10th Installment – June 26 & 27 From Charleston to North Carolina Waterfalls

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE 9 OTHER  INSTALLMENTS GOING BACK TO MAY WHEN WE BEGAN OUR TRIP THAT ARE AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING IN THE BLOG ARCHIVE ON RIGHT SIDE OF SCREEN.

June 26 Sunday

We left the Campground at James Island County Park in Charleston SC on I26 heading west up into the mountains and away from the sweltering coast. 




On I26 going west from Charleston toward the mountains.

 

 



Off the interstate and on to state highway 76 near Clinton and headed diagonally west and north on 76 and 25 toward Clemson



Now I know exactly where we are.

Had to stop for some boiled peanuts.  That’s the proprietor.  Second time in my life I’ve tried them.  They’re okay.

We went through Clemson but did not visit the university as we continued to and through Walhalla on hwy 28 and up hwy 107 to Oconee.

 

Every grave at the Oconee Memorial Cemetery had flowers.



We stayed here for the night.

There’s a small lake through the woods behind the camp.



fishing dock



Closer to sun down the action picked up.  The red-headed boy in foreground was serious about his fishing.

The lake was kind of pea green, but made for nice reflections

This guy didn’t care about the color of the water.

June 27 Monday

It rained overnight, but was sunny and clear in the morning as we left the campground at Oconee State Park.  After awhile it seemed to me we were going the “wrong” way, so I turned around and went back past the campground the other direction.  We ended up going back and forth on the highway several times for a mile or three in each direction until I finally recognized something and turned around again to go the same direction we had been going when I turned around the first time.  Usually I have a pretty good sense of direction, but was definitely confused for awhile this morning.

The “right” direction.

Higher in the mountains with view to east of Lake Jocassee.

Whitewater Falls at 411' is tallest east of the Rockies.  Who knew?

 

First close-up of of rhododendrons, which are trees here in NC mountains.



And rasberries too along the ¼ mile or so hike from parking lot to see the Falls.  Yes, I picked some and the reddest ones were almost ready to be just right, but just a bit early.

 

A bypass goes under the falls



Not much traffic, so we stopped and posed

Dry Falls – so called because you can follow trail behind the falls.  It’s a short walk from parking lot.

The falls were taller than they looked on approach – view downstream.

From behind Dry Falls.

Looking back from the other side of Dry Falls.

436 



Somewhere along US 64, 19 or US129 between Dry Falls and Robbinsville, NC.



We spent the night here in Robbinsvile, NC.

The San-Ran advertises as motorcycle friendly as do a lot of other places along US 129 which is known as Tail of the Dragon and attracts motorcylicsts from around the world.  However, we didn’t learn that until the next day as we drove the Tail of the Dragon, which turned out to be an especially winding, curving, climbing and then descending road around the western border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Tomorrow we pass through  Pigeon Forge, home of Dollyville and then travel into Great Smoky Mountains National Park and to Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the Appalachian Trail, and on through Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the Blue Ridge Parkway.



9th Installment - June 25 Charleston, SC and Fort Sumter

9^th Installment -  June 25 Charleston, SC and Fort Sumter

This morning we drove in to Charleston to go to Fort Sumter.  There are 2 locations where you can take a ferry out to the Fort which is built on an island that guards the entrance to Charleston Harbor.  One ferry landing is in downtown Charleston and the other is across the Harbor in Mt. Pleasant at the USS Yorktown (an aircraft carrier) State Park.  The Yorktown has a museum on it about Medal of Honor wianners.  We didn’t go aboard or visit the museum which would have been another $25 a head or so for the opportunity, and it would have been too much for Reyna to hike up and down and around the decks anyway.  .

We crossed this bridge to get over to Mt. Pleasant from Charleston.



USS Yorktown




The small bump on the horizon in the middle of the picture is the island with Fort Sumter guarding the entrance to the Charleston Harbor





The black building with the flags on top was not part of the original Fort.




The flat stones in the foreground are part of the original wharf landing from when the Fort was built.



  



This is the Battle Flag that flew over Ft. Sumter during the bombardment.  It's 10' x 20'.  The Confederate General P G T Beauregard permitted Major Anderson, the Union commander, to take the Flag with him when the Federal forces evacuated the fort.



