Time in South Carolina

Sat. Mar. 5-Mon. Mar. 7: Nearly the whole drive up I95 and along Hwy. 17 from St. Mary’s, GA to Edisto Beach, SC is designated as scenic, passing through pine hardwood forests and seemingly endless salt marshes. Spring was definitely springing and we could see blooming dogwood and red bud in the woods, and daffodils, camellias and azaleas in people’s yards. We thought we’d see a “local” place to eat lunch as we followed 17 but it passes outside of towns for the most part and we arrived at the State Park after 1:00 without having eaten. Janet Ronk had told us that the State Park had two parts--one on the beach and one nearby in the Live Oak forest. We stopped there first, assuming we would want to camp away from the beach and more sand gnats. But the woman at the registration seemed pleased that she had one more site available at the beach and assured us that the gnats (she called them no-see-’ems) were not too bad yet and that they would be no better in the forest than the beach. She encouraged us to look at both spots and come back and change if we preferred. The campground on the beach is very narrow and squeezed in between a low dune along the water’s edge and a wide salt marsh with flocks of egrets and ibises. We could hear the surf pounding from the campsite and had no bugs at all so we decided to stay. It was 3:00 by the time we were set up and settled and went to have “The Big Salad” at Whaley’s. We got back after grocery shopping and had a call from Janet Ronk, asking if we were in town and if we wanted to join them for beef stroganoff for dinner. Having eaten lunch so late we begged off from that but agreed to have them pick us up Sunday morning to go to church. Then we rode our bikes over to the day use headquarters to use the WiFi to Skype with Sarah and the boys and update the blog. Leftovers added to a can of soup with cheese and crackers were an adequate late supper. We walked over to the beach in the dark and found that it was high tide so the waves were undercutting the dune right at the edge of walk-through. It was wild and wonderful to see the white waves in the dark water with nothing but stars overhead. The two couples at the site next to us were noisy around their campfire long after we went to bed but earplugs helped drown out their noise but also the soothing sound of the surf. Ronks were picking us up at 9:30 on Sunday morning and we were getting the promised off-and-on rain showers. But we made our way to the front gate without getting too wet and Janet drove us to the Presbyterian Church of Edisto Island. As the service got underway there was a heavy downpour and thankfully that was the end of what had sounded like it would be all day rain! The church was established in 1685-1695 and two buildings had preceded the present building, which was built in 1830. Following the Civil War the whites abandoned the area and the church, and the freed blacks in the area took it over. But when the whites began to return in the 1880s they took back the building. Later a white woman built another church just down the road for the blacks to use for worship and it is still there, still a black church and called the Edisto Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church of Edisto Island has an ancient cemetery beside and behind the church building full of the old island names, many of which still have family members attending the church. The building was completely renovated and restored in 2006 to how it looked when it was built, complete with the raised wooden pulpit with two spiraling staircases to reach it. The two pews at the front right side of the balcony are the only original pews and they were “slave pews” back in the day. The entire downstairs is made of boxed-in pews with little swinging doors and when they took the offering it was in old long handled cloth baskets the ushers held across the pews from the two aisles. It was Communion Sunday and they do it at four long, low, narrow, wooden tables with benches that seat 10 (also original, as far as one old timer could tell us) set up at the front. The ushers excused about half the congregation to go down and sit and everyone was served bread and wine personally by a deacon, leaving the tiny cup in a special glass dish in the center of the table. After one other seating, everyone had been served so there were about 80 plus the deacons that day. It was a pretty traditional service but it was also kind of stunning to have it in such an historic setting. During the service Marv felt his phone vibrating and when we left he had a message from LifeLine telling him that his mom was in the hospital. It took several phone calls to sort things out as we drove with the Ronks to have Brunch with some of their friends but he finally talked to his mom and his sister and found that it isn’t anything new, but continuing problems with her energy and not feeling well because of what has been diagnosed as congestive heart failure. They were going to do a few more tests and drain fluid from her lung that was causing her some pain, but she expected to be released Monday or Tuesday. We had a lovely Brunch of crème brulé French Toast (me) and a bacon and cheese “Pomelet” (Marv), which was a huge omelet wrapped in a huge pancake. OINK!! We shared liberally with each other and were stuffed afterwards. The Ronks took us back to the camper and stayed long enough for a “tour” before heading home to nap. We hiked the mile and a half up the beach, collecting shells for the grandsons including a nice sand dollar, till we reached the creek outlet into the Atlantic. Even at low tide it was clear we couldn’t cross the creek, so we hiked back to the campground, this time into the wind, which was harder. The Ronks had urged us to take the road to Botany Bay Plantation. In 1840 Mr. Townsend had combined land from the Bleak Hall and Sea Cloud plantations into his 4,687.5 acre Botany Bay Plantation. There remain a few ruins from both plantations but the area is now owned and maintained by the DNR. There is a driving tour through the area with a few historic stops along the way. It took us about an hour and then we drove to the Ronks’ place for a light supper of cheese, crackers, and sausage balls and a pleasant evening of conversation. We got to bed a little early so we could be up and on our way to spend Monday in Charleston. It took us a little over an hour to drive there on Hwy. 17 and find the Visitors Center where we bought tickets for a 1½ hour Gray Line historical tour in a minibus, followed by a tour of the restored 1803 Joseph Manigault mansion. This 6,000 sq. ft. townhouse was used only part time, when the family came from their rice plantation to Charleston for the social season. With a little better idea of the lay of the land we began wandering down King Street until we found “Boones”, a bar and grill that had half price burgers that day. It took a while but we had hearty hamburgers and sweet potato fries with a beer to fortify ourselves to spend the rest of the day wandering along the three hundred year old streets, finding as many of the historic houses as we could from a book borrowed from the Ronks that Marv’s parents had given them years ago. We walked so far and saw too many things to list. Suffice it to say we were blown away by the history preserved so beautifully and were left with impressions of pre-Revolutionary War homes, intricate wrought iron, “single houses”, fountains, stunning opulence, stirring courage, horse drawn carriages, blooming gardens and trees, cobblestone and brick streets, dolphins leaping in the harbor, far-off forts, and a soaring bridge. We were exhausted by the time we drove back to the campground for a light supper but felt we had seen as much as was possible in one day in Charleston.