Wednesday, February 23, 2011

TOUR OF ABBEVILLE

Yesterday we did a guided tour of Abbeville.  First off was the blacksmith shop that was built around 1911 and stayed in business until 2004, under the same family. When the founder died the family donated the shop with all of its equipment to the city. They moved it about a block and some times have a blacksmith working there.

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Originally the line shaft was run by a model T engine, but when the model A Ford came out they switched to the more powerful engine. There was very little electricity in Abbeville in the early days.

The line shaft is the main pulley shaft that all of the belts run off of to power the machinery. When they wanted to use a piece of equipment the just put the belt onto the line shaft pulley.

From the blacksmith shop it was a couple of blocks walk to the catholic church. This is the 4th church on the site and it was built in 1911 and underwent a major restoration in 2009. I am putting lots of the pictures and you can click on them to see larger images.

The live oaks are in one of the two town squares.

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The stained glass windows were just beautiful and I am guessing that there are about 20 of them, they stand about 15 foot tall.

Outside was the cemetery

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There are lots of neat buildings in town, but most have lots of power lines obstructing  the view. Abbville tour bench 033

After the tour we had lunch at a local restaurant, nothing fancy here. Than we took a drive down to Palmetto Island state park, which is a new state park and very very well done. Here are a couple of pictures of the roadside swamp before getting into the park and a few taken along the river in the park

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When we went to the wood guys house Betty picked up a piece of cedar wood and she wanted to make a bench out of it. I told her I would help her with it and after looking in her shed we found two more pieces of old wood that I was able to use for the legs and center brace.

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And, finally, at happy hour more craziness

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Have a great day, and remember that  we love ya

Jim and Linda

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