April 13-15

Charleston SC

We departed Savannah on Monday morning for a short drive up the coast to another historic US city, Charleston SC. The convoy included 3 rigs – ours,  Wayne and Lynn’s and our California friends.

In 1670, Charles Town was founded by the British. Approximately 200 years later it would become Charleston when the American’s defeated the Brit’s in 1865. The city is much larger than Savannah, but still expels a significant amount of “southern charm” with it’s friendly residents (they leave their garden gates open for visitors to “look in”, but please don’t enter), architecture, religion and unique culture.

We decided on Tuesday that we would go on a 2 hour guided walking tour, with a lifelong Charlestonian while the other’s decided on a 2 hour guided bus tour. Our tour started at 10:30am and it went to about 12:45pm. Our group had 14 people in it and the guide was great and we really enjoyed it. We learned a lot and walked a lot! Our final recommendation from the guide was a recommendation on King Street for some authentic South Carolina BBQ. (they take claim to the term southern BBQ – which usually means pork). After a great meal and some cold libations (another hot and humid day touring), we decided to head to some areas of the historic area that we hadn’t seen. After a couple more of hours of walking (and sweating), we reconnected with Wayne and Lynn and headed back to camp arriving around 4:30pm. We had decided earlier to have a BBQ (burgers and salads) and a camp fire after dinner. Our California friends(Bill and Marilyn) where invited to join us and we had a nice evening (warm) chatting.

Wednesday, the four of us were up and in Wayne’s truck by 9 am heading to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. That morning, the weather was tenuous but the weather held out with pleasant temps of the high 70’s and only a couple of sprinkles around mid afternoon. Magnolia has a long and storied history just like Charleston which I won’t get into in any depth. Arriving around 9:45, we purchased the all inclusive package with 4 guided tours (45 min each)which covered the nature train, the house tour, the Nature boat and the Slavery to Freedom tour. There was also a self guided “swamp tour”.

Magnolia use to be a 2,000 acre parcel and is now approx. 500 acres. In the 1800’s it was a working rice plantation. Around 1870, the plantation was opened as a tourist attraction by one of the Drayton’s, John who was an ordained minister, who needed the money to keep and maintain the property. A beautiful property and definitely something to see. If you want more information – http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/  or take a look at a few of our pics below….

More Magnolia pics to follow once we get better internet service…