Doing the Charleston... (SC)

After our buggy ride Marcia and I walked around the old area admiring the architecture.

Lunch was at 82 Queen, an old house converted to a restaurant. Marcia had her long-sought she-crab soup, and loved it.  We both loved the herb-cheese biscuits. I had a low country chicken dish served on a kind of mac-n-cheese, and more mac-n-cheese in a side dish. Mine also was very good, better than it sounds.

Charleston is prone to earthquakes but since nothing is torn down you end up with some buildings with a wavy wall, as in the pink building photo.

Charleston was founded partly on the idea of religious freedom, but there was only one church, the Church of England, and it (Episcopal, post-revolution) is on Church Street. Other religions gathered in meeting places, and their (I didn't say churches) are all on Meeting Street.

The round thing that looks like a church is actually a meeting place, and is on Meeting Street. Parts of the cemetery are pre-revolution.

Old Charleston is below sea level in some spots. We experienced an extreme high tide and water suddenly started flowing up from the storm drains. We left, but I hear it actually soon surrounded their old market center, the brick structure.

And now, the Charleston buggy ride… (SC)

It was 52 degrees and even more gusty this morning as we drove for our 10 AM buggy tour of old Charleston.

Sixteen of us per buggy, four to a row, and fortunately blankets were provided. Our guide was excellent, making the cold weather only a minor nuisance. We were pulled by two mules that seemed to need little guidance, although traffic and permit restrictions cause route variations presumably only known by our guide. (Mules, as I can never remember, are the product of a male donkey going up-market with a female horse. Mules are sterile. Donkeys mating with donkeys produce donkeys.)

Old Charleston dates to the 17^th century and has a tremendous history, attacked regularly, it seems, by everybody. By law nothing older than 75 years can be torn down or significantly modified (at least on the exterior). The streets are narrow and the battery sits on Murray Street. There is nothing else you need to know.

Fire ants... (SC)

Ed treats one of many mounds of fire ants on our campsite. They swarm at you when disturbed but are much smaller than I assumed. Nevertheless, we were careful walking around, especially at night.

An uncomfortable encounter, and back to camp... (SC)

After our harbor tour several of us went to the nearby Fort Sumter Visitor Center. The flag flown during the first attack is on display, and exhibits describe the politics that led up to the start of the war.

People like Lincoln weren’t always as unambiguously anti-slavery as painted by history:

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And in as much as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. [1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate]

As I read this statement I was distracted by a squeak to one side. I turned and locked eyes with a Windex-wielding black cleaning woman, looking like she thought I was annoyed with her. I nodded a kind of hello and turned away feeling very uncomfortable.

We returned to camp. This group loves sweets and nothing will warm you up faster than an ice cream social, rootbeer floats for all. There was also a 20-question trivia test based on our travels, and I’m sorry to say Marcia and I didn’t do well.

Charleston Harbor boat ride.… (SC)

Cool and blustery this morning, perfect day for a Charleston boat ride.

We carpooled in with Ed and Susan, crossing a beautiful new suspension bridge.

We boarded a pontoon tour boat with our group for a look at Cooper River and the Charleston Harbor. The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, commissioned in 1943 and now a museum ship, is here. We young people know her best as the Apollo 8 recovery ship.

Charleston Harbor is much larger than, say, San Diego Bay but the surrounding town much smaller. Charleston’s population is about 110,000 – less than Roseville. The metro population is maybe 600,000. From the harbor the views toward land are more of low-rise buildings, some dating back to the 17^th century.

Since the 1930s Old Charleston has had a rule that nothing over 75 years old gets torn down. Maybe this would be a good place to retire.

Our guide took us to a crab pot, the picture showing only a portion of the catch after only a few days. This was the first time we’ve actually seen blue crabs, famous on this seaboard.

The crabs were then tossed overboard, albeit perhaps a quarter mile from their last position of freedom. The guide said the empty shells were caused by feeding whelk.

The old island fort is Fort Sumter, which was fired upon by South Carolina forces, starting formal fighting in the Civil War. Of course, it had to be fired on again toward the end of the war, so the Union could retake it from the Confederacy. So the 1860s were tough on it. Our guide was nice but this is roughly her total commentary: “I’m not an expert on Fort Sumter, but I believe it used to be a little taller.” (She was right, we later confirmed at the Fort Sumter visitor center.)

Our boat landed us on Morris Island as countless migratory birds flew about. Marcia has done a lot of shell hunting on this trip, and this time she found long-coveted conch shells, intact. We also saw several horseshoe crabs, dead or sluggish, it was hard to decide; or perhaps it was a defense posture.

Not shown are the many dolphins that surfaced around our boat, diving before I could click the shutter. This looked great but was perhaps more exciting to the mid-states members of our caravan.

Myrtle Beach to Charleston (SC)

The south east has been in a prolonged drought so the rains have been most welcome to the locals. It rained all day yesterday and very hard from about 8 PM to midnight. No visible leaks!

This morning we moved camp from Myrtle Beach to the Mt. Pleasant/Charleston KOA. We deliberately travel in small clusters so we don’t block traffic, but at one time we were going around a bend and I could count five beautiful silver trailers in a row. Very impressive, but no photo, unfortunately.

Dead letter office? (NC)