Charleston, SC

Saturday, March 30th – Sunday, March 31st

On Saturday we did final preparations for leaving Brunswick and went to visit the bunnies one more time at Blythe Island. Spring has definitely sprung in the low country so lots of greenery for the bunnies to be feasting on. We only saw two fat bunnies who we could ply with some celery greens and a little banana. They did eat out of our hands though…. until they grew bored. We also walked over to the fishing pier and saw two ro-ro (roll on-roll off) ships in port across the river. Again, those are the ships that have vehicles as their cargo. We were chatting with two folks fishing who happened to have jobs moving the cars around to the various parking lots. Apparently longshoremen have the jobs of off-loading the cars from the ships. 7,000 cars can fit in one ship. From there they get shipped around the country via truck or train. And, sometimes the US is shipping vehicles to foreign lands, too. A woman we were chatting with said that she’s had to move cars where the speedometer is in kilometers rather than mph. As she said, rather tough to know how fast you’re going. 

We had one last walk around the campground after dinner to say goodbye to Coastal Georgia RV Park. 

Sunday dawned and it was time to break camp and hit the road again. After being parked for three months, one hopes that the slides will come in and the landing gear will go up. Luckily all worked fine, although the landing gear made some funny noises I could have done without. We hit the road. I-95 was busy with all the snowbirds heading north. There were more out-of-state plates on the road than in-state. 

We have reservations at James Island County Park outside of Charleston. From I-95 we followed 17 North then some narrower roads to get to the county park. The roads near the park are lined with trees with low overhanging branches across the roads. Very pretty but we are 13’5 tall towing the 5th wheel. It was a trip! I was a tad (maybe more than a tad) freaked out but we got there ok. We backed into our site like pros… only problem was the site wasn’t level so it took Gary awhile to get us level. We’re supposed to be able to push a button and the leveling gear does its thing automatically but, if you’re too far out of whack, it doesn’t work that way and you have to manually level yourself.  Only casualty from the day’s travel was one of the turnstile cabinets attached to the kitchen bar had opened up in transit and now Gary needs to make a repair to fix the catch. Then when we headed out walking later that same night, Gary noticed water leaking under our tiny home. Turns out one of the hoses had a fitting come lose. He was able to fix the fitting. We think. If it’s not one thing, it’s another with these tiny homes. Part of the deal. 

Tomorrow we explore Charleston!

Monday, April 1st

We headed into Charleston for the day. Temps were cool… in the 50’s and partly sunny.  It took us a little while to find parking but we found a large empty lot across from the very pretty U.S. Customs building (built in 1892) down by the waterfront. I’ve marked that little parking find for future trips when we’re visiting Charleston. 

We started with the Charleston City Market. Established in 1790 with Market Hall, it now stretches across four city blocks through three one story sheds connected to Market Hall. Home to over 300 vendors, you can find clothing, jewelry, art, and, of course, food. We settled for purchasing Charleston Pecan Tea Cookies and Dried Okra Chips. Because really, why not? Gary was excited about one of the purchases. 

We wandered down to Waterfront Park and the Pineapple Fountain. (Yes, it looks like a pineapple.) You’re actually allowed to wade into the fountain, although too cool for that today. Then we walked down to Rainbow Row. The name for a row of 13 historic homes all painted different pastel colors. Rainbow Row also sits along the Battery, a Civil War-era defensive seawall and promenade along the Charleston Harbor. Now a beautiful wide elevated walkway with magnificent stately antebellum homes across the road with a view of the Harbor. The homes are gorgeous! I can’t imagine what they cost! There’s also a park at the Battery called White Point Garden with cannons, green space, park benches, beautiful live oaks, and flowering bushes. From there we wandered back through the French Quarter taking in our fill of historic homes with beautiful little side gardens and lovely doorways. To me, this part is quintessential Charleston. We also saw all denominations of historic churches, including one of the oldest Unitarian Churches in the country, a French Protestant Huguenot Church which is the only one left in the country, and a Circular United Church of Christ with a very unique design. We stumbled upon historic Dock Street Theatre which just happened to be open for a free tour. It’s considered America’s First Theatre and is still operational. 

We had bypassed lunch and needed to find something to eat…. my granola bar had long since warn off and we had tucked our earlier food purchases from the City Market back into the truck. We came across King Street, the elite high rent district shopping area… very 5th Avenue or Newbury Street-esque… only quainter. About the only thing we could afford on the street was gelato. That worked!  After walking about 5 miles for the day exploring, it was time to head for home… or more precisely Home Depot so Gary could pick up some materials to make that cabinet repair previously mentioned. We fought our way through the Charleston rush hour traffic and got back to our tiny home around 6. Luckily dinner was easy… stew from the freezer. 

Charleston is a gorgeous city so I’m apologizing in advance for the number of photos I’ve included in this post! I couldn’t help myself! 

Tuesday, April 2nd

Today was rainy in the morning so we had a leisurely start to the day. Gary made breakfast… eggs and bacon. Then we headed out to visit Angel Oak on Johns Island. It’s a behemoth live oak tree estimated to be 300-400 years old. It’s the oldest tree east of the Mississippi. It is larger than anything imaginable. It towers 65 ft. high and has a circumference of 25.5 ft. Its area of shade is 17,000 square feet. It’s unbelievable. It was beyond humbling to be in front of something so old and so magestic. I cried. Although perhaps that had something to do with the signs asking you to “admire me and let me be; please do not lean on me, climb on me, or scratch your initials into me.” To think that someone might actually do that. The tree could live as long as 900 years, that’s the life expectancy if it’s taken care of. Remarkable.  

Next we visited the Charleston Tea Plantation about 10 miles down the road from the Angel Oak. It’s the only large-scale tea plantation in North America where you can see hundreds of thousands of tea bushes stretching out acre after acre. It’s owned by the Bigelow family. As many of you know, I am an avid tea drinker! It was fun to learn how tea is made. They had a free factory tour which explained the process, although none of the machines were actually running while we were there. There’s a custom made harvester (the only one like it in the country) that comes along and clips the top 3-4” of leaves from the tea bushes. They can do this four or five times during a growing season. The leaves are then collected and brought to the processing plant to get put onto a Withering Bed which helps the green leaves to soften up and expel the excess water present. Then the leaves are put on to an Oxidization Bed where the tea leaves are exposed to oxygen in the atmosphere during rolling of the tea leaves. Oxidation creates the flavor and aroma. Black tea is on the bed for about 30 minutes and has that dark rich flavor. Oolong tea, frequently served in Chinese restaurants, is on the bed for about 15 minutes and has an amber color and Green tea spends virtually no time being oxidized which is why I think it has zero flavor… but I digress. White, Green, Black, and Oolong tea all come from the same tea leaves. Fascinating!  They did offer a trolly tour where you could ride around and see the tea bushes and visit the greenhouse and see the new seedlings. But at $14 a person, we decided to let that go. We were able to see some of the tea bushes just across from the main building.

Tomorrow we head to Murrells Inlet, which is just south of Myrtle Beach. Since I was concerned about how we were going to exit the campground and not smack the top of our tiny home with low-lying branches, we stopped at the front office to ask the best route for getting out of here. The worker bees suggested an alternate route that was not on the campground’s information. Figures. I’m feeling better about leaving with our new found knowledge!