The Two RV Gypsies stayed at Spartanburg NE / Gaffney KOA in Gaffney, South Carolina. No photos of the campground were taken, but here are a few comments; The Internet was secured and fast, and the lady at the office was very nice.

While here, The two RV Gypsies visited Karen Duquette's relatives in Gaffney, South Carolina. Below is a panorama view from their back porch.

Below: Then the two RV Gypsies went to Millwood Park to see The famous Peachoid Water Tower.

Below: The Peachoid Water Tower along Interstate 85 in Millwood Park in Gaffney.

The Peachoid (known locally as The Peach) was commissioned to be built in 1980-81 by the Gaffney Board of Public Works, and contractors took five months to design and mold the steel. A seven ton, 60-feet long leaf was applied to one side. A New Jersey artist, Peter Freudenberg, painted the sphere after studying local peaches for many hours. It took fifty gallons of paint in twenty colors.

The Peachoid is 135 feet tall. The water tower holds one million U.S. gallons of water and is located off Peachoid Road by Interstate 85 between exits 90 and 92 (near the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway). The water tank is visible for several miles around these exits.

The Peachoid was built in 1981 by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company, of steel and concrete. An overlay stem and leaf were laid across the structure, an enormous "cleft" was created with steel paneling, and Peter Freudenberg, an artist who worked with macro-art, painted the structure to realistically resemble a peach.

The Peachoid was commissioned by the Gaffney Board of Public Works, who had a need for elevated water storage and wished to find a way of building it using federal funding. The shape of the peach was selected because the Gaffney economy was then dependent upon peach orchards, and because the people of the town wanted to make clear that South Carolina, and once upon a time Cherokee County alone (where Gaffney is located) produced more peaches per year than the entire state of Georgia (known as the "Peach State"). Since its construction, the Peachoid's extremely high visibility has introduced an element of tourism to the local economy, and a smaller (500,000 U.S. gallons,) Peachoid has been built for Clanton, Alabama by the same company. (Note: The two RV Gypsies have seen both of them and both can be seen on this website.)

According to official literature, the South Carolina Peachoid boldly "sets the record straight about which state is the biggest peach producer in the South. Contrary to popular belief, it is NOT Georgia." South Carolina produces more peaches.

Gaffney's Nickname is "Peach Capital of South Carolina". The state of Georgia is known as the "peach state" although these two Peach Water towers are in SC and Alabama, not in Georgia. Although there was once one in Byron, Georgia but it is gone now.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2213

NOTE FYI: The two RV Gypsies also visited the Peach Water Tower in Alabama. If you choose to check out the Alabama peach tower, there will be a link there to return you here.

The Gaffney Water Tower shown here is larger and double the volume of the Alabama tower.

Then the two RV Gypsies drove past Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC), manufactures premium vehicle chassis for walk-in cabs, motor homes, school buses and commercial buses. Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation is based in Gaffney, S.C., where it employs more than 900 people at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.

Lee Duquette went to the Freightliner Factory and took a tour of the factory, which he enjoyed. Karen Duquette was not interested in the Freightliner Factory.

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The Two RV Gypsies in North Carolina The TV location of The Andy Griffith Show and more

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