One Lap

Date: 11/01/2013

Day: 36

Location: Savannah, GA

Miles Today: 336

Total Miles:  8003

South Carolina; Seen, But; Fort Moultrie, Seen on the Road

Three hundred plus miles today.   A bit more than comfortable, but we did have yesterday off.  If you look closely to the map of the eastern seaboard, you will see that for most of the distance, there is no equivalent of California US 1; a road that traces the coastline offering great views.  There are huge inlets along the eastern coast, so for long stretches, a traveler is forced to move inland to get around them.  Nice enough, but no lungsful of Atlantic Ocean air.

South Carolina

The goal today was to put South Carolina behind us and we did.  There were some places to stop however.

Swamps.  Yes, we did that.  Cotton fields.  Yes.  Ah --- Spanish Moss.

Spanish Moss is  found mostly on oak and magnolia trees between Virginia and Argentina.  It is a flowering plant, not a parasite, actually related to the Bromeliads, according to Wikipedia.  In the Colonels mind it is completely associated with the south.

 

 

 We will find a better picture while walking around Savannah.

The Colonel owes you a picture of red Georgia clay.  It is to come.

Seen, But Not Photographed

Yes, we are always supposed to go back for the picture, but sometimes that is not possible.  Three excellent things seen today that eluded the camera:

• We drove today over the Harriet Tubman bridge today  It is on Highway 17 over the Combahee river in Beaufort, South Carolina.  The American hero helped lead a Union raid on June, 1963, on plantations along the river and had previously led slaves north from plantations in this area.  It's not a huge bridge, but still ... Good for  SC.

• A bar across the street from a hospital called "The Recovery Room Tavern." It is described on Yelp as a dive bar with great tater tots.  (!)

• A state road sign indicating the way to "Cuckold Landing."  Really.  It is off Highway 17 in Colleton county and is a feature of "Cuckold Creek."  You could look it up.

Fort Moultrie

You and the Colonel could both deliver a very brief lecture on Ft. Sumter.  Ft. Moultrie may not live in your memory.  It did not in his.  This is the place in Charleston harbor from which the first shots of the Civil War were fired.  At Ft. Sumter, of course.  There is virtually nothing here that was here on that day.  Toward the end of the war the position was assaulted by the Union Army and pounded into a powder.  It was never taken and surrendered at the end of hostilities, proving again the superiority of the defense during the Civil War.  The area has also been wacked pretty hard by a number of hurricanes since the middle of the 19th century.

 

 

 

 

That is Ft. Sumter, the island low on the horizon.  Nothing from the time of the war is in place there, either.  That is, but the way, an American flag, not a Confederate flag on the flag pole.  We won.  They lost.  A lot.

 

It was a gun like this that was fired on Ft. Sumter.

 

What's odd about this flag?  15 stars, of course, but there area also 15 stripes.  This was the American flag from 1781 to 1818.

Seen on the Road

 

 

 The custom in the eastern and southern parts of the country is to identify every  Mexican restaurant as "authentic."  If you have ever dined in Mexico, you know that this is not the case; they serve an Americanized, southwestern type of food.  The word authentic is not applied to other cuisines.  Odd.  No idea what H H M F 4 7 means.

 

 Well, of course.  Note the come on.

 

 They are nuts about miniature golf in South Carolina, too.  In built up area there is at least one emporium every mile, most more elaborate than this.

 

 How much did you last pay for gas?

 

 Hunting season.  Note the rifle holders.

 

 There is a dandy cable stayed bridge in Charleston.  Not as pretty as ours, of course.

 

 

 Public displays of piety are common here.  There are many signs encouraging people to "Pray to End Abortion."

 

OK, educated, urbane, globe trotting reader of this blog; what does "Mountain Cur // Treeing Feist" mean?

The Colonel could not guess either.  But the internet knows all:

This is a Mountain Cur.

This is a Treeing Feist.

Both likely looking dogs.  Both are breeds used to tree squirrels and raccoons before they are shot.  The Colonel is no rodent hugger, but can't quite imagine shooting either.

So this pick up truck owner (nice truck) is a dog fancier, not a terrorist spreading a mysterious message in Farsi.  Thank goodness.

Tomorrow:

A Saturday walk through Savannah, on to Florida

Wellington Boot, Col.