Wednesday, April 4, 2018
We packed and left Georgia behind us heading up I-95. About 30 miles south of our destination we got off the big road and headed east on US 17A. Generally, we like these two lane highways and this one was very nice with pine woods on both sides and very small communities and side roads. And then everyone stopped. There was no traffic from the other direction except passenger cars turning around. There was very no shoulder to speak of and deep ditches on both sides. There was no way I could turn our rig around, so we waited, and waited, and waited with the big trucks. It’s nice to have our own travelling potty! Nearly got out our grill and beer…. About 2 ½ hours later we started moving again and soon passed the site of a bad wreck strewn across the road. So much for getting to Charleston early! We are camping tonight at the North Charleston KOA. This is our first commercial campground on this trip. We’ve been spoiled by spacious State Parks!
213 miles today
Thursday, April 5 and Friday, April 6, 2018
Our KOA is about 15 miles north of downtown Charleston. Like any big city it can take anywhere from 20 to 120 minutes to get anywhere. Traffic was heavy, by our standards, but we managed to get downtown both days. We found a very nice parking garage at the Gaillard Center for the Performing Arts near where we wanted to be. This works out very well for Felix because it’s shaded and cool with comfortable temps. We left some windows open and he curled up and went to sleep while we visited the Ft. Sumpter Visitor Center. We also spent parts of both days walking around the old part of the city. It was charming. The well-to-do built beautiful homes!
A mansion in old downtown Charleston.
Many of the older houses are quite narrow, tall, and deep. Luci referred to them as two windows and a porch wide.
This is the view of Fort Sumpter from Fort Moultrie. It is about 1 ¼ miles across the mouth of Charleston Harbor. Fort Moultrie was important in the Civil War, but much earlier, the first battle here was in the Revolution. In 1776 General William Moultrie built a fort out of palmetto logs and sand and mounted several batteries of guns. He drove off a British fleet of nine ships commanded by Admiral Sir Peter Parker and Charleston remained in the colonists’ hands for another four years. In 1780 the Brits and Cornwallis prevailed. The fort is named after Moultrie and he is buried here.
This is the remains of Castle Pickney, a Civil War era fort in Charleston harbor, flying the Stars and Bars.
Fort Sumpter started the Civil War as a three story brick fort like the drawing above. It was surrendered almost intact to the Confederates in 1861. In 1863 the Union landed on Morris Island across the harbor and began to shell the fort. 22 months later all that was left was a mound of rubble (below). The boat trip to the isle of Fort Sumpter was also great with dolphins bobbing in the water, and laughing gulls and pelicans leading the way.
-
-
image017
-
-
image021
We visited Magnolia Plantation on the banks of the Ashley River. Founded in 1676 it was the home of the Drayton family and is the last large scale romantic style garden in the US. Unlike most gardens which are formal and seek to control or at least restrain nature, these gardens intersperse Azalea, Camelia, and other flowers and shrubs with the natural woodland and swamps. Meandering paths and statuary in little cul de sacs were charming.
On the road
Rory and Luci
Blog: https://roryandluci.wordpress.com/
Westward Ho! 