CAYCE, S.C. — A tour that requires no walking: the Cayce Tennis Center is bringing an amazing outdoor trail indoors to make the area's history more accessible.
The center wants to make the 12,000-Year History Trail and Cayce's past available to people who otherwise would miss out.
"With every walking tour, someone says to us, 'I wish my uncle could come. I wish my mother could come because they can't walk it, but I know they would love to hear the stories,'" class guide Susan Kelly said.
The tour entails 12,000 years of history in South Carolina, thus the trail's name. Susan brings its artifacts, dating back long before the 13 colonies, inside the classroom.
After six years of walking and talking about the story of Cayce's rich history, Susan Kelly decided it needed to be more accessible. So, instead of taking participants to the story, she brought the story to the people.
"You can only learn how to manage the future if you'd understand where we came from," she said.
She said she wasn't necessarily targeting one group when making the classroom tour an option.
"We didn't know. We didn't know whether this classroom tour would have been folks who couldn't walk or people who choose not to," Kelly said. "The people who came to last week's tour chose not to walk in 92 degree temperatures."
In air conditioning and without the miles-long journey and sweat, attendees are still inundated with knowledge.
"If we discussed this back in grammar school, or whenever, I don't remember a thing, I truly do not," said one participant.
"Yeah, a lot of it was new material to me," said another. "It certainly was. Very interesting."
The center takes reservations and registrations for those who want to take a class.