was going in the opposite direction. We shrugged it off and kept on trekking.

When we got to the mountain lake and dam, the place was crawling with kids. There’s a parking lot and picnic area nearby and lots of people seemed to be forcing their children outside to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. We crossed the road and started hiking back up the mountain to where we had parked. It was then that we realized why almost no one had been going in our direction. The path was almost straight up. The first three-quarters of the trail had been so mild that we questioned why it had a difficulty rating of 8/10. Now we knew why. The last quarter of the hike really gassed us. I had to stop twice to catch my breath and shed a few layers of clothing. We learned a lesson we’ll not soon forget; go with the traffic.

Click on the first image to enlarge. It may take a moment to load, then use your right arrow key to advance:

The first market I visit on Saturday mornings is G&G Retail at the Agriculture Department’s County Market. It’s less than a mile from my house.

They don’t have the most comprehensive inventory, but what they have is usually good.

They carry locally produced dairy products, cured meats, and farm-raised rabbits. I’ve been meaning to braise a rabbit, but the wife had a pet bunny as a kid. I think I’m going to have to push the idea a little more before she goes for it.

This market is best for beans, greens, root vegetables, and refrigerated produce. This is a view from inside their large walk-in refrigerator.

The second market I go to on Saturday mornings is the Tomato Vine Market.

It’s a few miles away, but they carry a lot of stuff that the other market doesn’t. There are a lot of Hispanic chiles, fruits and vegetables.

Their refrigerated section isn’t as large as G&G’s, but they have a great selection of dried fruits and nuts (in scoopable bins like at Whole Foods), bottled drinks, Latin cheeses, and a section devoted to shelf-stable products. I’ve been meaning to smoke some pork in banana leaves, Hawaiian-style.

Through the warmer months of the year, downtown Greenville hosts a Saturday Market that brings farmers from the region to Main Street for an event that runs until noon each weekend. The street is lined with tents, trucks, and the obligatory one-man acoustic band. This market is where all the foodies go show off their CSA street-cred. They pay a sizable premium to buy the same produce that you can get for next to nothing at the markets mentioned above. But at least they don’t have to rub elbows with the unwashed proletariat while they’re sipping their iced mochaccinos and making sure everyone overhears them when they loudly ask, “excuse me bro, but was this grown sustainably?” The wife and I go once or twice a year. It’s a pretty cool atmosphere, but it reminds me why I hit my markets so early in the morning before the ‘food as fashion’ crowd wakes up.

I actually took most of these pictures as I was riding. You should have seen the looks on people’s faces when I held the camera up and snapped pictures on the fly. Click on the first image to enlarge, then use your right arrow key to advance:

We watched the first trip down the mountain at a tight curve from Piney Mountain Road onto North Pleasantburg Drive. After that lap, we watched the remaining circuits from Cleveland Park downtown. The first (or last, depending on your browser) picture shows the view from atop Paris Moutnain. The following images show the breakaway coming down the mountain for the first time. You can see Ben King from team Radio Shack at the back of the trio. After the third trip over the mountain, Ben was riding solo. He maintained his lead for an impressive win. George Hincapie, a Greenville resident and three-time national champion, finished fifth.

Click on the first image to enlarge, then use your right arrow key to advance:

Click here to see pictures from last year’s race. Next year, I think we’re going to camp out on Paris mountain and then watch the end of the race at the finish line.

NOTE: This is a one-day race for the American title and fans have two ways to partake in the event — they can travel to Greenville to watch the race live or they can constantly refresh the #uspro hashtag on Twitter. There is a helicopter feed that you can stream online, but it lacks audio and the view is often obstructed. Are there really no companies out there who will sponsor/underwrite a portion of the cost of covering the event properly? There are already two announcers calling the race in front of the helicopter video at the finish line. All they need to add are two cameramen on the back of motorcycles, a camera on Main Street, and an engineer editing the three feeds. Let the program start two hours before the expected finish, recap what’s happened so far, and vary the commentary with previously recorded interviews. Sell it on Pay Per View for $25. I hate to overgeneralize, but cycling is predominately a white-collar hobby and fans are usually both financially and emotionally invested in the sport. A real broadcast would break even at worst.

Soby’s is an anchor in downtown Greenville and has been a leading force in making the city the culinary destination it is today. The book provides a glimpse into the history of the restaurant, the evolution of the menu, and valuable tips about ingredients and preparation. The wife bought it at the restaurant, and everyone came out of the kitchen to sign it.

I thought that particularly was nice touch, and we’ve decided to go there for our 5-year anniversary dinner this weekend.

After reading through the cookbook, I’m amazed it never occurred to me to use my pimento cheese (which is, to be frank, better than Soby’s) to make a macaroni-style dish. Soby’s uses ditalini and pimento cheese in their version of the side dish. We always keep ditalini in the pantry for ad hoc soups and pasta salads. The combination of the two is so simple it’s brilliant. You can expect to see my version of it on this site pretty soon.

The wife and I stumbled upon a Shriner Parade early on Saturday morning. In case you didn’t know, the Shriners are officially called the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. They’re an offshoot of the Freemasons and sponsor a 50-bed pediatric orthopaedic hospital here in Greenville. I don’t know why they didn’t hold the parade around lunchtime when downtown is bustling, but they got lucky with a surprisingly cool breeze. I was hoping for more fezzes and tiny cars, but it was fun nonetheless.

Click on the first picture to open the gallery. It may take a moment to load. Use your right arrow key to navigate through the slideshow.