This December my in-laws will be staying with our dog, Percy, for a week while Cecil and I celebrate our tenth anniversary. They asked to have a practice run with Percy, so Cecil and I went away for a night this past weekend to Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Comparable in size to Winston Salem, NC, Spartanburg is home to four colleges, a busy downtown, museums, hiking trails, a brand-new Minor League Baseball team, and more. It was about a two-hour drive from Statesville, so we stopped halfway for lunch in Gastonia. The Pita Wheel was originally founded in 2014 as a food truck but has expanded into three restaurant locations. The one in Gastonia is housed in a former Sinclair Oil service station, which gives it a fun and funky vibe.

Don’t let the name fool you, though – their menu is filled with much more than pitas. I had the Salmon BLT with fries and Cecil had the Alabama Slamma wrap (fried chicken tossed in Nashville hot spice with pickles and Alabama white sauce) with fried pickles. Both were delicious! We had great service and highly recommend a stop at one of their locations (Gastonia, Belmont, Dallas).

We arrived in Spartanburg around 2pm and since we couldn’t check in until 3pm, we decided to go shopping. Our first stop was the Habitat Spartanburg Restore. It wasn’t a very big store, and they were about to start a live auction, so it didn’t take long for us to see everything.

Our next stop was the Reinvintage Warehouse – by far my favorite! They are “one stop shopping for unique, vintage, upcycled, and handcrafted treasures.” Reinvintage is in the process of moving to a new location but will be open at both locations through the end of December. I immediately wanted to buy one of everything, but I managed to narrow my choices down to a wooden pumpkin and a new sticker for my laptop.

Our final shopping stop was downtown. There is plenty of free, public parking, and people actually stop for pedestrians at crosswalks. I was hoping to get an afternoon pick-me-up from the Little River Coffee Bar but the line was very long, and I just wasn’t in the mood lol. With as busy as it was, though, I’m sure the coffee is good!

Connected to the Coffee Bar by a short hallway is Spartanburg’s independent bookstore – Hub City Bookshop. This bookstore is well stocked with every type of book you could want/need. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular but one caught my eye on the new non-fiction paperback table – Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World by Edward Dolnick. I’m already a few chapters in and am loving it. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

After the bookstore we walked up Main Street to the Market on Main Spartanburg and then back to our car for the short drive to the hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Northwest and were very pleased with it.

Even though it’s September, this is the south and it’s still hot outside, so we enjoyed some time relaxing in the air conditioning and then freshened up for dinner.

Cecil chose Tacos & Bla Bla Bla at Drayton Mills for dinner. Drayton Mills is a revitalized textile mill that is now home to luxury apartments, restaurants, offices, event space, a brewery, and the future home of Reinvintage Warehouse.

Dinner was delicious! I had the Mexican Bowl with black beans and grilled chicken, and Cecil had the quesabirria. After dinner we enjoyed a walk by the pond and had a conversation with the koi fish. They were mainly asking us to feed them (we didn’t).

Vacation always heightens my sweet tooth, but I struggled to find a bakery that was open or not out of the way. Instead, I settled for the Fresh Market bakery, and it gave us a chance to also get drinks for the hotel room. The freshly made strawberry pillow was divine.

Sunday

Before the trip we had made a deal with each other that we wouldn’t do our usual wake up at 7am and leave immediately for home. We’re unashamed homebodies but we also wanted to take our time in order to give Cecil’s parents time with Percy.

I found a great local diner for breakfast – The Skillett Restaurant. They have been in business since 1946 and it’s easy to see why. The Skillett opened at 8am and we were there a few minutes before but there were already at least ten people waiting at the door – all of them regulars, we quickly learned. It’s not a very big restaurant, so we decided to sit at the counter in order to not take up a four-person table.

A gentleman down the counter from us had his own large jar of honey that he had brought to spread on his biscuits. One of the ladies had brought her own bottle of hot sauce. Another lady was dressed in her best church clothes with a cane and sat at a two-person table eating her breakfast and reading her Kindle. At the back of the restaurant at the only six-person table, six older gentlemen gathered for breakfast and conversation. The Skillett is truly a neighborhood restaurant and seems to be loved by many.

I ordered coffee, two pancakes (SO YUM), and a scrambled egg. Cecil had the Country Benedict – two poached eggs on top of a biscuit with sausage patties and smothered with pepper gravy. I’m a sucker for good pancakes, so this was my favorite meal of the trip. The Skillett is only open for breakfast and lunch (closes at 2pm) but we highly recommend it.

We went back to the hotel to finish getting ready for the day and pack up the suitcase. After checking out, our next stop was the Glendale Shoals Preserve. This beautiful spot consists of 29 acres located at the old Glendale Cotton Mill site along Lawson’s Ford Creek. There is a 1.5-mile nature trail, a lovely waterfall that cascades over a dam, and the rocky shoals. When the water is low you’re allowed to walk on the shoals, but we didn’t try it this time.

On a Sunday morning it was very quiet. It was only us and a gentleman with his long-range camera lens looking for birds. The preserve is also home to the Wofford College Goodall Environmental Studies Center, which is housed in the mill’s former office building. The students have planted a small vineyard and herb garden behind the building that you can stroll through.

According to the historical marker, “When textile pioneer James Bivings moved to Glendale from Lincolnton, NC in 1834 he purchased 750 acres along Lawson’s Fork to develop a textile mill that would be in continuous operation for almost 150 years.” The mill closed in 1961 and from then until 2004 it was used by various owners as a warehouse space. In 2004 the building burned down, and the owners donated the surviving office building to Wofford College. Today all that is left are a smokestack, and a couple corner sections of the building.

We loved walking through the grass where the building used to stand and all the grasshoppers (hundreds of them!) jumping out of the way as we walked. It sounded like rain! Next time we visit we want to hike the nature trail.

On the way out of town I tried to find coffee again. This time we stopped at the Cowpens Coffee and Creamery. The staff was very nice and the muffins we had were yummy, but my iced mocha was too sweet for me. Tasted more like chocolate milk with a dash of coffee.

It was a quick trip, but we were happy to get home to Percy (both he and his grandpawrents did great!). Add Spartanburg to your road trip list – you won’t be disappointed.

If we had more time, we would have also visited:

• Spartanburg Art Museum
• Hub City Railroad Museum
• Hub City Spartanburgers game (MiLB team, Texas Rangers affiliate)
• Hatcher Garden & Woodland Preserve

Happy travels!