While wandering about the Fort and reading one of the many plaques about the battle, I came to one that described how Union forces had managed to fire only a hundred rounds or so while the Confederates bombarded the Fort with several thousand over some 34 hours before the Union forces evacuated the Fort and surrendered it to the Confederates.  The Confederates were said to have cheered and admired the courage of the Union defenders, but I guess not everybody heard that part of the story because I overheard a young woman tell her friends that “we” really kicked the you know what out of “them”. 
Amazingly, there were no casualties on either side during the battle.  The only death on either side occurred on the next day. One of the Union commander’s conditions for giving up the Fort had been the right to fire a 100 gun salute to the flag. Half way through the salute a gun exploded, killing Private Daniel Hough, making him the first casualty of the Civil War.
We returned to Mt. Pleasant and while looking for a place to have lunch, I finally saw a shoe repair place.  I’d been looking for one for weeks to get the straps on my sandals stitched before they came completely apart.  Typical of many small kindnesses that we have experienced on this trip, the Korean proprietress (she is seamstress and husband does the shoes in their shop) told me they’d be ready in 3 days, but when I explained that we were tourists just passing through, she agreed to repair my sandals right away which I really appreciated.

After having lunch, and retrieving my wonderfully repaired sandals, Reyna and I went to downtown Charleston to check out more antebellum houses.  There is a seawall with a wide sidewalk/boardwalk across the street from these homes.  It is about 10' above street level.  It's accessible via stairs, so I parked and took a little walk to take these pictures instead of my usual drive by snaps.  Being in the breeze right at the Harbor was nice place to be considering the heat and humidity we were otherwise experiencing in Charleston.  Was looking forward to going back to our campground and the Splash Zone. :)

Lucky to find convenient parking place. 

By now, Reyna and I were pretty tired of viewing “old” houses no matter their historic import or style, so we returned to our campground and spent an hour or so cooling off at the Splash Zone.  Really, really like the waterfall massage.  Tomorrow we’re on our way west to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and then the

Blue Ridge Parkway

beckons.

8th update -- Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC

June 22 -- Savannah

The drive from Atlanta to Savannah was about 250 miles and all on Interstate, so not so interesting to us.  We have noted how everything is green.  We are actually getting tired of nothing but green.  And the trees grow so thickly along the highways that there is no view except a hedge of trees.  And some of the trees are tree farms, so the uniformity is especially boring to this highway traveler.  Actually, that was my impression from the time, but as we’ve driven on more Interstate on the east coast since we returned, I realized that it was the Interstate Highway driving and not the scenery that was so boring.  We’ve gotten used to the US and State and County highways and byways that have curves and turns and variety of small town scenery compared to our fine Interstate system. 

While in Savannah, I met a former LA resident who had moved to Atlanta a couple of years ago and was vacationing in Savannah.  He told me that he had headaches for the first few months living in Atlanta and finally figured out that they resulted from straining his eyes to find an opening in the trees along all the roads and highways he drove on.  There aren’t any. 

We checked in to the Thunderbird  Motel, which was conveniently located near downtown Savannah and went out to find some seafood for dinner.  We went to River Street which is alongside the Savannah River (duh) and is the old waterfront.  River Street is a cobblestone street made from ballast from sailing ships.  As we parked, we were helped by a local fellow to be sure we didn’t inadvertently park where we could be ticketed as it was dark by time we drove over there.  The fellow turned out to be an artist name of Oji Lukata who weaves with sweetgrass – a local, traditional item.  Reyna immediately was on to “the” hat and we had a good time talking with Oji who recommended the Oyster Bar on River Street for some fresh oysters.  He didn’t steer us wrong.

A little blurry, but Oji made sure we parked on the right side of the line so we wouldn’t be ticketed.  He was at his car when we drove up and he had the hat in his car that immediately went on Reyna’s head.

 

Oji with sweetgrass.



Oji weaves baskets too.




Oji wove this hanging decoration thingy while we watched.



Happy shopper.

June 23 - Savannah

We really had a great day today.  We started with a visit to our friends at JIT Warehouse, Ben Goldberg and his daughter Evelyn (Evie).  We only knew Ben and Evie from doing a little business together via email and phone, but were greeted and treated as old friends.  Ben took Reyna and I on a tour of their facilities.  They have about 200,000 feet of space and handle mostly steel that is discharged directly from vessel on to their waiting trucks and taken to their warehouse about ½ mile from the docks.  They also handle all kinds of other cargo.  Ben had just about completed the building of a 92000’ warehouse with clear span technology.  It’s also built for steel with floors (laser leveled) about 1’ think and double rebar.  The truck pads outside the same.  Lots of room for the trucks to turn too.  And the real bonus is an indoor rail siding that can accommodate up to 7 rail  cars, so he can handle his customers’ cargo in any weather.

 

JIT Headquarters and Warehouse

The new warehouse building with no columns to hold up the roof and the indoor rail siding

lots of room for trucks

and a nice pad with rail access for heavy lift cargo

Ben and Evie

Along the way we learned a bit of Savannah history.  I had read in one of my books that a boatload of Jewish refugees from some European disaster way back when had arrived in Savannah in 1733.  The Governor let them come ashore while he asked the King if it was okay.  The King said no, but by the time his refusal got back to the Governor the refugees were part of the colony.  Ben’s a direct descendant.  Talk about roots! 

