26 27 AUG 2010

Today was a slow start day. We slept in, this touring is very tiring you must realize, and did not even get to breakfast until 10:30. Well 10:27 since the restaurant was to close at 10:30 but they stayed open to feed us.

So we looked at our options, north NO WAY, east NOT POSSIBLE, west WHY?, south FOR SURE but where and how far. At first we thought about Richmond VA, but that was only a couple of hours away so we would drive through but not stay there. Then we looked at a few other places and decided that some were too far and too long. There were some places I would love to visit but they are several hundred miles south west and that just does not seem practical. We decided on Wilmington, NC which is on the coast. So the drive today was from Washington DC, to Richmond, down to Rocky Mount down to Wilmington. One thing we noticed was that the highways are lined with trees so we really did not get a chance to see any country side.

This is a coastal town with the Battleship North Carolina, a wharf, river boat cruises and more. We also have a KOC here to stay at. We got in late so tomorrow we will explore before heading down the coastal highway to Charleston, SC. We not going to leave right away so are thinking that we will only drive as far as Charleston and stay there a night. Hopefully we will have time to explore a bit there as well. I wonder if we will find a historic plantation to visit. Also, I got a picture of the first palm trees we have seen so far.

Now it is Friday morning and we are packing up. Let me tell you, packing a tent in the rain means work when you set it up and have to clean off so packing up took a bit of time. The pool here is suppose to close at 9 pm but it is so hot and muggy there are people in the pool until very late and again very early.

We are not used to the heat with humidity. For example today the weather was considered cooler by the locals and it is 32 C with about a 70% humidity. The reported “feels like 45 C” is the report. I agree and am interested to hear that this is considered cool.

We started today by stopping by the Battleship USS North Carolina. We learned that this is one of several North Carolina’s (5th actually – 4 battleships and one submarine). We found the self-guided tour very interesting and I have to give credit for the Navy guys who lived in those quarters. There were 2300 men on the ship while in service from 1941-1949 when it was decommissioned but it was the battleship that had seen the most combat action during World War II. In total we spent about 3 hours touring this little boat (ok ship). Oh and Wes sat in the Captains chair to oversee the helm room (whatever it is called).

After we left we headed down the road to Charleston, SC.

We got to the KOA site and went to set up our tent in the designated site. The area was really crawling with ants and even in the time we studied the options, they were climbing over things. We asked and got a different site.

After setting up the tent we headed into town, (Charleston, SC remember) to do some exploring and dinner. We found the wharf and the French section. We enjoyed looking at the park by the water and watched a ship sail through. There were several other ships – such as a navy ship – docked as well. Apparently there is a navy base here.

We had hoped to see lots of interesting things down in the old section of Charleston, but actually the park was fun with interesting signs, great fountains but other than that not much to see. Here is one sign we came across

 and here is the reference at most 6 inches deep.

We walked a couple of the streets and did enjoy the old buildings and the narrow streets, very original. I did have fun trying to get a picture of the birds diving into the water for fish. I never got one as it hit the water, but did get one dive bombing.

We had talked about going to visit a plantation, one recommended, which is about 25 miles from here so we put it off until tomorrow. We will start the continuation of our trip by driving by there.