Charleston SC

We left Pirateland RV Park on Thursday, Nov. 6 and headed down South US 17 to Charleston, SC, a nice easy 100-mile drive. One thing about the route we decided to take this fall has been the depth of history one can cover going down the east coast.

Bridge across the Cooper River

Charleston is one of those places were the European settlers came to develop business for the rich in Europe then decided independence was a better deal. The Charleston Harbor was the scene of naval action by the British, and the Civil War; just so much history concentrated in these places!

Flags flying over Ft. Sumter

We had selected Lake Aire RV Park in Hollywood, SC as our home for the next week; it is about 12 miles south of downtown Charleston. We downloaded the trike, took a nice walk through the park, and then the wind and rain moved in. With the trike we had to wait for the weather to clear or get wet. It rained off and on for the next day and a half! Stuck in the RV again!

It rained so much we didn’t get out to pick out a church during our travels, as we usually like to do. So Sunday morning we jumped on the trike and headed out at 10:15am. Lynn said we would just find a church up the road that started at 10:30 or 11:00 o’clock. Now that is a real church raffle! We spotted Garden of Gethsemane Church, a small residential home converted to a church.

As we entered to worship we found ourselves greeted with beautiful smiles and warm hugs of an all Black congregation; too late to turn around and leave in what felt like an uncomfortable situation, (this was only due to the fact that it was “different” than what we had expected). Anyway, we planted ourselves in the middle of the row right in front of us. We immediately knew that this must be where God wanted us this morning! We were welcomed so warmly that we began to feel at home in spite of being the only white faces in the place. What a good yet different worship experience! The spirit-filled service lasted 2 ½ hours. We said later that it was the most energetic church service we’ve ever been in! The songs we thought we knew where sung to a somewhat different tune, and as usual by good singing voices and energetic off-key ones as well. What a joyful noise unto the Lord! When we left the service we had some new friends and a new church to pray for.

We headed across town to visit Boone Hall Plantation. Lynn wanted to see the Live Oak drive to the mansion that inspired Margaret Mitchell when she wrote “Gone With the Wind”. Charleston is on a peninsula jutting out into the bay flanked by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. You have to cross both rivers to get back to the north side of town. The bridge over the Cooper is new and is very pretty. Arrived at Boone Hall too late to make it worth the fee to go in and look around, (45min before closing and no discount for the $17.50 each entry fee!). We went down the road to the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site. Who is Charles Pinckney you may ask? We did too! We found out that he was one of the youngest delegates to the Constitutional Convention and signers of the Declaration of Independence, one of South Carolina's finest!

Later that afternoon we took a drive around historic downtown Charleston, thankful for having the trike and not the KW due to the very small and narrow streets, very typical of these old cities.

We proceeded across the bridge to James Island and rode through the Charleston Festival of Lights at the county park, very much like Hines Drive at Christmas and really put us in the holiday spirit. It was dark and cold as we headed home to Lake Aire Campground.

Monday we headed back into town to take a combination bus and boat tour of historic downtown Charleston and Ft. Sumter. This city has all the southern charm of the gracious old south, (you know Rhett Butler made a good living as a smuggler here in “Gone With The Wind”).

There are many things to see and do here and a tour like this gives a good overview of all of it, Bruce recommends it as a good first step, unless you know the city. We didn’t get a chance to do a deep exploration this trip but there will probably be a next time for Charleston!

Fort Sumter

Inside the Fort

Bruce wanted to see Ft, Sumter being somewhat of Civil War history follower, (if you read some of the other post on this blog he will not claim to have the in-depth knowledge of the “real” history buffs). But that said, he found it interesting to visit Ft. Sumter and learn more about its place in our nation’s history. Lynn enjoys, (and learns!), history in this fashion, since she didn’t like it in school!

On the way home we stopped for dinner at a local BBQ place and had some excellent Carolina BBQ ribs, I would tell you the name of the place but I can’t remember, its on S. US 17, a couple miles from downtown on the west side of the road.

Tuesday morning was cold and blustery; Bruce rode the trike to Hollywood SC to pick up our mail, came back to campground and loaded the trike, and we got ready to leave in the morning. We have decided it’s time to head for the Florida beaches. We’ve had enough of the “unusually cold for this time of year”, and “record lows”.