Road Trip: South - i95 trip
Day 7: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - Charleston, SC
Breakfast was great, again (didn't I just say that? Again?).
Today was another day of surprises (OK, it was just one). For Linda (this is getting repetitive, isn't it?). This day, we drove to Charleston, SC (but that wasn't the surprise).
On the way to Charleston, we were after some more southern barbeque. We followed some billboards to a place called
"Duke's Barbeque" in Walterboro. It
wasn't posh but the grub was authentic: hash (which looked more like liquified beans so we didn't try it, but after
talking to others some days later, we should have because it wasn't), chopped barbeque (with various sauces), fried chicken,
hush puppies, collared greens, stewed tomatoes, slaw, and more.
Something we stumbled upon still on the way to Charleston, was the Harper's Ferry battlefield (we think).
The sign below was at the end of what looked like at least a mile long dirt road. We weren't feeling that
adventureous to see what may - or may not - have been down that path.
After the meal, we headed toward the city. We made our way to the Holiday Inn - Riverview. This hotel was the most expensive of the trip, and had the fewest amenities. There wasn't even a breakfast included! We stayed at a hotel that cost 36% less than the Holiday Inn that DID include breakfast. Also, there was no microwave and no fridge in the room. And the balcony door was locked too.
We checked in, dumped our luggage, and took the free shuttle into town. It left us at Market Street where we walked through the open market and did some shopping.
The enterance to the market.
How to make these baskets is handed down from mother to daughter.
There were quite a few vendors selling these at the market. And elsewhere.
Some of the sights and buildings of Charleston.
Churches.
One of the streets we went down, called Society Road, had some really nice
homes. The last one, the red brick one, was for sale for $1.4 million. We were thinking about buying it, but we were just
over a million short...
Not only were the homes spectacular, there were some really nice gardens.
An interesting old garage door.
The market closed at 5:00 so we had to find something else to do. So we walked around the city a little - and had some ice cream.
We had to kill some time because, surprise, we were going on a dungeon and graveyard ghost tour. The sign on the office to Bulldog Tours
was funny, and I tried to FB it, but it didn't work for some reason. As a matter of fact, none of the pictures to FB worked :-(.
Before we went out on the tour, we used the restroom. The clerk at Bulldog Tours pointed to
the key and told us to go to the "first black door on the right." So we did...
It was an hour and a half in all and we visited the Provost Dungeon - which is in the basement of the building in the first
image. I tried to get a good shot in the dungeon, but it wasn't really possible without the flash and without a tripod.
Charleston was once a small walled -in city.
This is part of the original wall.
Intricate brickwork.
We toured the graveyard of one of the oldest churches in the country.
The other pictures of headstones did not come out very well.
As part of the Charleston revitalization, they are returning to using gas lights again. There were quite a few lights
around the city. They run ALL the time as it is cheaper to do that than to distinguish and relight them every day.
After the tour it was shuttle time back to the hotel and then to bed for some sleep.