SC – Go Arnolds

Amy has been putting our mirror space to good use; it became her whiteboard for the family schedule while we were in Charleston this week:

The weather toggled between sunny and cloudy, but on Wednesday it rained and rained and rained all day and all night long.

On Wednesday night we had gen-u-ine lowcountry frogmore stew: fresh, local boiled shrimp, smoked sausage, corn and potatoes:

On Friday afternoon, we drove into downtown Charleston to visit a former slave mart. This was the first of many stops where I would struggle to fully comprehend that the buying and selling of human inventory actually happened.

After the slave museum, we visited the Fort Sumter National Monument. For you Civil War newbs, Ft. Sumter was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861.

We didn’t actually go see Ft. Sumter, as this required a pricey boat ride across the water, and there’s not much remaining of the original fort. But we could see it from afar, and the museum we visited was enough to rekindle my interest in Civil War history.

We spent Friday evening walking around downtown Charleston:

It was pretty cool seeing all of the old uppity houses, many of which date from the 1700’s (and a few from the 1600’s):

It had been a full day already, but that night Natalie and I did about 2 hours of Christmas shopping at a nearby mall:

On Saturday we visited Boone Hall Plantation, one of the oldest and longest-working (still working, in fact) plantations in the US. Check out the long driveway that leads to the house…sort of Forest Gump-ish, no?

Nine of the original slave houses (built in 1790) are still standing:

We learned that these were the “nicer” slave houses, reserved for those with more valued skills.

Natalie was freaked out by the manequins and preferred to stay outside:

There were lots of artifacts like this from the slave era that are simply hard to understand, hard to accept:

The main house was nice and certainly interesting, but it was the 4th house to occupy this site and built in 1937. I was hoping to see an antebellum house of the pre-Civil War era.

We left Charleston and drove a couple hours to Hunting Island State Park. Along the way, we made one stop that Amy rarely passes up:

Carrie and Amy decorating a real wreath (picked up from the local farmer’s market) the closest thing we have to a Christmas tree in the RV. It smells wonderful!

Last night was our annual Christmas viewing of Elf:

Amy and I took an early morning walk on the beach this morning, just a short distance from our campsite. This gets my vote for the absolute best sign of the trip:

I rescued a crab out of a washed up crab trap on the beach. He did not seem very grateful.

Our campsite this morning, amidst the tall pine and palm trees:

The sun started to burn through the mist and created some really cool lighting. This looks almost like a video game to me:

After breakfast, it was time for our weekly Sunday morning hike. This type of terrain and foliage is known as a “maritime forrest.” It felt very jungle-y.

We came upon this cool lighthouse, but we didn’t have any money to go up in it (yet).

Our trail continued toward the ocean…

…and off came the shoes:

Good thing, because it was high tide — very high tide — and we had to find our own path through the water:

We eventually made it to the beach and had great time walking along the water:

Before leaving the park, we drove back to the lighthouse with our $2/person entrance fees:

As one would expect from a lighthouse, it was a nice view!

We drove to Savannah GA today and made it to our campground just before dark:

Tomorrow will be a normal work/school day, but on Tuesday we’ll explore downtown Savannah and then leave town on Wednesday. We want to be in Florida by Friday!

While making our way to the Outer Banks in NC, we noticed what looked like litter on the sides of the roads everywhere. Turns out it was just cotton. Everywhere.

We rolled in late on Monday night to discover that our targeted campground was closed for the season. The owner let us boondock on an empty patch of grass for the night (we found an open and much nicer campground down the road the next day).

The Outer Banks has some of the best mobile internet of the trip. Wicked fast (for me, anyway):

Amy and the girls were eager to see an ocean for the first time since being in San Diego:

A big side trip for us was seeing the Wright Brother’s museum at Kitty Hawk. This was an important stop because of Emily’s interest in airplanes, but also because the girls have been studying and reading historical fiction about the Wright Brothers.

A park ranger gave us an informative presentation in front of a Wright Flyer replica. Emily correctly answered all of his questions.

The site of the Wright’s successful flight (and Emily’s unsuccessful flight):

On Thursday, Amy and the girls took a field trip to Corolla to see the wild horses. Their tour guide April drove them down the sandy roads to find the horses. The Scion would have never made it over the dunes and down the beach!

There are over 100 Spanish mustangs that live in this area, roaming freely in the marshes and on the dunes.

The horses prefer to travel along the cleared roadways created by the 4-wheel drive vehicles.

This is the Bodie Island lighthouse on the Outer Banks. Just south of here, the road continues to be passable only to 4-wheel-drives after it was washed out by Hurricane Sandy. We are back to wanting a jeep.

It’s a Christmas wonderland in the RV. Carrie strung up lights, and Amy, Em and Nat made paper snowflakes and garland:

Amy had to have some fresh-out-of-water-still-flopping-around sea food, so we had a rare and enjoyable dinner out on Friday night:

Amy and I discovered that the little hill in the middle of our campground is actually a creepy-cool old cemetery, so that’s a first.

Our last couple of days in the Outer Banks were pretty foggy. Everything is very damp, all of the time:

On Saturday, we hit the road and headed south. Along the way we stopped at the site of the “lost colony” of Roanoke Island. It’s clearly the off season…the park ranger visibly reacted with delight to us walking into the otherwise empty visitor center.

I always thought the Thanksgiving pilgrims were the first English folks to try to make a go of the “new world.” Not so. The Virginia Colony was an English settlement on Roanoke Island in 1584. They ran into hard times, sent their leader back to England for provisions. By the time he got back 3 YEARS LATER, everyone was gone. No one knows what fate befell them, hence the name “lost colony.” These mounds are one of the few things that indicate anyone was ever here. Sad story.

I’m loving these gas prices. $3.15/gallon with my spiffy Flying J card. Yesterday we saw a couple places with $3.03 gas. When one gets only 8 miles per gallon and one’s tank is 65 gallons, this is a significant cost savings.

We slummed out in the Lumberton, NC Walmart parking lot on Saturday night:

We spent most of Sunday morning traveling before arriving at James Island County Campground in Charleston, SC. It’s so warm here. It smells like summer.

It was nice to see my kids back to playing outside in the dirt.

There is a major Christmas light display going on at the park we’re staying at, so we spent some time last night walking around checking it all out.

The lights were really cool, but it was a strange sensation strolling through a “winter wonderland” of christmas lights while wearing shorts.

This campground is a little nicer than what we’re used to, and at $40/night it’s a little pricier than what we’re used to. But we’ll enjoy our time here before continuing southward this weekend.