The entrance and wall around the cemetery.

We also learned from Ben about General Sherman’s Savannah days – that’s Civil War Union General Sherman who torched Georgia.  Except when he got to Savannah, he decided not to burn it down as he had Atlanta, and instead “gave” it to President Lincoln as a Christmas present.  As a result, Savannah still has many ante-bellum homes, and many are open for tours.  We toured the home that General Sherman used for his headquarters.  We’d never been to Savannah before, and didn’t know that there are many public squares/gardens throughout the city and all are surrounded by these beautiful homes.

We had a great lunch with Ben and Evie at Bubba’s Oyster House, which is in Thunderbolt -- a bit out in the country from Savannah proper -- and then did some touristing around Savannah after lunch.  Along the way, I spotted a sign that said “We do Full Detailing” cars at an old gas station near Ben’s warehouse.  Since our newly painted VW had not been waxed since its paint job before we left home, I decided to get it taken care of in Savannah.   

The team.   The 2 girls in the background were kind of shy when I first sat down to watch the job (the group was kind of a tag team on the washing and waxing and buffing), but I learned that they have ambitions to start a corporation to do their own business.  The taller of the 2 is a volleyball player and senior in high school, and I encouraged her to consider Cal State University at Long Beach.

Later that afternoon, we met up with Matt Powers, a former colleague at Fritz Companies.  Matt is owner of Powers Trading and doing salvage/liquidation work from his Savannah headquarters.  Matt took us for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at the Olde Pink House, which is an ante-bellum home in Savannah that has been converted to restaurant/inn.  They have a beautiful bar in the basement with 2 fireplaces – cozy in the winter, but not being used in June.  I highly recommend their Habersham Platter which is Shrimp and Grits, Crab Cake, Seared Scallops.  Shrimp and Grits may not sound so wonderful to we non-Southerners, but the grits were made into a light cake and the shrimp were on top with a very tasty gravy.  The Crab Cake was also fine and our bartender gave us the hot tip to substitute 6 blackened oysters for the 2 scallops at no up-charge.  The platter made dinner for all 3 of us.

We next went over to River Street to the Bohemian Hotel with a rooftop bar and fine view of the river and ships entering the harbor (except for the smoke and haze from the Okefenokee Swamp fire I mentioned earlier).  Lots of pretty women (and a few pretty men) there for sunset.

 

Cobblestone River Street from the roof of the Bohemian

A bit smoky from the fire in Okefenokee Swamp  -- lots of vessels passed while we were enjoying our drinks.  Savannah is 4^th busiest port in the US.

Matt and Rick and hazy sunset



 In front of the Thunderbird Motel

June 24 – Savannah, GA to Beaufort, SC

With Ben’s and Matt’s guidance and suggestion from yesterday, Reyna and I spent the morning touristing around Savannah and then left for South Carolina.

The house Sherman used

 

Garden at the house Sherman used



Every square has a statue

Typical Savannah street view (cobblestone street here too)

nice door detail



these guys and trolley buses jammed up the streets for the cars





Cotton Exchange and warehouses built above River Street, which runs behind the building

Ben told us about this map which was on a wall in a private office until the office was turned into a restaurant, so now it is available for public to see.  Vic's on the River for those of you who may get to Savannah and would like to see it better than my picture below.



A little too much glare maybe to really see the map that is drawn with pencil/charcoal.

River  Street buildings from across the river as we left Savannah and crossed the bridge to South Carolina

We had to stop at the “Squat and Gobble” in Blufton for some  BBQ on the way to Hilton Head, SC.  This one is not to be confused with others with same name that are in Castro district and Haight Ashbury in San Francisco as I found when I googled it.

The beach at Hilton Head, SC.  Getting a bit late in the day and starting to drizzle.  Beach is pretty, but limited access due to condominiums and golf courses everywhere.

 

The Macy-Rhett House from 1810 also known as Secession House



This is in Beaufort, SC

low  tide and mud flat channels looking at harbor in Beaufort, SC

The Beaiufort National Cemetery from 1863.  http://www.cem.va.gov/pdf/beaufort.pdf

From Beaufort, SC we went to Charleston where we camped at James Island County Park and enjoyed the Splash Zone that was part of the Park.  Water parks are quite nice on a warm and humid SC afternoon (what other kind of weather could it be in June?)

Pic 208

Pic 210

Pic 213

Pci 219  Our second float on a tube experience

Another "river" to float tube in.



Really liked the waterfall.  I stood under it and let it pummel and massage my back.  I enjoyed a similarf experience many years ago at a Japanese hot-spring resort in Noboribetsu with warmer water.



Waterslide was fun.  No wonder kids love these places – old kids too.

Tomorrow Ft. Sumter.