We left Indian Forest RV Park and used the morning to do some long needed shopping. We stopped at the outlet mall, Costco and REI to name a few. Then we hit the highway and headed north.
This bridge is outside Jacksonville Florida
Pretty impressive
We headed into Georgia. When you are on this kind of trip, you have to make choices. There are so many places I wish we could have stopped, and Georgia was one of them. I had to close my eyes and look away as we passed the exits to Savannah. We spent the night near there at Camp Walmart.
The next morning we crossed into South Carolina, headed to Lake Aire RV Park. We planned to stay four nights and play like tourists. We started out by riding the DRZ's into Charleston the next morning. Finding parking turned out to be an issue. All the parking garages and most of the lots won't take motorcycles! They say it is for safety, but really, if there is only an unmanned drop gate at the pay station, then bikes could possibly get by without paying. So we struggled to find a place to park so we could go on our bus and boat tour.
We started with a Graylines bus tour. Our tour guide sounded sort of like Forest Gump(which was filmed in Charleston). He had the weirdest laugh, drove me nuts!!
This is called a sideways house. They are very common in Charleston. When the builders had just a small lot, they orientated the house so that the end faced the street and the front door was on the side. They still had full porches but the put a front door looking end on the porch.
Charleston is often referred to as the Holy City. This is not because they are particularly religious, but because they allowed every religion to locate there. Unlike the colonies to the north (cough**Puritans**cough) Everyone was welcome here.
There is one corner in town that is called the '"Four Corners of Law". On each corner of the intersection sits the following buildings: A church (God's Law), The Federal Building with the Post Office (National Law), The County Courthouse (County Law) and City Hall (City Law).
We found this old Bell tower while wandering around town.
One place I wanted to see was Fort Sumter. While my dad was doing his family history research, he found John Alonzo Clark Rembaugh who as a Brevet Major in the Union Army was briefly in charge of Fort Sumter after the Civil War was over. By the way, our tour guide says that war is still referred to in some circles as "that recent unpleasantness". ;-)
Our boat ride took us out to Fort Sumter.
Restoration has kind of taken place. It was pounded into a pulp during the war.
When the war started Ft Sumter wasn't even finished, and it was not manned until right after South Carolina seceded from the union. On December 26, 1860 Major Anderson moved his small force (85 men) of Union troops from Fort Moultrie to the more defendable Fort Sumter. At 4 am on April 12 the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter and continued for 34 hours. With dwindling food and ammunition supplies, on April 13th Major Anderson surrendered the fort. During the battle no lives were lost, however the terms of surrender allowed Anderson to perform a 100-gun salute before he and his men evacuated the fort the next day. The salute began at 2:00 P.M. on April 14, but was cut short to 50 guns after an accidental explosion killed one of the gunners and mortally wounded another. They were the only casualties.
On April 14, 1865 Major Anderson returned to raise the exact same flag that he had removed 4 years earlier.
These flags fly on a section of the fort that was not dug back out. Over the years most of the fort had been covered by sand, in part thanks to several hurricanes that have come through the area.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around Charleston before we headed back to camp.
On Wednesday we took a ride to the old port town of Georgetown SC. I had Wayne lead as the only way over the Ashley and Cooper Rivers was via the Interstate highways, not my favorite place to be. I have gotten used to 55-60 MPH multi-lane roads but the Ravenel Bridge over the Cooper River has lanes from this interstate and that all coming together on the bridge deck, and then separating again on the other side. As I have the GPS I usually lead, but sometimes I'd just rather not, thanks.
We headed north on US 18 with Wayne still in the lead when he suddenly took a left. The sign said Hampton Plantation State Park and BJ's Sports Pub this way. I figured it was a toss up for where we were headed.
We went to the Plantation
Hampton State Park is what is left of a colonial-era rice plantation. The plantation’s Georgian-style mansion and well-kept grounds are free to see from the outside, but a small fee is charged for a house tour. As per our luck, no tours on Wednesdays!
This was the kitchen house
This giant Live-Oak tree was standing when George Washington came for breakfast during his tour of the area. Mrs. Charles Pinckney wanted to cut it down because to obstructed her view of her husband's race track. He talked her out of it.
This is all that remains of the original dike system used in rice farming. As overgrown as the area is, it is hard to imagine that during the 1790's as far as you could see was all rice fields, no trees or underbrush.
After our short stop we headed to the Big Tuna Raw Bar in Georgetown for lunch. Gumbo and Blue Crab cocktail, yum!!! From there we headed back to camp by following Alternate US 17 back west. We still had to jump onto a major highway to cross the Cooper River but the Ashley River is much smaller that far from the coast. And yes, these names are straight out of "Gone With The Wind". Margaret Mitchell visited friends in Charleston every year and borrowed names and stories for her book.
On Thursday we were back on the bikes, but going much closer to home, the Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant. Boone Hall is still a working plantation and is open to the public.
In 1743 the Boone's planted two evenly spaced rows of live oak trees to create their entry lane. It took 200 years for them to grow across and meet, creating the canopy of this spectacular driveway.
Although this is not the original house, it is still spectacular and worth the time to tour. Most plantation homes in this area were burned in either the Revolutionary War or the Civil War. This one was built in 1936.
Our tour guide was worked as an extra in several of the movies filmed at Boone Hall. I can't remember which ones but The Notebook, Queen and the mini series North and South were all filmed here. It has also been a location on various TV programs.
We took a tram ride around the property. This is part of the set for "Queen"
They are still farming, now using hi-tech planting methods. This is a drip system, that I now know way too much about
I liked the presentation on the Gullah culture. Out of necessity the multi-dialect slaves and the English speaking owners invented a language all its own. Gullah storytelling, rice-based cuisine, music, folk beliefs, sweet-grass basket making, farming, and fishing traditions all have strong influences from West and Central African cultures. Our story teller sang songs and told stories about her great-great-grandmother who lived to be well over 100 (Wayne remembers 118, I thought it was 112). It was a great presentation.
Just down the road is the Charles Pinckney National Historical Site, we had to stop.
Pinckney was very active in writing of the Constitution and his inclusion "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States" was the last addition to the constitution before it was passed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
We seem to be chasing Spring as we make our way north
From Pinckney's we headed back via back roads. Our camp at Lake Aire was pretty nice. We started letting the cats out again.
Big boy, on the prowl
The pond across from us
Friday was moving day, Wayne needs work done on the shock for his trail bike and Ohlin's USA is located in Hendersonville North Carolina. It was about 250 miles, but we got there before they closed and got that taken care of.
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