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?"