Yesterday we went into downtown (I think) Charleston. Neither Rick or I had ever been there. It was such a beautiful city with so much history and as I've mentioned before I am not even close to being a "history nut" .... it bores me silly.
Often when we visit a new city that is large enough to have such things, we like to do one of those hokey, truly touristy Grey Line tours. The reason is that they are usually just a couple hours and you get to see the highlights of a given city and a brief history, which is obviously enough for me. We didn't, however, do one yesterday ~ partly because the decision to go into Charleston was a very last minute, spontaneous decision and partly because we never saw one offered. There were horse and carriage tours but for some reason they just don't work for me! I had hoped that we'd go back into the city before we left, but last night we made the decision to leave there this morning ~ mainly because they had two days of rain predicted so heading south seemed better for us.
Okay, with all that said I will try to describe the photos here ... the first photo is what is referred to (now and many years ago) as "The Market". Now it is a tourist trap with assorted t-shirts at probably 30 vendors (UGH) as well as various other "souvenirs" none of which we needed or wanted - in fact we passed about four vendors and had had enough so out we went. We were told that many years ago that building was a slave market (although there was no marker or such indicating that) ... you know I got such a weird feeling being there ... what the hell humans do to one another sometimes just blows my mind, not to mention disgusts me and this is certainly a case in point.
Above is just an ally that I thought was kind of interesting! Sort of a photo op that reminded me of some of Chad's photos ~ sure wish you were there to take photos with us Chad!
The photo above is another one that just appealed to me as an interesting photo op ...
The next three are of the mansions in the "Battery area" along the water front. Apparently these were owned by cotton plantation owners but have been turned into .... you guessed it ~ condos. I should do some research and get an idea as to the current market value of these beauties. The location was outstanding of course and the properties were lovely, old and beautifully landscaped and maintained. They reminded me, to some degree, of the mansions in Newport, RI but those in Newport are on much larger pieces of land ~ heck 15 or 20 of these would fit on one of those and these are a bit less ostentatious than those.
Photo below is from the rooftop at the Rooftop restaurant (what an odd name for the place huh!). I was hoping that we'd be able to see the new Cooper River Bridge headed into Charleston but not so. That bridge is just spectacular and reminds me of the Zakem Bridge in Boston, but I think this one is larger (and was built in much less time than Boston!) By the way, the link above for anyone interested, is a terrific site going into a lot of detail as to the need and construction for the bridge.
Now, Jack or Kimberly ~ what kind of bovine has a wonderful hair do like the one below? These "guys" were at the property next to the lovely, peaceful campground we were at in St. George, SC (30 miles outside Charleston). Not to mention the damned rooster who started his rooster call (as Joshua used to say about 28 years ago "clicky-click-a-do") at 4:30 every morning! Anyway, what a lovely hair do, and how bout those black bovine with those feathery ears? What are they (other than pretty cute)?
Finally, we just arrived in Jacksonville, FL after 211 miles. We don't normally do that many miles in a day but we got a very early start (well for us anyway) today and the driving was pretty decent - even going through Georgia (as my blog pal Lucy refers to as the State of Construction) and miles upon miles of barriers and orange barrels etc .... We were at this campground last January for a couple weeks. Sir and I were here alone when Rick had to fly back to Boston for doctors appointments. It is about 1/2 mile from the Jacksonville airport so there is lots of plane traffic, which doesn't particularly bother either of us for a couple days, but the place is pretty over priced for what it is ... little grass and no campfires etc..... pretty much like a parking lot for coaches but for some reason it just "works for us" for a few days - it may e location location location - it is close to restaurants etc. that Rick has a need for (being that he is the socializer amongst us!!)
Sunday we will be headed to "Chester's" for who knows how long. Hopefully he and his brother will join us at a National Forest camp ground area in Olustee (FL) about 25 miles from his house (we can have campfires there and it is nice and wooded and peaceful!)
Can't wait to see you pal ... we don't dare tell Sir Arlo that he'll be seeing you soon, but he still perks up every time he hears a diesel truck hoping it's you!
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