This is by far the biggest and best convenience store I have ever seen!
They have amazing inventory, great parking, fabulous outdoor seating and great space to walk your dog.
The manager and staff were friendly and helpful.
I got there by mistake. When I left the wonderful Whitewater Falls North Carolina State Park, I apparently skated by Moody Springs - where I was told I could get great water right out of the spring. I basically fell off the mountain down to flatland in South Carolina and arrived, 10 miles later, at South Carolina route 11.
I went looking for a convenience store that would still be open at 8o'clock and caught this place just before it closed. I asked the cashier if she knew a place to park my van overnight. When she did not immediately suggest anyplace, I asked about the truck pullout just 100 yards back up the road and she said it never gets used for anything. We did park there overnight and it worked great.
They were literally switching off the lights and I quickly asked if there was a place I could get water. She showed me to the hose on the right side of the building and I got great cold water in my big jug.
There is a huge space off to the right to walk your dog.
The dark roast coffee was nice and strong and very hot - and $.50 in my mug! I've never seen a price that cheap.
There is apparently very good boating nearby at Lake Jocassie.
And I highly recommend, even if you had not planned on this, to run up the mountain into North Carolina to see Whitewater Falls State Park - which I read is "the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi". It is certainly quite amazing.
To view it, there is a big parking pull off to the right - and then the State Park Visitors Center 8 miles further on your right.
But don't stop at the first pullout, unless you want to take a very treacherous .8 mile trail down to an overlook.
That trail (part of the 80-mile Foothills Trail) is made for seasoned hikers who don't mind risking their lives going down the gorge. One very experienced - and very young and strong - hiker coming through, who had walked the whole Appalachian Trail last year, said that it is "a lot shorter than the AT, but much rougher hiking: way more steep climbs and descents".
My personal experience was harrowing: one set of stairs was built for Sasquatch, not humans - and I used the big rock stairs not as steps but as things to grab onto to keep from falling down the mountain.
This 74-year-old cowboy had a blast during my one hour down and 90 minutes back up - but also felt a little lucky to still be alive when my dog and I got back to the parking lot. We never made it as far as the Overlook, but I felt like I had been personally tested and achieved my next level of mountaineer status.
My little dog Panchita had a blast for the whole 2 1/2 hours - and was still chasing off into the bushes after squirrels at the end of the hike.
This caused me to reconsider our whole "homo erectus" experiment with rising up onto 2 feet: we do get a much better view of the treetops and the mountains and the sky from this angle, but we are a lot less steady on our feet and have a longer way to fall.
Most people will want to skip that first pullout, which basically has nothing to see, and go 100 yards down the road to the really nice little trail and great overlook. read more