The Vien Quang Buddhist Monastery and where I got jacked up by a caterpillar

So, suffice it to say, South Carolina has a lot of surprises, although Vlad insists that this is so close to North Carolina that it really shouldn't count, but regardless;  in Clover, SC, there is a fabulous Buddhist Monastery called the Vien Quang Buddhist Monastery that is open to the public for prayer/visiting, and you know we went.

They are still in the process of building on the grounds, but the location is beautiful, and a lot of care has been put into the temple and surrounding area.  All of the statues have plagues written in Vietnamese on them, as well as providing incense to burn.  Many had fruit and various other offerings set up around them, and it was absolutely beautiful to see.

The base of the main statue at the front entrance.

We parked, paid our respects, and began to wander the grounds, stopping at each temple to admire the artistry and care administered to each.  I wish I knew more about this particular branch, but it made me feel nostalgic for Siam/Siam Reap, in tiny little ways.

Vlad said they had already added a lot on since the last time he had visited, which was apparently during a festival, and you could see them working on various other temple spots along the way.  I'd be interested in returning here once I visit him again, to see the progress/changes that have been incorporated into the site.

New friend that I scared on accident.

We found a bench beside one of the temples and sat for a while.  As with the rest of the trip, the weather was really nice and it was just very peaceful to relax out there.

I also found one of my old friends, from when I used to live in North Carolina!  I have no idea what these guys are actually called, but I used to call them Wooly Bears, and believed they told the weather.  If they were mostly brown, it was warming up, but if they were mostly black, it was going to stay cold for a while.   ...I frankly have no idea where that theory came from, but there you have it.

  There was also a bee that decided to buzz by us at one point, making me jerk my hand (and Vlad throw his water bottle into the water, which he then had to retrieve) and the caterpillar actually bit me.  I don't think i've ever been bit by a caterpillar before, so this was new.  It turned into a big red bump that is still on my finger, nearly two weeks later.

Just some more photos from the complex~

Hiking in South Carolina...or was it North Carolina...or was it all along the state line -

So I recently got home from seeing a good friend of mine for the first time in five years, and it was absolutely fantastic.  We hiked in three or four different locations, which is always an automatic win in my book.  He lives close to the state line, so we kind of crisscrossed our way around parks.  

The swing bridge that Vlad tried to bounce me off of.

The first park we went to is Anne Gables park, which had a cool little swing bridge, donkeys, and old cabins that had been relocated a few feet to their final resting places.  Sounds dramatic, eh?  The hiking wasn't very arduous, but it was a nice little way to spend a few hours. They also had several other fall related things going down, such as a corn maze, hay rides, and things of the such, but we circumvented all of that and wandered down the trails.  If I remember correctly ( we went to so many parks)  this place offered various camping locations, as well as canoeing on their little pond.

The beginning of misdirection.

 We ended up wandering around various spots that weren't really marked on the trails, which was kind of fun/ny.  At first it was on accident, but then it more or less turned into a " ...well we've come this far" sort of thing.  Sound logic, I know, but we wandered quite a bit of land that was not marked on the park map, and yet still part of the park trails.  I don't know what happened, really, we ended up using litter as markers and I quote, " na, cause I remember that tree" as guide markers.

 We spent one of those nights chillin' at a park after dark, lookin' at the stars and listening to a coyote howling in the distance.  It was a really cold night, so the sky was super clear, which was awesome because it enabled us to see all the stars.  I was looking for shooting stars but never saw one.  Guess I looked around too much.  The coyote was really cool to hear, although he sounded really lonely.  We heard one respond, but he sounded way far off and in the distance, and only answered him back a few times before it faded into silence, with just the one calling out by himself.  It was kind of sad to listen to, really.

The other park we hiked a good deal at was Crowder's Mountain, which was by far my favorite hike of the four we did.   This park is in North Carolina, in the Gastonia area.  I haven't heard great things about Gastonia, but I do know that I love this mountain, and I loved this hike.  My opinion on the surrounding area remains uninformed personally.

  This hike was more strenuous than any of the others, but nothing too bad, honestly.  The path we took was one of the harder ones, and as a result we only passed three people, with you basically just crawling over rocks and walking across open gaps in some areas, but it was a whole lot of fun.

  There were a couple of spots along the way where you could just chill out on some open rock face of the mountain, and have a great view of the surrounding area around you.  One day, I want to go back up there with glow in the dark chalk and draw all over this one gap, and wait for it to get dark.  That would be legit, and the art nerd in me would be hella pleased.

One of the various sitting areas that I climbed out 

There are several different trails you could take in this park, but we hiked along the Crowder's Trail, to Rocktop trail, and then looped around to take a different segment of Crowder's Trail back down to the lot.  Supposedly this is a free camping area as well, meaning you can set up camp in any area you like so long as you don't destroy the area.  This would be fun to do.  We also discussed doing a really long hike which starts in a different park, and then connects through, but we stayed up ridiculously late the night before and yeah, that just wasn't happening.  Next time though.  Next tiiiimmme.

Top of Crowder's.

 I was vaguely surprised to see the number of people once we actually got to the top of Crowder's, but there were enough places to sit where you weren't just surrounded by them.  Turns out, theres a relatively easy access path (or maybe I should say comparatively)  coming up the other side of the mountain, which we took part of on the way down.  It had steps cut into it, and thats were most of those people came up through.

Yoooo.

It was cold.

I was really happy we did these hikes, as the woods in Florida don't really cater to the type of hiking I enjoy.  The weather was perfect, the hike was awesome, and I got to spend time with a friend I haven't seen in forever doing something I enjoy.  If I lived in this area of North Carolina, i'd apply for a job at this park for sure.