Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As shown in the first picture, the main suite for Bike Street USA was what is now Jackie's Uniforms, but the Bicycles signage remains on the second suite they had to the right of that. As you can also see from the firt shot, the store started as Bike To Nature, which moved here from across the street when its original building was slated for demolition.

After moving, the store was bought by the Bike Street USA chain, which went bankrupt in November 2014 as described here.

As I was heading out to my vacation last month, I noticed this closed Arby's in Manning, not too far from the I-95 interchange. I'm pretty sure it was not closed around Easter, or I would have noticed it then, but by this point it had obviously been closed several months.

That actually makes it rather unusual, as chains which are still around tend to get their signage down pretty quickly from closed stores. In this case the signage is still up, even on the drive-through, and the furniture is still inside.

UPDATE 9 February 2018 -- Now a Cookout:

UPDATE 17 February 2018 -- Better pictures of the new Cookout:

UPDATE 17 February 2023: Update tags, add map icon.

I'm not entirely sure what the focus of The Outlet Store in Boozer Shopping Center was. Given the embroidery and printing aspects, I guess they did custom clothes and perhaps uniforms, though I'm not sure exactly how outlet fit into it.

They listed in the February 2013-2014 phonebook, but not the February 2014-2015 one, so I'm guessing they closed in 2013.

Star Music in the Seven Oaks Shopping Center has closed their storefront and moved in with adjacent Hannah Piano. According to their sign, they are looking for another Irmo location, and remain open on Two Notch & Assembly Street.

I was eating lunch at Grecian Gardens the other day, and noticed that the building next door (North) was vacant. It turns out that this was the former location of Agape Primary Care & Therapy who have now moved down the road into Lexington at 4711 Sunset Boulevard.

This former motorcycle shop is just down from the old Shoney's on Bush River. I'm not quite sure when it closed because for some reason I can't find it in my phonebooks. There are two calendars behind the counter, but I neglected to zoom in on them..

UPDATE 19 April 2016 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew on the Shoney's post, here is an excavator on the Shoney's lot before it was used to knock down this building:

There are certain restaurants I want to like more than I do. El Burro Loco in Myrtle Beach is one -- I go by every five years or so to see if it is finally any good. Bocci's in Charleston was another.

Since it was conveniently located next to the original location of Theatre 99, and near to The Market, and since I like Italian, I used to check it out every so often. I think every time I did, it was a really mediocre experience, including the last time, around Christmas 2013 when I waited two hours for an unexceptional pizza. They did have really sharp matchbooks though.

I had come from Pizzera Uno to the Pastime Pavilion in Lexington to see a movie. In point of fact, I was hoping to still find the latest Mad Max move showing though it was dropping out of first run at the time. I had done a quick google before leaving home, noting that the time and place for Max would make it convienient to a restaurant I hadn't been to for a while.

It all went well until I got to the theater and found that I should have taken time to click on the movie descriptions as well as times as the movie turned out to be about a dog.

Anyway, as I was walking back to the car in sort of disgusted amusement, I noticed the plaza's Marble Slab Creamery was closed. There were no explanatory notes or signs, but cleary the place had been cleaned out even though the marquee was still up.

UPDATE 21 March 2016 Wow, who would have thought this photo and letter would turn up at my house at this late date, but there we are: David Pearson's first ride crew on Thunder Road. See the text below for details.

Grit Your Teeth
Bear The Load
Enjoy Your Ride
On Thunder Road
-- Burma Shave

I was on the first run of Thunder Road on 3 April 1976.

As it happened, I had won a phone-in contest on WIS Radio. I suppose there were similar contests on stations all over the Carolinas to fill both cars. It was not the first time I had been to Carowinds, I remember a school trip in particular, but it was not the quick jaunt from Columbia it is nowdays, as I-77 between Columbia & Charlotte was not yet finished and it was a longish two lane drive on US-21.

In its initial configuration, the two track coaster was promoted as a "race" between moonshiners and police with the trams on each track having automobile body front ends. For the initial ride, we contest winners were divided into two teams, one per car, and in the front seat of each car was a then prominent NASCAR driver. I'm afraid I didn't (and don't) really follow NASCAR so the names of our team leaders has totally slipped my mind. I have the feeling that our team was on the right hand track, and that we were the law, but I couldn't swear that to you. What I do remember in particular is the set of four Burma Shave signs, quoted above, which were between the two tracks as the cars were chain pulled to the top of the first hill. They gave you something to laugh about just before cresting the hill and that first precipitous descent.

At the time, my experience with roller coasters was pretty limited. My father did not trust the travelling coasters at the State Fair, so the only coasters I had ridden were the Swamp Fox in Myrtle Beach, and the mining themed Goldrusher also at Carowinds. There was really no comparison, and Thunder Road was a thrill ride far and above either (though I still love both the others). There was just something about that initial jerk and the clank of the chains as you went up that first hill, then teetered on top of the world for a second before the bottom dropped out..

I rode Thunder Road many other times over the years, though probably not any after the early 1980s. I totaly missed the era when they ran one of the trains facing backwards.

When I heard that Thunder Road was to be retired, I wanted to try and be on the last ride, but in the event I was on vacation that day, and while I seriously considered making the ten hour round trip drive, in the end I didn't. It would make a better story, but that's life.

I did go out last weekend though and get what pictures I could of the attraction before it is all torn down. The entrance is in what is now the Snoopy section of Carowinds while the main body parallels the water park area.

It's kind of sad how little of the original Carowinds remains. Really, I think the only two remaining original rides are the Eastern Airlines Skytower and the aforementioned Goldrusher. While I was googling some Thunder Road facts for this post, I ran across a teriffic site Carowinds The Early Years where most of the links above come from, and which you should definitely visit. Who could forget The Oaken Bucket, The Hillbilly Jalopies, The Powder Keg Flume, the awful food at The Grubsteak (You expect grubs to be good steak? we asked..), The Paddle Wheel Steamer, The Skyway and The Monorail?

UPDATE 14 August 2015: My sister (who was also there the first day of Thunder Road though she did not have a first ride ticket) says she remembers that the NASCAR teamleaders were Cale Yarborough and David Pearson and that I was on Pearson's team. She has also found online sources saying it was Bobby Allison & David Pearson though that's not the way she remembers it (and all it takes is for one source to get it wrong and then be quoted by everyone else..)

I have also found a number of Youtube videos of Thunder Road. Here are a tribute video and then a front car POV video:

This new-ish but odd little building is on Knox Abbott in between Taco Bell and Wendy's.

For the life of me I can't remember what it was right now, and am unable to come up with a street number to google it.

UPDATE 16 September 2016 -- This is one of the posts lost in a database crash. Originally it was just titled "Building", but based on the comments as I bring it back, I'm changing the post title to Kleen Kare Dry Cleaner as that what it was to be, though it never opened due to the big crash of the late 2000s.

UPDATE 11 June 2019 -- This is now Carstar auto repair. Not sure if they do the actual work at this location:

UPDATE 15 Novemeber 2023: Update tags.