Boone Hall Plantation - South Carolina

May 7th Saturday - Cloudy and Cool

Lou and I were up and around early and packed up and on our way on the northern route with plans to stop at Boone Hall Plantation. We had been told we would recognize it and we certainly did.

Where we arrived at the gate with the RV, we were a bit cautious as to rather we would be able to approach the plantation with the RV pulling the car; however, we were told it would not be a problem and once we arrive at the plantation there was a twenty acre field we could turn around in and we could even park there, as it was we did park there and had our lunch there before getting back on the road. It was cool and we were able to leave Estee in the RV while we did the tour, in fact it rained and she was very comfortable while we were away. Great way to travel ,knowing if we got wet, we had dry clothes, shower and everything we needed.........

If you haven't guessed, this is the plantation where North and South was filmed and also The Notebook. Lou and I had just watched North and South again before we started south, so it was a very pleasant surprise and so meaningful. This is a working plantation, in fact, they even have "pick your own strawberries". They have a Farmer's Market that the community counts on for their fresh produce. You can see from the pictures, their flowers gardens are beautiful.

We could not take pictures insides, as a family actually lives inside the home, and we could only go into several rooms downstairs, but that was enough to see what it was really like and certainly recognized the antiques used in the movies.

The slave cabins are the original cabins and they are made from bricks that were made right there on the property. The round brick structure in the original smoke house. The building that is under construction, houses the cotton gin. We couldn't go inside of that and I was disappointed in that, as I would love to see a gin.

We are off to Elizabeth City tomorrow for several days to visit with Lou's elderly aunt and then we are going home. We will be home next weekend God willing. Going to be hard to give up my shorts and sandals. Lou and I took a long walk on the beach today, but had to put our jackets on.

Sight Seeing in Charleston, South Carolina

May 6th - Friday - 58 degrees burrrr - Sunny - blue sky

Lou and I awoke cold this morning, imagine our surprise when we looked at the thermometer and found that it was no longer in the 90's as we were accustomed to. We both decided we needed long pants to do our sight seeing.

We left our RV camping site and drove the eight miles into downtown Charleston and purchased tickets for a horse drawn carriage tour of the city. This was very enjoyable, and we were both impressed with the treatment of the horses, the horses are only allowed to do two tours a day and then taken back to wonderful stables where they are feed and watered and given fresh straw to rest upon. They are shod with iron shoes that are attached to rubber shoes to wear on the pavement to cushion their steps. They work for two weeks and then are taken back to pasture for a month before they are returned to the city. Impressive.

I am posting pictures that I took on our tour and our walk back to the welcome center. We were going to tour a plantation ; however, we ran out of time, so saved that for the next day. We had a wonderful seafood dinner in town before we came back to the RV at 8:00 that evening, tired, but very satisfied with our day of walking and sight seeing.

Charleston is known for its narrow streets and splendid architecture. Embellished with fanciful wrought-iron details as intricate as window frost and painted sparkling white, pastels or whimsical rainbow hues, which reminded me of the houses we saw in Key West last winter. The city is 300 years old.

The city is rich in history and we would have loved to had time to spent time in the museum, maybe next time. Of course, the city was names for King Charles II and was founded in 1670 by the English. Those of us that love the Civil War History remember that the first cannon was shot at Fort Sumter and we didn't have time to get out there either, so you can see there is so much more to see. Also, I would have liked to have seen how tea is harvested and processed.

All in all it was a lovely day.

The next post will be on our trip to the plantation.

Naval Weapons Station - Goose Creek, South Carolina

May 4th - Wednesday - 78 degrees - Bright blue skies, very low humidity

We left Georgia this morning a little before noon and traveled route 95 to route 17 and stopped at our present location at Foster Creek RV Park which is located at the Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek, South Carolina and that is 20 minutes from historic downtown Charleston, SC.

