A Most Beautiful Day!

31 Oct 09--It occured to me today that I have not introduced you to our camp hosts, Jane and her husband...don't know his name. They are both very nice, and very helpful, and Jane loves dogs. She doesn't own any dogs, but she drives around in a golf cart with a cannister of dog treats, so all the dogs in the camp love her. This is her feeding Fluffy and Jabba as Cathy is taking them for a walk. Jane is 76 years old, and she and her husband have been full-time RVing since 1993. They are usually travelling, but she recently had a small stroke so they are staying here to go to the military hospital. Cathy is walking the dogs to tire them out before we go sight-seeing again. We just got back from the gym...I forget what I was doing but I am in the RV.

There is a woman and man who live in this trailer full-time...I think the husband is in the military, and she is 9 months pregnant with their first child...due to deliver next week. I don't think I would be living in this small trailer if I was about to have a baby, but that's just me! They also have a rather large dog...like a golden retriever mix.



Cathy and I went on a 90 minute harbor tour today and we couldn't have picked a better day for it. The weather was absoluetly beautiful! About 83 degrees, barely a cloud in the sky, and the sea breeze was just perfect. They took us out about 2 1/2 miles from shore, basically in a counter-clockwise circle, and it couldn't have been nicer.



When we pulled away the first thing we passed was this big cargo ship, loading up BMWs that are made here in South Carolina and then shipped to Europe. The Captain of the ship told us that Charleston is the 3rd or 4th busiest port on the Eastern Seaboard, so cargo ships are in and out all the time. When we were returning from our trip this ship was already leaving...the Captain said that the owners of the cargo ships try to get their ships out of the harbor as fast as possible because it costs them aout $20,ooo a day to keep their ships in port. Ouch!



To the left below is Ft Sumter, again this is where the first shots of the Civil War happened. And to the right is Sullivan Island. Sullivan Island is known as the Ellis Island of the slave trade...this is where they were all shipped into before they were taken ashore.

On the far side of the port, in an area called Mount Pleasant, there were a string of some really beautiful houses, right on the water's edge, some with beaches, some on rocky embankments. Later in the day we saw a really beautiful area of Charleston on the water's edge, but because of all the trees we couldn't get any pictures. It looked like a lot of money had been put into apartments and probably condos along the seashore. We were here for several days before we even noticed it.

The captain said that Charleston is called the "Holy City", because it has over 140 churches...and a law that says no building will be higher than the church steeples already established. I tried to get good pictures of them, but we were too far out. I mentioned another day, I think on our first day, that I had noticed how many churches they had on just one street, so I was not surprised by the 140 number.

The Aircraft Carrier below is the USS Yorktown. That is also on the other side of the bay, in Mount Pleasant, and you can take a tour on it. It was involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis, but was decommissioned sometime in the 1970s. The bridge in the background reminded me of the one in Boston, and the Captain mentioned that both Boston and Savannah have one like it.

From the harbor we walked over to the Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon, which is the last building built by the Brits before the Revolution. It was initially a meeting area upstairs and a storage area downstairs, but during the revolution the Brits occupied it and made the downstairs a dungeon.

After the war, South Carolina ratified the Constitution in this room below, called the Great Hall, becoming the 8th state in the Union.

The tour guides dress in period costumes and give a guided tour of the Dungeon area downstairs. They have mannequins down there, chained to the walls, as prisoners would have been back then. The guide said that along with captured patriots fighting the crown were slaves, criminals, prostitutes...the whole shebang...and all in together with no bathrooms or other niceties.

Prior to the Brits taking it over, our side hid 10,000 pounds of gun powder in a room that was never found by the Brits.

The building is run today by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and they meet inthis room upstairs from the dungeon.

A nice touch upstairs is along with this meeting room is a bunch of posters and pictures that tell a lot of stories of people and events, and one thing is what is called the Halls of Freedom. They list Faneuil Hall in Boston, Independence Hall in Philly, and the Great Hall here in this building as places where great things happened in the past when people stood up for freedom.

And last but not least, for those of you who have never seen cotton except in your clothes, here is some cotton still in its pod. And then here is Cathy at the restaurant we ate at on the way home, a nice open air place about a block form the ocean. We found that along this road they had quite a few restaurants, bars, art galleries, etc...allthe things you would expect to see at a place like this, but that we missed before. And get a load of this house. It seems about 15-20% of houses here have what I am calling false front doors. Notice the door doesn't lead to the house...it leads to the porches on the side of the house. I think you have to go thru that door, and then there are more doors on the first floor that lead to the upstairs. Weird, huh?

