Charleston, South Carolina

On Thursday we finally left Savannah after being there for almost 7 weeks and headed north to Charleston.  It was a short trip, only 120 miles, so we arrived just after noon.  Originally this was where I had picked for us to spend the past few weeks, instead of Savannah, but since I did not know the parks I had concerns of not being able to use our satellite dish based on what I was reading in the reviews.  There are only a few RV parks in the area and, from the descriptions, are very wooded.  However, as we begin our trek north we did want to stop in Charleston so I picked the park that got the best reviews and we were not disappointed.  We are at the James Island County Park Campground.  It is on James Island just outside of Charleston.  The park is huge and just beautiful.  What a great place for the residents of Charleston to come.  It has walking/biking trails, a huge dog park, huge kids playground, RV park, picnic areas and buildings you can rent out for events. 

The RV park is a little pricey but the sites are huge and well spaced with full hookups.  The description was right, there are a lot of trees.  I did not think we would be able to use our roof mounted satellite dish and I would have to try and find an open area to use our portable dish.  However, to my amazement, after we backed into our site I turned on the roof dish and after 15 minutes of searching it found 2 out of the 3 satellites needed.  This means we do not get some channels in high definition but still get all channels in at least standard definition (oh how we have to suffer!).  It is amazing how the dish can find a signal through the trees. 

Here is our site

On Friday our first task was to go to Trader Joe’s market.  We love this store and it has been a few months since we have been in an area where there is a store.  This was followed by grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.

On Saturday we ventured out to visit a plantation, Boone Hall.  The property dates back a couple of hundred years and was a working plantation.  The original house had been replaced a few times and the one currently standing dates back to the 1930’s but was built to look like homes of the plantation era.  A third of the original slave quarters are standing and have exhibits about the life of slaves.

This is the road (driveway) to the house.  A very beautiful drive through oaks that are hundreds of years old. 

The current house.

The original slave quarters.

It was a very nice day at the plantation and very informative.

Today, Sunday, we took a bike ride around the park and came across a group of men racing radio controlled sailboats on the little pond.  It was fun to watch.

Radio controlled sailboats.

The men that control them.  You can see the worn path near the shoreline where they walk as they follow the boats on the course. 

This is my fourth trip to Charleston and Fran’s second.  We have never been out to Fort Sumter, so that is on the agenda this week.