Lake Jocassee boat tours are popular with any crowd, such as the Spartanburg Daytrippers. Photo courtesy of the Spartanburg County Parks Department.
If you happen to be 50 or older and looking for ways to beat the searing summer heat, try becoming one of the Spartanburg County Parks Department’s very own daytrippers.
You might not be able to run the baseball diamonds or the basketball courts as much as you used to, but there is almost the certainty of not only finding activities to stay active but to give old age a really hard time of ever catching you.
“We want to keep the 50+ population active, engaged, and in charge of what they would like to do,” said senior recreation coordinator Bates McKinney.”Each program is designed to get people out and involved in a multitude of activities.”
Those activities include line dancing, exercise classes, canvas painting – and a variety of day trips, which are now more popular than ever.
“All six day trips from mid-July to mid-September filled up within the first week we posted them,” McKinney said, “Not sure if the heat had as much to do with that as people rediscovering the trips and getting involved our programs again.”
These day trips include:
• July 16, Table Rock Tea Company. Learn how American grown tea is cultivated, harvested, and produced right here in the upstate in this 1-hour tour.
• July 26, Wine Tasting at City Scape Winery. Greenville County's largest and oldest winery & vineyard tasting will include eight handcrafted wines, bread and local Happy Cow Creamery butter for the table, and a souvenir wine glass.
• August 5, South Carolina State Museum. Here you can discover the richness of the Palmetto State through changing exhibits such as "Bird Photographer of the Year" and "American Battlefield, South Carolina's Revolution."
• August 20, Harrah's Cherokee Casino. Participants can choose from more than 3,000 casino games, such blackjack, roulette, craps, mini-baccarat – alongside an array of slot machines.
• September 5, Anderson Jockey Lot/Farmers Market. Every weekend, these 65 acres are bristling with over 1,500 professional, hobby, and yard sale dealers with just about anything you can imagine.
• September 15, Lake Jocassee Boat Tour. Created in 1973, Lake Jocassee’s 7,500-acre, 300-foot deep reservoir in Oconee County has provided countless tours by naturalist guides, leaving many thousands awed by the breathtaking views and wonders. Participants are encouraged to dress in layers and pack a lunch to enjoy on the 3-hour pontoon ride.
Even if you were too late to sign up for the trips, McKinney encourages adding yourself to the waiting list “as I have pulled people from it at the last minute, and can always look at other options to meet the demand.”
“We have more than 200 seniors in all of our programs, but attendance for the daytrippers outings varies, and sometimes depends on how many we’re allowed to bring,” she said. “For example, we can take only 12 for the winery because it’s a smaller venue.”
But as the U.S. senior citizens edge closer to surpassing the number of children for the first time U.S. history, McKinney pointed out that she expects interest to increase over the next few years.
“And based on the need and interest, the opportunities in our programs will have to expand as well,” she said, adding that while some activities are recurring favorites, others sometimes show up out of nowhere. “Years ago, we did a gladiator games activity, and everyone had a blast. But we’ve always joked that if you say ‘Bingo,’ everyone gets excited. But everything we do is driven by their interest we want activities that engage the whole person.”
