Charleston's Cool!

Day 57, May 28, 2011, Charleston’s Cool!

0 miles, averaging mph

Route from Oak Plantation Campground into Charleston

Best Moment – Oh Wow – it had to be the coconut cake at the Noisy Oyster I had for lunch after I had shrimp and grits.  Amazing. 

Worst Moment – Trying to find a place to park even something as small as Rocket was very frustrating.  There were lots of folks walking around Charleston.

Around 10 this morning, after meeting and talking with our neighbors on both sides, (more on them later) Neita and I took off on Rocket for Charleston.  We are staying about 10 miles on the west side of town.  It was a bit of an interesting ride.  The traffic goes fast here.  One of our neighbors was from the Tucson area.  He had been retired for some time, but his wife just retired.  They had recently purchased their RV and were going to spend about 2 – 3 months traveling around the country.  The other couple was from central Florida on their way to upstate NY to spend the summer. 

We scootered around Charleston looking at amazing old homes, interesting eating-places, and funky art galleries.  We had made reservations for the noon boat that would take us to Fort Sumter.  There are only three trips a day from Charleston to the island.  Our National Park Service guide gave a 10-minute history of the fort. 

The first shots of the Civil War were exchanged here.  Also the first casualties of the war were suffered here, but the deaths were not really in combat.  After all other negotiations for peace had broken down, the Union recognized that all the other fortifications around Charleston harbor were not defensible and abandoned them in favor of Sumter and moved their 180 troops there.  The South amassed a huge force. This made the Union commander realize he would not be able to defend the fort and asked to withdraw.  There was a 100 cannon salute as the Union lowered their flag and it was a problem with this salute that resulted in the first two casualties of the war.  By the time it was over, more than 650,000 people were killed.

It is amazing to visit such a historical place.  To think that the fort was built on a sand shoal with granite imported from the North.  Original construction of the fort began in the 1830’s as a means of defense for the important southern route of trade.

After hearing and seeing so much history, we were a bit famished.  We took Rocket to the Market Street area were there are lots of shops, Charleston’s Market Place (read big flea market), and amazing restaurants.  However parking is not one of the things that is plentiful in downtown Charleston.  With trying to dodge the pedi cycles, horse drawn carriages, pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, I was more than ready to park anywhere – nearly.  We finally found a public garage.

After the great lunch, Neita had shrimp quesadillas, which were quite tasty.  So were the shrimp and grits with ham gravy, and of course the coconut cake. Yum.

We walked the old section of the city – south of Broad.  Toured one of the historic landmark homes and took a different route to find Rocket.  Charleston is really a beautiful city.  To think that the city has been here for over 300 years and was once the richest city in the US is really something pretty cool.

I’m nearly as tired as if I had ridden a century.  All of this tourist stuff is wearing.  Tomorrow is over a century.  I changed the route again.  When I looked at where we had planned to stay, I realized that it wasn’t very close to the route and by following the route maps would have been something in the neighborhood of 150 miles.  I could take a more direct route, by not following the bike maps, but that was still 110 miles.  We had planned on staying in Conway which is only about 20 miles from Myrtle Beach which is where we had planned to stay on Monday night.  So tomorrow will be about 125 miles, but then I get to have a day off and spend two nights in Myrtle Beach.  Yeah!