Saturday morning we packed up and headed north. Our destination for the day was Savannah Georgia. Just north of Brunswick we stopped in at the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, a Georgia state historic site. This place was quite neat. The plantation was in the family for many years and, at one time they had over 350 slave workers. After the American Civil War they fell onto hard times. The plantation went into debt until one of the heirs married into a wealthy family and converted the plantation into a dairy which was quite successful and ultimately got the family property out of debt. The last remaining heir to the property was Ophelia Dent. She bequeathed the entire property to the state of Georgia to showcase the historical period. What was really cool, for us and others viewing the place, was that the house, although not a mansion by any means, was on display exactly as it was the way Ophelia kept it until the day she passed away, an excellent display of heirloom furniture etc. (this was one of the only house tours where pictures were permitted inside). The front parlor was where Margaret Mitchell of Gone with the Wind fame enjoyed tea with the family. What is unique about this house is that it contains its own original furnishings. Almost all the other houses we have toured have furnishings suitable for the time of the house, but they do not have the original furnishings. During and after the civil war, many of the plantation houses were either burned or used to house union soldiers. Families fell on hard times and sold their furnishings, so it is not common to see such an intact household...
Continuing north on highway 17, we ended the day at the KOA in Richmond Hills, just outside Savannah, Georgia. Since we arrived fairly early, we decided to grab a bite to eat, have a bit of pooling then go into Savannah for one of the ghost tours. When we approached the southern side of Savannah we had seen a sign for a Smokin' Pig BBQ joint that seemed to be not too far from the KOA, so we headed out to find it. We looked and looked but couldn't find it so decided to just go back and have a swim, however on the way back to the KOA we spotted a large "BBQ" sign so whipped in there. It turned out to be Audry's Bar (read "AUDRY'S BIKER BAR") but it did serve up a decent salad and burger, although the fries really sucked. As for the bikers who were there at the time, well they were quiet and kept to themselves. One rather large young man adorned with numerous tattoos was wearing a black leather jacket with a large "Probationary Outlaw" patch on his back. We sort of hoped that this day wasn't the day for him to prove himself!!!
Anyway, we had time for a nice dip in the pool before driving into Savannah for the Ghosts and Gravestones Frightseeing Tour. The tour was quite fun and we saw and heard about numerous interesting places, people and goings on which we would likely have missed had it not been for taking the tour. The only negative is that we think the tour would've been much better if we had taken one late at night, but we had a 25 mile drive back to the KOA so had decided to take an earlier tour when it was still light out. Oh well, still pretty cool.
Since the trolley company had a package deal we decided to go back into Savannah on Sunday and take the city tour which has unlimited on and off privileges. The tour company had a shuttle that picked us up at the KOA at 9:00 and dropped us back there at 4:30 which made things considerably easier. It turned out we were the only ones on the shuttle that day so it was like a private chauffeur service taking into town and back out again. Once again the tour was quite good with the drivers all giving excellent constant narratives while they managed the trolley's through some very narrow streets. Being Sunday, unfortunately many attractions were closed, for example, the gift store for the "book" (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil). We thought about touring the Mercer Williams house but for $25 we decided the rather large crowd, small house (you only get to see part of the main floor) and short tour (limited to 30 minutes) wasn't in the cards for us, AND, they do not mention the shooting in the house which is the central part of the story of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Miss Chantilly, who played herself in the movie owns a club in the historic center of town where she still performs and I am sure she is as outrageous in person as she was in the movie. Apparently, tourism increased by more than 40% after the publication of the book; the first publisher rejected the manuscript as being "too much of local interest only".
