It starts in Hardeeville, just off the South Carolina-Georgia border, and runs 271 miles up to Bowling Green on the North Carolina border. I read an article on the “loneliest highway” in each state in America and decided to see what the one in my home state was like.
“Loneliest highway” is not just a subjective term. There is a measure- AADT- the average annual daily traffic. The lower the number, the fewer cars. The article gave details on the five loneliest, then just listed the rest of the states.
I asked my friend Joel to ride the road with me. Being a United Methodist minister, and the son of a United Methodist minister he had lived in many of the areas we were going to pass through. So we headed down to Hardeeville to spend the night before making the drive the next day.
Though Hardeeville is the southern terminus of this road, it is by no means a lonely place. After checking in to our motel we went to eat down the road at the Okatie Ale House. The highway was packed as was the restaurant. Good food! We recommend it.
The next morning, after a light breakfast, we headed out. The first few miles had quite a bit of traffic, and there was road construction going on. The highway was being widened. Seemed odd for a highway deemed low AADT, but we realized that the area down there was booming with new people, mostly retirees from up north. The cost of living is much less, the climate is mild, and the people are friendly. Who can resist?
But soon 321 began to live up to it’s reputation. We rarely passed another car in either direction. After going through the crossroads community of Tillman, we were on our own until we got just outside of Columbia.
The road was actually quite pretty. And remarkably clean. Years ago when Lou Holtz came to USC he noticed how much litter was on the highways in SC and started a campaign to clean up our roads. I do not know if it was because of him, but it seems our highways are much better these days.
As we drove through the small towns, Joel told stories. “Over in that direction was where I lived in high school….See that old building? It used to be a general store where I went to get Cokes and peanuts….The lady who lived in that house was the gossip of the church. I never had to worry about getting information out to people. I just told her….” There was a lot of love and respect coming from him, even for the people who had given him or his father a hard time.
For several years I have been collecting photos of “ghost signs,” that is, advertising signs that were painted on the sides of old buildings years before and have faded, but you can still read and see them. I picked up several along this trip, and some in good shape.
Traffic picked up at Swansea and stayed that way until we got through Columbia, then it back to the lonely highway again.
On the north side of Columbia we picked up Neil, another clergy who had lots of connections up around Winnsboro. So we got another set of stories. “This is where we used to come for family reunions….Over here is where I learned to fish….My ancestors settled this land…”
We stopped in the community of Blackstock. Blackstock was the home of Bull Durham, the baseball player, for a while after he retired from baseball and silent movies. While taking photos around one of the old buildings a local man stopped by. Turns out he was the barber in the area, so we got to hear a few stories from him.
The day-long trip ended mid-afternoon at Bowling Green.
A few lessons learned-
- Lonely highways can be beautiful, even in South Carolina.
- There’s a lot more to the state than most people realize. You just have to slow down to see it.
- And most importantly, it’s always best to travel with a friend or two. You never know what you might learn.
See you out on the road!
Michael Henderson 