Formerly known as Charles Town

We made the short move to Charleston, SC from Savannah, GA and have found a wonderful campground for our stay.  It is Oak Plantation Campground just outside of Charleston, formerly known as Charles Town, and has a wonderful atmosphere and is a relaxing place to stay.

Lady of the house, relaxing on the patio

The ride over to Charleston had a few exciting moments when a strong downpour turned some of the streets in one of the towns into a small river.  I did drive through it too.  But before I did, I watched several vehicles make it just fine so off we went and we made it just fine.

Driving to Charleston during a rainstorm

Our visit into Charleston was slightly different than the previous cities of Savannah and Saint Augustine.  Instead of motorized tours, we took one of the city’s famous horse drawn carriage rides.  Charleston is a functioning city that has maintained its narrow streets and to avoid congestion between horsepower and automobiles, the city has enacted a lottery system for its carriage operators.

When you board a carriage, it is just like Forrest Gump declared, ‘like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get.’  The carriage driver pulls up to the city run lottery center where the city assigns your area from the four available according to traffic and the current total of carriages in each area.  The next time you take a carriage ride, you have a one in four chance of getting the same area as opposed to one of the other three.

Interesting to see cars and horses using same streets.

Our ride through the city had some wonderful sights and old houses to view.  Of course Charleston is well known for being the site where the first shots of the War Between the States were fired.  We drove down the street next to the harbor that shows clearly Fort Sumter and offers the same view the town’s people had that morning the shelling of the fort began the war.  Interestingly, for a war that produced so many deaths and casualties, there were no casualties from this first action of the war.

View of park with trees adjacent to Charleston Harbor

Houses are large and grand

A lot are at 90 degrees to street but entrance still faces street

Just up the street is Rainbow Row.  It is so named for the pastel colors on the houses that have been repainted to closely resemble what they would have actually looked like during the period they were built.  There is a lot of French architecture in the city because there was a lot of French immigration into the city.  Unlike New Orleans, there is not a Mardi Gras celebration in Charleston.  The main reason is the French immigration was made up of a group of protestant French, known as Huguenots, instead of Catholic French.  They came to this part of the colonies to escape the religious persecution in Europe.

View of Rainbow Row from the carriage.

We had the opportunity to visit Magnolia Gardens and Plantation while in Charleston.  This plantation was a rice plantation and the main crop was Carolina Gold, the moniker given to rice grown in the Low Country of the Carolinas.  We are very thankful we chose this one to visit, as it is one of the oldest plantations in the country that is still owned by the original family group (14 generations) that settled in the colony.  A pretty amazing fact considering the history of the area where most plantation owners were financially bankrupt after the War Between the States and the property they owned destroyed.

The house we toured is actually the third one that was built on the property.  The first one was burned and replaced with the second that was burned during the War when Federal troops burnt all the plantations along the river outside of Charleston.  The owner was financially bankrupt after the War because he had invested heavily in the Confederate Bonds during the War which were worthless after the War.  It was at this time he seized upon an idea to save the property from foreclosure.  Over the years he had planted and maintained a sizable ‘romantic garden’ filled with all kinds of plants and flowers.  He thought he should charge a small fee to come visit the garden and allow people a chance to ‘escape’ the devastation and destruction that surrounded folks in the South immediately after the War.

Magnolia Plantation House

View of back yard from house towards river landing

One of the local residents checking out our photographer

Bridge to the Garden area

Adjacent area to house

Close to river landing for plantation

He offered his freed slaves the opportunity to stay on the property with the understanding that he could not pay them but he could and would allow them free room and board in exchange for helping maintain the garden.  Since their options were also limited; most agreed to that arrangement for a time until later when he could afford to pay, he began hiring and paying those who wished to be employed.  Later he was able to sell some of the land formerly cultivated for crop production to keep the main campus of the plantation intact where the gardens and house are located.

To me the most interesting and educational part of our visit was the portion dedicated to telling the story of the enslaved people.  The property has preserved four slave dwellings showing the progression through time of the type of conditions and discussion of how the people lived and worked.  It is called the Slave Tour and I highly recommend it because it is eye opening and tastefully presented.

Tree adjacent to former slave quarters

Preserved slave quarters from four different periods of time

Our time in Charleston was dampened by the rain that set in while there and limited our outdoor activities.  We spent a lot of time just relaxing and planning for the next moves.  From here we headed slightly north to Myrtle Beach.  It is quite expensive to stay in Myrtle Beach due to the tourist industry associated with this area so we opted for a three night stay to take in the highlights and spend a couple of days at the beach.  Rain again hampered our ability to enjoy the outdoors so the beach visit was limited to a stroll up and down the beach during a lull in rain showers.

We did visit a dinner show entitled Pirates Voyage.  It is similar to the Dixie Stampede we described in last fall’s post from Branson, MO.  This show is performed over water and has a lot of acrobatic type action.  Like the show in Branson, it is part of Dolly Parton’s enterprises and is family oriented fun.  Not only that, the meal is quite tasty as well.

Another grand adventure awaits inside

These birds would fly all around us and land in front of us

That's quite a bit of loot there matey!

...and a splashing good time was had by all.

After a few days of never ending rain, Bibi did get a short walk on the beach.  The last one for awhile because tomorrow we move inland.  See you down the road.

UPDATE:  
Since the draft of the above was done before Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, I thought I would add this quick update.  The entire Eastern Coast of Georgia and South Carolina is called the Low Country for a reason.  It is sea level and barely higher quite a ways inland.  We experienced flooding of streets (see the picture above) on our way from Savannah to Charleston from a quick thunderstorm that dumped a lot of rain in a short period of time.  I can only imagine the devastation caused by torrential rain for extended periods of time from a hurricane.  In fact, the area of Savannah where we loaded onto the boat was completely under water after Irma.

My brother-in-law and sister along with two of their children's families experienced severe flooding in the Houston and Beaumont areas with Hurricane Harvey.  This hurricane did rain extensively, 50 inches in a few days for the area, and caused widespread flooding misery for the lower Texas coastline.  Many people that were told to not buy flood insurance because their property was not in the flood plain have experienced complete and total losses without any insurance coverage.  

The only good that has occurred from such horrible events has been the quieting of the terrible rhetoric from the news media about political divisions in this country.  They finally have something more newsworthy to focus on and I do hope they keep focusing on the aftermath because it will take a very, very long time for these people to find their footing and return to some semblance of normal.