We got off the trolley at the Pirate House restaurant which the previous night's tour hostess had raved about. It appeared to have an interesting history including inspiration for Stevenson's Treasure Island. The trolley driver informed us "this is the place to get some South in your mouth". We went in and got seated in a small room with only 3 tables. Midway through our meal a family came in and a young man immediately pulled out his cell phone and started a lengthy and loud conversation which didn't seem to bother his other family members nor the restaurant staff but did put a damper on the already rather mediocre experience for us. The food was not even decent bar type food. When we got back on the trolley afterwards, the driver asked how we liked it and our response was "it was remarkably unremarkable at best"... we were followed onto the trolley by a couple who exclaimed that this was the best stop of the whole tour route! Each to his own! We finished the day with our own grilled steak back at the KOA and sat out under a full moon enjoying a glass of wine, or two...
Monday we continued our trip north up highway 17 to Charleston, South Carolina. It was a short few hours drive and we arrived at the lovely Oak Plantation Campground early afternoon so spent the rest of the afternoon driving into Charleston and wandering along the ever popular King Street. On the way into town, always looking for indications of "git yer bbq here" joints we spotted a large sign advertising Bessinger's Bar-B-Que so wheeled in to give it a try.
Well... the honey mustard sauce, they are apparently famous for, was quite good; the coleslaw and potato salad were good; the peanut butter pie was good: the collard greens were very bitter; the ribs were more than a bit on the tough side and the pulled pork was not pulled, but finely chopped making it look more like bits of cat food than anything... not very appetizing. All in all, another mediocre experience.
Tuesday morning we were signed up for a tour out to Fort Sumter so drove into Charleston early enough to grab a coffee before the tour. We parked in a parkade near the wharf. While waiting for the elevator to the ground floor we struck up a conversation with a woman who was on her way to work. We asked her where we might be able to find some good South Carolina BBQ and she immediately perked up and said "...out on highway 17 there is a place called Bessinger's... it's the best for South Carolina BBQ...". She went on to talk about another place but said it was part of the Bessinger family so was the same. We smiled, nodded our heads and thanked her very much for the info. HMMMM...we expect we'll find much better Carolina bbq when we are further inland in a few weeks.
Anyway, the Fort Sumter tour was interesting. You have to sign up for a tour which takes 35 minutes to get to the island, have one hour at the fort then a 35 minute return trip to the wharf. To be honest, an hour at the fort is more than adequate. Although it has been somewhat restored, it is a mere shell of what it must have been (based on pictures and text about the fort) before the Civil War. A massive concrete blockhouse named "Battery Huger" built late in the 1800's overshadows most of the original interior. There are a few interesting features such as some Union shells embedded in the walls...
and the different cannons deployed in the era, in particular the rifled cannon barrels made to fire the spiral type shells which were more accurate and longer range. On the boat ride over to the fort, the ranger had to make a speech outlining the dangers on the island and some of the rules; for example, and we quote "... this might sound really stupid to have to say it, BUT...do not stuff your child into a cannon!". Hadn't occurred to us that anyone would want to stuff their own children into a cannon...
Returning to Charleston we utilized the free downtown trolley system to take us near the College and major shopping districts such as King Street. We were both hankering for a bit of pizza so stopped at the Mellow Mushroom pizza place on King before continuing on over to the Museum of the Confederacy at Meeting and Market streets. This museum is basically a room stuffed with Confederate related, well, stuff! And the Daughters of Confederacy who run the place are very serious about their stuff. At one point after viewing "a sliver from a tree under which Lee sat", we half expected to see a sample of "... here is a General Lee booger...". This museum somewhat helps to explain the complex feelings of the south as illustrated in the Tony Horwitz book "Confederates in the Attic" where it is suggested that the south will arise again one day. If at first you don't secede, try try again. It seems to be a bit like Quebec in Canada. History will tell.
Later that day we ventured over to the Southside Bar and Grill a short drive from the campground. A decent sized crowd, lots of sports on numerous TVs. The owner, Doug, dropped by our table to see how we were doing and we had a good chat with him. Nice place.
Wednesday we awoke to a very rainy day. We took our time getting ready to go out as the rain was slowly abating. We started the day with a drive over to Johns Island for a Starbucks at the Piggly Wiggly (yes, the Piggly Wiggly, a fairly upscale grocery chain in these parts). We are Big on the Pig, as their posters proclaim. Then it was off to find the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. We did a tour of the old slave quarters as well as the main house... can you guess which this one would have been...
