Charleston, South Carolina

November 5
Thursday

Lately I've been having confusion over all the Charles-named cities in this area. There's Charlottesville Virginia, Charleston  South Carolina, Charlotte  North Carolina. How wise was it anyway to name American cities after a king of England, or was it France? But it seems to have worked out if I can only keep them all straight.

Today I was treated to more Southern Hospitality, this time lunch with school chum, George and his wife Brenda, in their beautiful city of Charlotte, North Carolina.  We caught up after sitting in homeroom together 55 years ago in high school in Richmond, Indiana. George was the rowdy one in our little group.  Visiting friends and family along the way makes the trip so enjoyable. I do get tired of the sound of my own voice.
 

Weather has been a constant challenge on the trip. Last night my rv site was next to

 this swollen creek. 

There has been so much rain in the last few days I was happy my drive down to

 Charleston, South Carolina was a dry one.

One of our oldest cities, Charleston was first settled in 1633.

Before the Civil War it was the third largest city in the United States.

 Carriage rides are everywhere on the old streets.

Took a walking/riding tour with Daniel, my private guide, as I was the only one signed up for the 11:30 tour.
We started at the Museum where this old submarine was displayed outside.
It was used to try to destroy the Union ships which were blockading all of the seaports of the Southern states during the Civil War.

 The porches of the beautiful old antebellum homes face South to catch the breeze off the coast.

It is as lovely as it is historic.

Charleston wasn't burned during Sherman's march to the sea like Atlanta, so nearly all of these old homes are still here. 

This one has a touch of San Francisco with  bay windows which are rare in Charleston.

Some of the plantations outside of town were burned.

No sooner had the residents recovered from losing "the War of Northern Aggression" as the Civil War is sometimes called here, when they were hit with the strongest East Coast earthquake ever recorded at 7.5 on the Richter Scale in 1886. Ninety percent of the buildings were damaged.

This is an old gas station from the 1930s.

When autos were beginning to become popular, many old homes were being torn down to build gas stations until the preservationists saw what was happening and began a movement to save the historic homes.

We came across this antique. How long has it been since you've seen one of these?!  And this one works as Daniel demos.


A fun day in Charleston.
  I feel myself slowing down to this Southern way of life.

This is the landmark Emanuel A.M.E. church that was recently in the news where that crazy kid killed many of the parishioners. There were many wreaths in front of the church.
A somber note to our tour.

A.M.E. stands for African Methodist Episcopal

Beautiful gardens can be seen by peeking thru the gates to get a glimpse of what it was like to live here before and during the Civil War.

Fort Sumter far out in the distance. It was held by the Union forces and the Civil War began when it was fired upon by Confederates trying to take it back.
If I have my history straight. So much information on these tours and I refuse to make a homework assignment out of it by taking notes.
Am here to just enjoy.