These Bostonians found Charleston, SC a fantastic walking city rich with history.

Did I say this is a four-month journey?  Actually, we’re kinda gone for 18 weeks.  That’s a long time, and there are two good reasons for such a long duration.  First, it’s all about Neil the Northpoint. Well, he’s a sensitive, warm weather kind of guy.  Doesn’t do well in the cold, so we’re reluctant to return to Massachusetts much before April 1.  A second, and more important, reason is that all stops on the trip are for at least 7 days (mostly, as there are a couple of small exceptions). The quick turnaround stays of 4 or 5 days remind us of our earlier life when we used to vacation.  In time, we have figured out that there’s a distinction between “vacation travel” and “retirement travel”.  Vacation travel, for us, usually involved a hectic week of seeing or doing as much as possible before having to return to work.  Always trying to squeeze the most enjoyment out of vacation time because the time was so limited.  Nay, nay, not anymore!  Time is no longer my enemy (actually, the weather is now my enemy, but that’s a topic for a different time).  We’re not on vacation, there’s time to see what we want. 

Judy has grown into a second career of being our travel guide extraordinaire.  Easily two weeks before visiting a campsite Judy is hard at work organizing our explorations. Furiously writing notes in a spiral bound notebook, she combs through internet search engine results and travel articles.  Investigating area museums, getting restaurant suggestions, mining local announcements for festivals and fairs are just some of the places Judy may look for adventure.  But Judy will dig deeper checking local venues for shows or performances and is never too shy to ask for suggestions from the people we meet along our travels, transcribing notes into her phone for review later. In the end we have a list of tours, excursions, or sightseeing adventures to choose from and, after a review of the weather forecast, decisions are made on what to book, visit, or explore.  It’s really quite scientific.  LOL.

And, at no time was this more evident on our eight-day stop in Charleston, SC.  We were actually staying in a town on an island immediately north of Charleston called Mount Pleasant. Only a 13-mile drive down Rte. 17 and up over the 1,500-foot-long cable-stayed Ravenel Bridge which spans the Cooper River.  From the perspective of the bridge, downtown Charleston looked kind of small.  Measuring basically 2 miles by 1 mile, and without a single skyscraper type building. Apparently, the soft land made of mostly sand and clay is incompatible with supporting tall buildings.  Ohh, and I am also to understand they have as many as 10-15 small earthquakes a year. Great land for making bricks, but not so good for tall masonry buildings. But I digress. The point is, we were very close to Charleston, and made many full day trips into town.

• We started our visit by taking a ferry boat ride out into Charleston Harbor to visit Fort Sumter, which is on a manmade island, ½ a mile off the mud flat shores of James Island.  It was originally made on an island reinforced with stone from the north, after the war of 1812, when the new American government was trying to bolster the shore defenses. Ironically, this fort was intricately involved in the history of the Civil War as both the starting and near ending point.  There is so much Civil War history tied up in the fort, so do yourselves a little reading if you are interested.

• Charleston is a very walkable small city of less than a million people.  And walk we did.  We caught a 2-hour walking tour of historic Charleston, followed by a little exploring ourselves.  Then came back a day later to take a food tour of the same city and re-visit some museums we were not able to look through on the previous day’s visit.  Food included She-crab Soup at Charleston Crab House which was outstanding. Then we then had “boil plate” at Locco Seafood, which we both thought was OK. Our third stop served pulled pork sliders and collard greens.  Loved the pulled pork, never had collard greens, so we tried them.  We can now say we’ve had collard greens. To me, they were not that tasty and kind of mushy. Our last stop was dessert, a cannoli cake from Carmella’s Café.  The cannoli cake was delicious, especially when served along with a piping hot cup of coffee. We were quite full after, so we lingered in the café, carrying on a conversation with a lovely couple from Colorado, Marilyn and Doug.  News Flash!  When you walk around for a couple hours with other couples and “share a meal” so to speak, you’re sure to spend additional time engaging in all manners of pleasant conversation.  We then invited our fast acquaintances to join us on our additional walking explorations of Charleston.

Judy & Steven enjoying Shecrab Soup

• How about a visit to America’s only Tea Garden where tea is actually grown and harvested.  Yes, that’s right, the only place in the US where tea is made is called the Charleston Tea Gardens located on Wadmalaw Island, SC. The garden is quite large, at 127 acres, and grows tea plants that are descendants of the original plants brought in from England in the 1700s. The actual tea plants have a fascinating history, beginning with Dr. Charles Shepard’s “Pinehurst Tea Plantation” prior to the Civil War.  This plantation, and the tea plants on it, were deserted after the war when the plantation economy collapsed. Then, in 1963, Shepard’s original tea plants were transplanted from Pinehurst Plantation to a converted potato farm, which eventually became the Charleston Tea Garden. For the next 24 years, research was conducted on the experimental farm. In 1987, a forward-thinking entrepreneur named Bill Hall purchased the land.  Bill, a third-generation tea taster who received his formal training during a four-year tea apprenticeship in London, England, converted the research and development farm to a commercial operation. 

Tea Gardens

• Being situated on Mount Pleasant, we were within 2 miles of a fairly large plantation museum called Boone Hall.  One of the oldest continuously working farms in the country, this 735-acre former plantation was beautiful, and a realistic representation of what a plantation looked like in the Antebellum period. The gardens and the avenue of live oaks were magnificent. This is a very popular marriage venue, and we can understand why. The Plantation has had a storied history after the Civil War, and there is a very authentic and honest portrayal of the hard lives of the West African slaves.   There is no attempt by the current farm owners to sugar-coat the horrible conditions that hundreds of slaves endured whilst living on the plantation and picking Sea Island Cotton.  There is also a very uplifting presentation of the Gulla Geechee people, who are the descendants of West and Central Africans who were enslaved and brought to the lower Atlantic states of NC, SC, GA, and Northern FL to work on the coastal rice, Sea Island cotton and indigo plantations.

Boone Plantation Ave of Live Oaks

Planning to make Charleston our first stop on this journey across the south was a fortunate case of plain old dumb luck.  There was so much to do and see, and, let me also say that good ole Mother Nature also cooperated and, although it was not as warm as we may have wanted, it was sunny and rainless for most of our stay.  We Bostonians were very impressed with Charleston, and often found ourselves comparing Charleston to Boston.  Both cities have rich histories.  Both cities are on the small side.  Both cities have always had active ports, and vibrant commerce.  But before we could start checking real estate prices in the search for that perfect two-bedroom condo in historic downtown Charleston, it was time to start packing up the camper for our trip further down the coast and across the state line into Georgia.   Neither of us has ever been to Georgia before, and we’re headed to the Golden Isles region.  St. Simons Island, Sea Island, Little St. Simons Island, and Jekyll Island are barrier islands which lie along Georgia's Atlantic coast south of Savannah.  And we’re headed there as we tell…the Rest of the Story.