Day 28 – By Land, By Sea, By Mule? – May 20, 2018

Karen came up with today’s headline. I like it.

Leaving Edisto Island means driving down a long two-lane road for about 22 miles to get to the main highway. Most of the road on the island has a canopy of old oak trees covered in Spanish Moss, so it’s like driving through a long green tunnel. You know you’re getting close to the highway when you see the Adam’s Run Post Office.

Sunday brunch was in downtown Charleston at Poogan’s Porch, a little restaurant in an old house on Queen Street. In the hallway there were numerous autographed photos from celebrities who had dined there at some time in the past. My favorite one, and the one that sold me on eating there was signed by the ‘hardest working man in show business’ – James Brown. Karen told me that Poogan was the name of the restaurant owner’s dog, and he (the dog) is buried next to the steps at the front door.

We toured the old town area in a carriage pulled by a pair of mules. There are so many carriages driving around the city that the vendors have to check in with a traffic regulator, who assigns tour routes by a lottery system. There are five ‘zones’, and to keep too many carriages from congesting any given zone the carriages are distributed accordingly. The photo below shows the regulator assigning us to zone 5 – lots of churches, the old city jail, and some big antebellum mansions.

Once we got a feel for the city, we took off on foot and explored the old homes (some dating back to the 1740’s) along Church Street and Water Street and other Streets. By this time, it was getting pretty warm and humid, so we decided to jump in the car and find Fort Sumter National Monument. After a few turns here and there, and a few choice words for the GPS app, we got across town to the wharf where the tour boat docks. We got on the last tour of the day.

Out on the water there was a cool breeze and it did not seem as humid. In other words, it was pretty nice. The ride out to the fort takes about 20 to 30 minutes and along the way you pass the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Yorktown, large container ships coming into the Port of Charleston, and a couple of old forts that used to guard the harbor back in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Fort Sumter is worth visiting, especially if you’re a Civil War buff. The National Park Service has done a good job preserving the ruins. You can still see artillery shells embedded in the walls of the fort dating back to the Union siege of 1863. Since we were the last tour of the day, we got to see the daily flag lowering ceremony.

By the time we got back to shore, it was close to 6:30pm, and it was nearly 8:00pm when we pulled into camp – just enough time for some leftover spaghetti and a late-night blog entry.

Next: North Carolina