24 - Charleston, SC



Boone Hall Plantation, the 4th house (this time built from brick instead of wood)

FRIENDLY, SEXY, SOUTHERNERS:

Another place that had positive reviews was Charleston.  I suggested going there to Dave, who responded, "and what will we do there, what's there to see?" to which I shrugged and said "I don't know, but according to Wikipedia, it has civil war stuff, pretty Southern style homes and was voted America's Sexiest & Friendliest Place"... So on a whim, we decided to give Charleston a try. Our campsite, Jolly Acres RV Park (about 45 min from downtown Charleston) was a very nice campsite, complete with a dock & pond and food to feed the ducks and fish.
Our first full day was a Sunday and so not too many tours were open so we decided to drive to one of the more popular plantations North of Charleston, Boone Hall Plantation.  Boone Hall is one of the oldest active plantations (over 320 years) that today grows fruits & vegetables for the local markets as opposed to cotton, rice and indigo for England back in the 1700's.  When you look at the grounds, you kind of think you've seen this place before...we found out it is the most photographed plantation and has been the set for many movies & tv shows, (The Notebook, North and South, Days of Our Lives, The Queen, to name a few).


Row of Oaks along main drive up to Boone Hall Plantation



The plantation did a good job of mixing self guided areas with tours and performances/demonstrations to give you a better idea of what life was like in the 1700’s.

Slave quarters (the lucky ones & highest ranking)



Descendant from the time, illustrating the life and the Gullah language (slave slang)



Oldest tree on the plantation, approx 300 years!

THE LANGUAGE OF GULLAH:
Although we didn't do a tour about Gullah, we did learn from our plantation visit how it was derived and examples of what people would say. Today, if a person speaking Gullah was to recite Martin Luther's "I have a dream" speach, this is what a sentence would look like:

Ie hab uh dreem dat one uh dees ol’ day, ebby wally gwi’ be raise up, ebby hill ‘n mount’n gwi’ be mek lo’ down, de haad ruff place gwi’ be mek plain, ‘n de crookit place gwi’ be mek skrate, ‘n de glory ob de Lawd gwi’ be sho’ up, ‘n ebbyboddy gwi see um tegedduh.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

WALKING THROUGH HISTORY - DOWNTOWN:

 

The following day we spent on a walking tour of downtown Charleston. A little bit of history and architecture were the topics of discussion.  Charleston is like Washington D.C. in that there are no really tall buildings around. I liked how colorful the houses were painted, the wrought iron fences & gates, and bounty of trees & plants flowering everywhere.  It's like every square inch has something to look at. "This would be a fun place to live in" I thought, "yeah, but Dave would go crazy with the lack of space", was my second thought... We ended our day touring the Fort Sumter monument. Fort Sumter's claim to fame was being the site where the first shots were fired, starting the Civil War in 1861.



Fort Sumter, located about an hour from shore, (via ferry)



We were told if you are visiting Charleston for only a few days to plan on spending one day North of the city, one day in the city and the other South of the city on one of their beautiful beaches.



3rd largest cable stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere, New Cooper River Bridge



CONGAREE SWAMP:

Getting knee'd by a Cypress...in a swamp....???

We decided instead of visiting a beach to visit a swamp, or more aptly, a wetland area.  How many of us have had someone say, hey, let's go tour a swamp for fun?... Congaree National Park is a relatively young National Park (by designation) but in actuality is the oldest old growth bottomland hardwood forest in the US (bottomland meaning forests in lowland/floodplain areas).

Concerned about mosquitoes, we decided to walk the 3 mile, self guided boardwalk trail. One thing I learned was cypress knees. I had seen at craft fairs these wooden, cone-like objects, painted with some Christmas theme (mostly Santa Claus), but I never knew where they originated from. Since the wetland areas are prone to flooding, the cypress trees grow "knees" so that they can act as straws and allow the tree to breathe during flooding. 

Along the boardwalk

This kind of looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings, where are the Hobbits?