Ft Sumter, Heyward-Washington House, The Citadel

30 Oct 09—We started today at the Fort Sumter National Monument Visitor Center, and after reading everything there, we decided we were not going to take the 2 ½ hour round-trip boat ride out to the fort. From what we read and saw, it appears the fort no longer looks anything like it did back during the Civil War…they provide a handout to take with you if you want to go so you can compare what you are seeing to the original fort, but with that in mind we really didn’t see much point in it.

They had a lot of info at the Center explaining some of what led up to the Civil War, from the Founders not dealing with the slavery issue head-on, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Missouri Compromise, to the Dred Scott Decision in the Supreme Court. They also went in-depth as to how the first shot of the Civil War came to be, and it is interesting that any time they talked about the Federal forces being in control of the Fort, they referred to them as “occupying” it. This was done at The Citadel later in the day also…so I guess “The War Between the States” isn’t quite over yet! Haha

After reading this posting below, I decided I would have to challenge my friend Donna, from South Carolina, to a duel to restore the honor of Senator Sumner.

From The Visitor Center we took a bicycle taxi over to the Heyward-Washington House, one of a few houses on the “Museum Mile” for tourists to see. This house is the oldest house in America still being shown to tourists. It was built in the 1770s, by a guy (Heyward) who was one of the richest men in America at the time. This was his summer house. The “Washington” part of the house’s name is just a nod of the head to the fact that George Washington once stayed at this house for a week after being elected President.

Anyway, the Hayward’s were quite wealthy, as was most of Charleston back in that time. Charleston was pretty much run by 28 wealthy families, who were basically “rice barons”. rice being the big crop here before cotton. The lady giving the tour gave us a few tidbits that I think are worth passing on:

1. We have all heard the saying “he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth”…well, that comes from the fact that both silver, and eating utensils, were hard to come by back in the day. Less than 1% of people back then had a silver spoon, and as a matter of fact individuals had to carry their own eating utensils when they traveled. So if you visited a home that had eating utensils for the guests, you knew that family was quite wealthy.

2. Because all food was in short supply back then, if a family was able to bake pies and the like, again you knew they were well off. And if they baked pies with an “Upper crust”, they were very well off…so that is where we get the references to the “Upper crust” of society.

She also told us that the children and slaves always occupied the top floor in this house (he brought 12 slaves with him to this house for the summer), that tea and sugar in those days were extremely expensive and therefore always under lock and key in the house, and that by law the kitchen had to built separate from the main house due to all the fires in those days.

This is the kitchen building and stables. The kitchen is the big building on the right.

Here is the Dining Room...only the rich had them.



Here is the Drawing Room, for entertainment.

Here is the Card Room, for the men. See the bookcase? One just like it was recently auctioned and went for $11 million.

These chairs are in all the bedrooms, and are called a "necessity chair"...lift up the seat and there is the potty.

Finally, she told us that after the Civil War Charleston as a whole was quite poor, and this state lasted well into the 1970s…so it is only recently that Charleston is making a comeback. You can really tell how poor this city has been when you ride around. Like I said yesterday, there are some really beautiful homes and buildings right alongside a dilapidated mess…it is really weird to see.

And then we headed out to The Citadel.



This college was established back in 1829 and grew right up to the time of the Civil War…it actually boasts in its museum of taking shots at Union troops a few months before war broke out.


During the War it was “occupied” by Union forces, and it seems to be still holding a grudge—haha. When you enter the museum, the 1st thing you see is the Confederate flag,



and the 2nd thing you see is “The Stars and Bars”, the official flag of the Confederacy.



For those of you who are young, the most recent time the Citadel was national news was back in the 1990s, when the Supreme Court ordered it to admit females for the 1st time in its history. (It had allowed the 1st African American man back in 1966.) The Citadel had always produced the movers and shakers of South Carolina’s political and business class, so it was sued on the theory that women were being shut out by virtue of not being able to attend this school. The 1st girl who went there only lasted 5-6 days (Shannon Faulkner), but after that at least a few made it, so I guess it is not as big a deal now. It is run by a retired 3-star Air Force General today.



These were the 1st women to graduate....top left was the 1st.



These are old and new uniforms for the bagpipers.

Every Friday afternoon they have a big Cadet parade…there must have been about 1000 of the students out there today. I loved it…reminded me of our parades at Lackland, except here they even have a bagpipe section…they sounded great!

Here they are taking the field, shooting the cannons, folding the flag, and passing in review. Love it!