Past Outings: 2015

We had over 140 people attend this great event. The Hollings Library and Cooper Society gave a special tour for Andrea and our Explorers Club President and Board member. We were shown some pretty amazing books. Some of them over 600 years old. Many of the items were related to Alexander Humboldt and some of them were from the Robert Ariail Collection. John Hodge presented Andrea (who also wrote the book Chasing Venus) with a metal picture of his photograph of the transit of Venus (taken in South Carolina). At the end of Andrea's lecture, John Dean (also a member of the Thomas Cooper Society) presented Andrea with the Greater Piedmont George Fulton Medal. The following is something I wrote last night on the gift I was presented with from Explorers Club President Ted Janulis and Board member Alex Wallace:

The Explorers Club has had, as members, a wide range of famous explorers, from Ernest Shackleton to Buzz Aldrin. This week, our Greater Piedmont Chapter of the Explorers Club teamed up with the University of South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Society to host and honor writer Andrea Wulf and her book about one of the greatest scientist-explorers: Alexander von Humboldt. We were also honored with the presence of the Explorers Club President Ted Janulis and Board member Alex Wallace. In addition to Wulf's lecture on Humboldt, the Thomas Cooper Society and the Hollings Library staff gave us a tour of the Library including "the vault" which contains priceless rare books. At the end of the evening, Ted Janulis and Alex Wallace presented me with another rare item..
Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky.

In 1907, Ernest Shackleton placed the following ad:

"MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOUR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS."

Shackleton also placed an order for 47 bottles of this Mackinlay's Highland Malt Whisky.

On January 1st, 1908, Shackleton, men, and whisky, left for the Antarctic. By late February, the men were doing meteorological and biological scientific readings of the seas through cracks in the ice. Six of the men made the first ascent of the 4,000m volcano Mount Erebus. Another accomplishment of the expedition was finding the Southern Magnetic Pole. By that point, the men were running dangerously low on food and barely survived the return to their ship. Many cases of the Whisky were left behind and not found until 100 years later.

Sniffing and chemical analysis of a few of the bottles was completed to make the recipe for this special gift I got from Ted and Alex. What a cool explorers' gift.
I will open the bottle at our Chapter's holiday party so we can all take a taste of this great historical expedition.
Many thanks to Ted and Alex for making this event a special one for all of us.

Below: Andrea Wulf and Explorers in the "Vault"

Below: Andrea Wulf and Explorers Club President Ted Janulis

Below: Andrea Wulf Lecture

Below: Greater Piedmont George Fulton award for Andrea Wulf

Below: Andrea Wulf and Explorers Club President Ted Janulis

Below: Shackleton's Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky

Explorers Club Cookout, Social, and Croquet matches

On Sunday May 31, 2015, Jim and Ceille Welch hosted a great event. Good food, talk, and croquet. It had been ten years or so since we last had a large gathering of the Chapter for a Welch event like this. Thanks for the great time Ceille and Jim. This will be our last meeting at this location since their property has just been sold but, they have a wonderful place in the mountains of North Carolina where we can meet next time. Maybe even later this year. Below are pictures of the event taken by members Brooks Metts and Alan Shoemaker.