Well, a statue of Earl. He looked a little pale! I realized last night that the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, North Carolina was quite close, and basically on our intended route for today. Earl Scruggs, single-handedly developed the popular style of banjo that is referred to by his name, and virtually all modern banjo players have at least at some point tried to copy his playing.
Along with Lester Flatt, their band, the Foggy Mountain Boys, was instrumental in defining Bluegrass music. Earl was born and grew up in the vicinity of Shelby, and worked for a short time in the cotton mill located there. Earl died just a couple of years ago at age 88.
The Earl Scruggs Center just opened about a year ago. It took over the old court house, which is the center piece of the town of Shelby, and it is just a beautiful building and location. And they have done a great job inside. We parked on the street right out front, and Doreen held the fort with Tanner (well she caught up on her sleep), while I toured the Center.
Then it was onwards towards the north to Stone Mountain State Park (N36 22 55.1, W81 01 13.9), which is near the northern border of North Carolina. When we passed over the border from South to North Carolina this morning, the pavement in the road abruptly changed from bumpy and disintegrating to smoooooooth! So we continued on nice country two lane roads for the entire day's travel. The North Carolina countryside is very nice, and became hillier as we went further north. The homes for the most part look very prosperous. And it is hard to believe the number of churches in South and North Carolina. And they are mostly very big churches too.
Ah man! No AT&T signal again tonight! The blog will have to wait until tomorrow.
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