Magnolia Gardens are interesting in that they have been open to the public for tours since the 1870's. The last plantation family owner had tuberculosis and was recommended to work outside in the fresh air for his health. With some of the former slaves who stayed on after the war as free men and also worked in the gardens they created a real masterpiece. They are fully recognized as the master gardeners and some of their descendants still work at the gardens...
All in all, it was very interesting. Unfortunately it started raining fairly hard again (hence no pic of the main house) so we opted out of wandering around the gardens and the swamp, deciding instead to head into Charleston and tour another old historic antebellum house, the Aiken-Rhett House. This house is now owned by the Historic Charleston Foundation and they have chosen to take a conservation approach rather than a restoration approach for this house, meaning that it remains in a somewhat disheveled state, however this gives you a great perspective as to the construction and keep of the house and associated out buildings. After we went down to the foundation's gift store where Kris picked up a very cool silver rice spoon. Then we went up the street to the Hyman's Seafood Restaurant where we had a very nice seafood dinner. While there the owner came by and we chatted for awhile. That's twice in two nights, very good customer relations. Later we headed back to the campground and over to the Southside 17 bar and, yes, Doug the owner came by and chatted again for awhile. This night they also had a very good band playing.
Anyway, the Aiken=Rhett house was so interesting we decided to stay another day in Charleston so that we could visit the Nathaniel Russell House, another historic house owned by this same foundation. This federal era house has been restored and is being preserved in a state as it would have been back in the early 1800s. Another fabulous tour.
Afterwards we wandered around some of the old streets of Charleston. One of the neatest architectural styles we found in Charleston is that of the Charleston Single House. Notice the porches are on the side of the house...
Later we headed back to the campground, the bar and, yes, a chat with Doug the owner. Doug explained the reason for the porch on the side. He said it was because the houses were taxed based on the size of the front (or street) facing side. So they built the houses so they were small on the street side and much longer back into the property with the porch on the side. They are very cool.
Friday we headed north farther up the South Carolina coast. Since it was the beginning of the weekend we decided to make a reservation for Friday and Saturday night at the KOA in Myrtle Beach (the KOA website suggested that reservations are always a good idea at Myrtle Beach)... We stopped for a brief rest stop in Georgetown, about an hours south of Myrtle Beach. What a delightful place Georgetown is. The historic downtown and waterfront was a very pleasant place to wander. Many of the old houses have placards on the front porch indicating the year in which they were built. The oldest we saw was in the late 1700s. We stopped and chatted with a woman sweeping her porch. She explained the efforts they have to make to keep their historic house looking good and some of the bylaws requiring older houses to be maintained. She and her husband were planning to raise their house about 4-6 feet within the next few years. Later we saw a plaque indicating the height of water in the "flood of the century" when most of the waterfront downtown would have been under about 6 to 8 feet of water so we had an idea of what that couple was thinking.
Carrying on to Myrtle Beach, we arrived mid afternoon to some of the worst traffic we have seen on this trip. After setting up the wee trailer at the KOA, we decided to go and find a nice place by the beach where we could have some munchies and a glass of wine. Leaving the KOA we headed north on the main drag, The King's Hwy, where the traffic was so heavy, it took over an hour to go about 13 blocks. We finally bailed on that and tried to backtrack along the Coastal Blvd closer to the beach. Same thing. The traffic is so bad, they actually have bylaws here banning "cruising". We eventually came upon the 2nd Ave Pier which has a restaurant and bar overlooking the beach. We decided to give it a try... outcome: ok wine, less than mediocre food, but a great view...
Initial impressions of Myrtle Beach... an example of development run rampant with few if any controls. Seems a bit like the strip in Las Vegas except with a much younger crowd. Likely the locals stay far away from the beach front area. According to the Wikipedia entry for Myrtle Beach, they some 14.6 million visitors each summer...OMG!
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