It is a nice camp ground; however, nothing like the campground we were at last night,we didn't get here in time tonight for us to get out and explore, by the time we got everything set up it was too dark to move around and enjoy an evening walk. Lou tries to get the windows of the RV and the car cleaned, as the Lovebugs are out in full strength and we have been told they need to be cleaned off each day, as they can make a mess of the paint on the automobiles. We were also told that fabric softner sheets work well to clean them off with so we have been trying them.

We are going to stay here for two days and tomorrow we are going to drive into Charleston and take a tour of the city and of one of the plantations. It so happens that the book I am reading now takes place in Charleston, so I am really anxious to see some of the points of interest.

Krista called today after she saw the specialist for her unborn baby and she does indeed have a problem with the baby's heart and they are going to continue to monitor the baby, she is going to return on Friday, she will not return to work until after the baby is born. The physician reports her baby (Matthew) weighs over five pounds and has big feet and hair. Please keep her in your prayers as she has over a month of her pregnancy to go.

She also reports that Steve was able to cut our grass around the house, we still have water around the barn, and the rain is still coming several days a week and the temperatures are still cool. Lou and I had thought we wouldn't put in a garden this year, but with all of the reports we hear of flooding and such around, think we must grow some of our own food to help ourselves and maybe help some other folks also. We certainly have enjoyed the fresh tomatoes, radishes, onions and such in Florida, and the peppers have been wonderful. Krista and Steve have always helped us with the garden and we share the produce, so will probably do the same thing again, Steve usually grows his peas as his house, along with a few other things he likes that do better in the shade and we grow the things that do well in the sunshine.

Strange how thought change to home as we start homeward. Lou has been talking about how he wants to rebuild the fence the wind had destroyed this winter, he has different ideas than we had thought of before, and think it will make it much easier than what we had before. Lots to do when we get home along with washing and waxing the RV and cleaning it inside and we have a SMART campout coming up in June also. Time marches on.

Kings Bay Ballistic Missile Submarine Base - Georgia

May 3rd - Tuesday - 89 Degrees

After having the Launch scrubbed, Lou and I decided we would leave Patrick Air Force Base and begin our slow journey back towards Pennsylvania.

We did get to see the President's plane land at the base, as it delivered his car and such that he used to travel on to Kennedy Space Center and then we watched the President's wife and children as they departed on their plane to fly back to Washington, DC and he left on his plane to go on to Miami.

Lou and I attended Church at the Seaside Chapel on Sunday and then to celebrate our anniversary we went to the Tides for lunch, which comprised of a champagne brunch that was delightful. It was a very formal dining facility and a perfect place to celebrate our special day. We could not believe all of the phone calls that we received on Sunday with all of the well wishes from our family and friends. All of the well wishes made us feel very special. We thank all of you for remembering us on our special day.

We left on Monday morning for our friends home in Leesburg, FL and arrived there about 3:30 pm and spent that night with her last evening. It is always such a pleasure to spend time with her and this time was especially wonderful. Jean has a new friend and was anxious for us to meet him. The minute we saw her we knew something was different, she had a special glow to her face and her eyes were so much brighter and she was so eager to have Lou and I share with her the events that led up to our marriage; therefore, we were late getting away this afternoon, and we both hated to leave and wished we had made arrangements to have stayed longer. We did meet her new friend John and we both gave our "thumbs up" to both of them and have urged them to come north to Pennsylvania to spend time with us this summer to renew our friendship and not let time slip away from us.

Of course, at Jean's house one doesn't leave without picking grapefruit and oranges to bring home with us, so we did do that and we pack all left over space in the RV with the delightful fruit and we were back on the road again.

We arrived here at Kings Bay about 4:30 and thankfully they did have a place for us and we will stay here tonight and be on our way in the morning and on up the road traveling on route 95, probably to Charleston, South Carolina tomorrow night.

This is a beautiful place where we are tonight, but very secured, so we can't look around much, it is a sub base, so much different than where I have been before.

I will post as I can on the way home.