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.

I already posted some pictures of Greenville after a recent ice storm, but I thought I’d share these as well.

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Here’s their version: Letter: Downtown wants you for 120 minutes

The full piece is here:

The City Asks Us to Spend Our Money Downtown (And Then Promptly Leave)

There’s been a lively discussion over the past few years as to whether the city should install parking meters on downtown streets to raise revenue. After much debate, the city took the right stance by letting downtown businesses compete on a level playing field with other retail destinations in the area by not charging visitors to park their cars. The parking situation seems to work quite well. Most street spaces allow visitors to park for two hours. Setting and enforcing this reasonable time limit means that parking spaces will consistently open up throughout the day and violators will face a citation for failing to move their cars. If this deterrent wasn’t enforced, downtown workers would monopolize all available parking and retail revenue would diminish. If everyone plays by the rules, everyone wins.

Imagine my surprise when I recently went to move my car and spotted that unnerving orange envelope beneath my wiper blade. It had been less than an hour since I last moved my car, so I curiously opened the citation and read the charge; “Maneuvering to avoid citation.” Then, as if to cut through the convoluted ‘legalese,’ the violation appeared a second time in plain English. “Moving to avoid citation.” That cleared thing up. Then came the kicker — the fine amount was $30. If anything was convoluted about the citation, it was the logic behind it.

Let’s put this in perspective. If you display a blatant disregard for the law and refuse to move your car after two hours, thereby depriving your neighbors of a public parking space, the fine amounts to $8. If you refuse to move your car after another two hours, it’s another $8. If you left your car in a downtown parking spot all night, the entire next day, and up until 11:00 am the next morning, you would only run up a total bill of $32. But if you’re going to spend your valuable time and money in the area for more than two hours, and you move your car to avoid getting a ticket, the bill will come to $30.

What other citations does the city enforce that I don’t know about? I renew my license plate to avoid getting ticketed and towed. I regularly pay money for goods to avoid getting arrested for shoplifting. And I’ll even go so far as to admit that I use a designated driver to avoid getting a DUI conviction. In fact, I’m a repeat offender.

What does it matter how many hours I enjoy downtown Grenville as long as I move my car every two hours (and move it far enough to be obvious to parking enforcers)? Why does another person have more of a right to the city’s public parking spaces than I do? And why in the world is the fine for obeying the law more than three times the fine for breaking it? Are Greenville’s parking rules about generating turnover among parking spaces or generating an additional revenue stream? If it’s all about revenue, then bring back the parking meters. I’ll feed one all day.

The message the city is sending its local workers, residents and guests is this; you’re free to enjoy our unique parks, shops and restaurants, but that welcome ends at the 120 minute mark. I got the message. As a result, I’ll be spending my money out on Woodruff Road from now on.

After reading the heavily edited version, one commenter wrote, “You’ve obviously never had to park in downtown DC, LA or NY. If you can find a spot for a mere $55, you’re in luck. Greenville is a piece of cake dude, so quit whining.”

“Obviously.” There’s a reason they say you should never assume anything.

After we finished brunch, there were a lot of people walking around outside. I guess after being cooped up by the snow and freezing rain all day Saturday, everyone was ready to get out and stretch their legs.

These pictures were taken with my new cell phone. Not too bad, huh?