Christmas Lights, Aiken, South Carolina

On the road south from Asheville, about 160 miles, we stumbled on a delightful town in South Carolina, just west of Augusta…Aiken. We rode in on Hwy 19 where the rural scent of magnolia enhanced our ride. We found an inexpensive ($37) and clean Days Inn. We road through the Richland Avenue Christmas lights to downtown’s Pizza Joint and dined on the patio while listening to Christmas music from the nearby church.

I learned that in the quaint town of Aiken, Native American developed the earliest known pottery in North America. With a rich cultural heritage, Aiken was also one of the first railroad towns to emerge in the 1830s and played a major stratigical role in the Civil War. In the late 1800s, the town grew into a "grand health resort"--a fashionable winter and equine resort for the wealthy.