Charleston, SC

Charleston is known as the”Holy City” for the number of churches you find there. It was founded in 1670 and known for its rich history and well preserved architecture. It was originally founded as Charles Town, honoring King Charles II.  our This visit was made even better by the fact that good friends,  Bill & Diane Wolff flew all the way from California to spend the Christmas week with us.
Our first visit was to  Boone Hall Plantation, founded in 1681 when Major John Boone came from England to Charleston and established  the plantation. His family and descendants were influential in the history of South Carolina.  Today,  it is owned by the McRaes and is still a working plantation. They grow a variety of fuits, vegetables and nuts.  The family opened up the bottom story of the mansion for tours, and  the second story for their own use.  Boone Hall is also the site of many movies such as  NORTH & SOUTH, GLORY, &  NOTEBOOK. The road leading up to the mansion was also the inspiration for the entrance of Twelve Oaks in   Gone With The Wind .  Since they didn’t film any of the movie at that location,  they took a photo of the entrance, took it back to Hollywood, and  used it as a backdrop.

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Chuck and Kris Gardner, a couple we met in  Myrtle Beach joined the four of us for dinner  at a great little place called Victorias. After a nice “southern fare”  Bill, Diane, Arline and I went to see a Christmas show at the historic Charleston Music Hall. It was a nice way to get into the spirit of Christmas.

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We went to St. John the Baptist Cathedral for Christmas Eve mass. It held  720 people but but by  the time mass began, people were standing against the walls and even out on the steps. Unfortunately the sound system was so terrible, none of us heard a single word.  Thank goodness for Christmas Carols.  The church  is noted for its Franz Mayer & Co. stained glass, hand–painted Stations of the Cross, and neo-gothic architecture. The cornerstone was laid in 1890, and the church opened in 1907.

Cathedral in Charleston

After Mass we all went to Fleet Landing, a seafood restaurant

right on the Charleston River. Diane was told flounder was”the thing” to order.

Fleet Landing Restaurant

 

On Christmas
Day, the four of us spent Christmas at our campground.  We had brisket and roasted poratoes and had a nice and relaxing day.

 

We took a ferry to Fort Sumter, the site where the American Civil War began. The Confederate artillery opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbor on April 12th at

Fort Sumter

4:30am 1861. Fort Sumter surrendered 34 hours later  As everyone was leaving and walking towards the ferry,  I noticed a monument honoring

Monument at Fort Sumter

those that defended the fort during the confederate bombardment. I knew I had Bringhurst family members in the civil ,and one was supposedly in this  battle what a surprise to find this.  A corporal nontheless.

It was great to see  you Bill and Diane.  You made Christmas wonderful.  Church and Kris, we hope to see you on the road.

Cape Hatteras & Myrtle Beach

Official excuse…We were having a great time during the holidays and because a few weeks in parks without wifi,  I am behind with the blog but will get caught up this week.

Outer Banks, Cape Hatteras, NC   Nov 30 – Dec 7, 2016

Cape Hatteras is part of the Outer Banks barrier islands off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina and is considered the highest risk area for hurricanes along the U.S. east coast, and I can see why. The island is about 100 miles long and at some points 150 yards wide. It is here that the famous Kitty Hawk is located where the Wright Bros first flew. Since we were following behind Hurricane Mathew in October we were a little concerned about damage.
We didn’t expect much to be going on this time of the year and we practically had the place to ourselves. As we drove south on the cape to our campsite, we passed piles of trash along the road,  including everything from parts of houses, small boats,  and even a jet ski, damages from the storm. The beach was  beautiful and deserted and Cody just loved it. We were one of 3 or 4 campers in the whole campground, so they let us choose where we wanted to park. the “sound” side or or the Atlantic side.  We chose the Atlantic side because it had the beach.  We were about a 100 yards from the beach separated by a large sand dune. We had the run of the place.  It also had an indoor jacuzzi – Arline was happy  about that.

We visited the tiny towns of Rodanthe, famous for the movie “Nights in Rodanthe, Nags Head, Hatteras Village, Buxton and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It’s the tallest lighthouose in the U.S. at 208′ and was built in 1870. Unique to the Outer Banks is the herd of wild horses descended from spanish mustangs which arrived close to 500 years ago. Unfortunatly, they were on the north side of the outer banks and a little too far to drive.

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Myrtle Beach, North Carolina, Dec 7 – 20

This was one of our two week stop overs that we used to catch up on things. We normally get our prescriptions from a mail order, and our doctor in Oakhurst Ca. just “called in” the refills as needed. It seems that our doctor was in a automobile accident and subsequently, a decision was made to close the entire clinic.  So no more refills!! We found an Urgent Care Clinic in Myrtle Beach and were able to get 90 day prescriptions to get us by till we get home.   This is one of the many  things about being on the road that we hadn’t planned for.

The big highlight of our stay in Myrtle Beach was the Christmas show at the Carolina Opry. It was my birthday present and what a great performance it was  Music, dancing, comedy…it really made my birthday, and Christmas, special.

At the Carolina Opry

The park was along an “inland waterway” that provided access to the ocean and we watched some pretty good sized “yachts” going by during our stay
We had some next door neighbors Chuck and Kris Gardner who were from Michigan.  They have been out on the road since October,  and they were on their way to a town just north of Charleston to get some work done on their generator.  We exchanged phone numbers and made a date to meet up with them at the next stop.

Viginia Beach

At Virginia Beach our trip slows down for a while. Over the past month or so, we have seen

Cody’s tired too!

and done a lot, and we’re ready for some rest. The city is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world, however, November really isn’t the time of year to put on your board shorts and get out your beach chairs. It is also home to many Naval installations one of which is the Dam Neck Naval Base. I know this because not long after we got here Arline wanted to go to a post office,  so I looked up “post office” on the GPS, chose the closest one and headed off. We drove on a major highway for a while and the GPS said to turn right on Dam Neck Road, I did.

Campground Waterways

GPS said to follow the road for a while and make a right turn. We past what looked  like the last street before coming up on a military base.  Sure enough,  I had no choice but to pull up to the guard at the Naval Base. I thought I would just tell them I was looking for a post office and made a mistake, turn around and be on my way. NOT!  They wanted my I.D. and wanted to know where I was

coming from. They put a cone behind the truck and an offical car pulled up with lights on behind me. After a short time the guard pointed out two  guards in front of me that I was to make a U-turn in front of and head out of the base. He would return my I.D. on the other side. Dang!  Don’t mess around with Uncle Sam’s Navy.

We were spending Thanksgiving at Virginia Beach,  and Arline thought about making a brisket or a small turkey breast for us. That sounded like would be a lot of work for the two of us so we decided to go to out to eat. During the time we were there we got to be friends with our neighbors Tim and Lori.  They are full timers,  and  Tim’s parents lived not too far from the park and are also members of the park and brought their own trailer for  Thanksgiving week . They were planning a big Thanksgiving dinner and we got an invitation to join them. That sounded better than spending Thanksgiving in a restaurant so we joined them for dinner. We brought a sweet potato pie, apple pie and corn pudding.  What a great family, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, grandpa, grandma and Craig & Arline,  and we were just part of the group. The turkey, ham, potatoes, dressing,  mac & cheese, cakes and pies  – what a feast we had.

Virgina Beach, Cape Hatteras, Charleston, Savannah and the Okefenokee Swamp next…