CHRISTINE THE TRUCK…

No, it's not something from a Stephen King book, it really, really happened!!!

We had considered going on an evening ghost tour but with logistics and having Catalina at home in the trailer, we decided to forgo the idea. Little did we realize we would have our own personal poltergeist experience. That night, while walking Catalina in the campsite, I noticed our truck started up. Curious, I walked towards the truck only to find Dave standing outside beside the truck looking straight at me all wide eyed. "Where's he going at this late hour?", I thought.  He wasn't going anywhere, he had heard the truck start up and came out of the trailer to investigate. I didn’t have the truck keys on me, they were in my purse in the trailer and Dave’s were in his pocket. So who started it???? Or should I say, “what” started it???

Well I guess we took this as a message that our truck wanted to go home...so after leaving Charleston, we started our way back to Texas, (with a stop here or there)...



Where Dave found Avril after the Christine incident..."is it safe to go back?"



23 - Great Smoky Mountains, TN

Have you ever been interested in going to a place just based on its name? I've always wanted to see the Great Smoky Mountains even though I wasn't even sure where they were. The only things I knew about them was that it's where Dolly Parton comes from and Ronnie Milsap sang about them in the 80's. Why are they called Smoky Mountains? Is it home for banjo playing hillbillies? Will we see more bears???...

To satisfy my curiosity, and add another chapter in our adventures, we travelled to Tennessee, (okay, that answers one of my questions from above!). Driving to the National Park, we had to pass through Pigeon Forge (a mini Las Vegas type attraction) in order to get to our campground in Gatlinburg, a small mountain resort town at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We didn't frequent any of the attractions at Pigeon Forge but you sure can get an eyeful from the road, definitely something for everyone!

Stock photo of Titanic attraction

I wonder what the bathrooms are like in this place???

Wait...do you hear banjos playing???

An awful lot of detail/construction for just the outside of this attraction.

Another stock photo of a well stacked lady!



One of many roller coasters at Dollywood





Gatlinburg had a nice look to it. reminded me a lot of Banff, Canada (another ski/mountain resort in the Rockies, just outside Calgary). Unlike the Rocky Mountains, the Smokies are smaller and more rolling. They are covered in a carpet of greenery and sit under an almost permanent bluish haze which is how they received their name.

The Smokies are the top visited national park in the US.  We discovered that first hand when driving the scenic Cades Cove Loop Road. This auto tour takes you through 11 miles of historical settlement areas from the early 1800's. There are many places to stop and hike trails or visit the historical buildings further. Surprisingly the 11 mile loop takes a couple of hours given the speed (or lack thereof) of the drivers in front of you. It is mountain driving with lots of twisty turny roads, so hopefully type "A" husbands won't get too worked up over it!


BEAR SPOTTING:

Yes we did see another bear, it appeared in front of the car in front of us. The driver of the car pulled over to the shoulder on the left hand side as the bear ambled along the middle of the road for a few more steps. Just as we were passing the bear, it ran into the trees to it's left. As we continued driving, we noticed the driver of the pulled-over car got out with his camera and headed off into the forest in the direction of the bear....All we thought was; that's an adolescent bear, I wonder where momma bear is? 

The next day we hiked 2 short but rather steep trails, (Chimney Top  & Clingman's Dome Lookout), but the views were worth it.  By the end of our second day I had learned the Smokies, being part of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, are the oldest mountains in North America.  Being glacier and ice age free, (the glaciers stopped just North of them), the plant & animal ecosystem here is quite unique.  Initially the name Great Smoky Mountains was derived from the gasses released from plants in the park, creating a bluish tint haze. Today most of the haze we see is from air pollution, (unfortunately).

Walking up Clingman's Dome Lookout, the highest point and great views

Clingman's Dome Lookout, kind of looks like a matchbox racecar track!

After being cooped up in the trailer for the last couple of days, (dogs are not allowed on the Park's trails), we decided to visit, "America's sexiest city" as well as "America's most friendly city"....