* * * * *
                                        
  Extreme, no, seriously, I mean it, extreme head in the clouds, Cleveland, SC
                                    edition
                                        
The clouds lifted, the sun came out, and round 3:30pm, I said to Bunny,
“Let's go to Pretty Place!” 

Pretty place, aka (also known as) The Fred W. Symmes Chapel [1], is a church
up on the side of a mountain, just across the North Carolina/South Carolina
state line. 11 miles (18km) “as the crow flies” from The Bromfield Inn [2],
or 17½m (28km) as the car drives. And I implore you, gentle reader, to check
the link out, to get into the mind set Bunny and I were in as we headed out
to Pretty Place.

Little did we expect fog. One minute, it was sunny. Then we rounded a bend
and:

[Thick fog. Think pea soup fog. Visibility measured in yards (meters).] This
isn't 7:00am, but 4:00pm, up in the mountains of South Carolina. [3]
 

The last time I encountered fog this thick it was the late 90s, I was driving
along Florida state 60 doing 70mph (110kmh) at 1:30am trying desperately to
avoid a semi-truck reenacting “The Duel [4]”. And the time before that I was
in elementary school, being driven to Brevard Elementary School [5] by my
mom. But this? Today? This took us completely by surprise.

It gave the entire place this ethereal feel to it:

[Trees and fog near the top of a staircase.] You can't see the forest for the
fog. [6]
 [Trees with orange leaves, engulfed in fog.] It's the elves. It has to be
the elves doing this. [7]
 

And then we entered the chapel and were greeted with:

[The pews, the Cross, and the expansive moutain view swallowed up in white.]
I figured there'd be more harp playing than there was. As it was, it was
quiet. And unearlthly. Wow! [8]
 [9] 

It was surreal. You look out, and there's nothing but this white void.

[The Cross holding back the white nothingness beyond.] Not much to say,
really. [10]
 

Driving back down, the fog just … vanished … just as quickly as we entered it
going up.

[1] https://www.campgreenville.org/pretty-place/
[2] https://thebromfieldinn.com/
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2022/10/31/Road.jpg
[4] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023/
[5] https://bes.tcsnc.org/
[6] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2022/10/31/Threshold.jpg
[7] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2022/10/31/Trees.jpg
[8] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2022/10/31/thumb-Church.jpg
[9] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2022/10/31/Church.jpg
[10] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2022/10/31/Cross.jpg

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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