Mt. Pleasant, Sullivan Island and Isle of Palms

Today we took another nice bike ride around Elissa's neighborhood.

After lunch with Elissa, Eric and I took off to explore Mt. Pleasant, Sullivan Island and Isle of Palms which are about 30-40 minutes away from Goose Creek.  At Mount Pleasant, we went to Patriots Point at the base of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.  We saw the USS Yorktown and a recreated Vietnam War naval base.  

We also checked out the old village of Mt. Pleasant on Shem Creek.  The porches on these coastal homes look so inviting.  I was ready to stop for tea on one of them.












We went across a long, high bridge to Sullivan Island and Isle of Palms.  They were very pretty with lots of gorgeous homes.  It was funny to see how they built the first row of homes in from the shore high enough to see over the dunes to the ocean and then the next row of homes back would have to be even taller to try to see over the first row of homes.  As we went over the bridge on the way back, we saw the big container ships being loaded with all the containers of goods.

Our first friend in South Carolina

On Monday, we took a bike ride around Elissa's neighborhood.  It was so nice riding on a flat, smooth surface.  After lunch, we went to the Food Lion to purchase some groceries to fix dinner for Elissa and Jonathan for the next couple of evenings.  When we parked, we noticed a billfold in the parking space next to us.  We peaked in it and it still contained ID and credit cards.  We turned it over the the manager in the Food Lion and asked if she would try to reach the person.  She said she couldn't go to the trouble and would just put it in the safe.  After we got our groceries, we did an internet search for the wallet owner and found that she lived close by.  We drove to her house and told her that we had found her wallet and left it with the manager at Food Lion.  She was so relieved because she hadn't even realized that she had lost it.  She said that she had been really down about people in general that morning and that we had renewed her faith in people again.  She was very nice and we visited with her for awhile.  She runs a dog advocacy program for people who have found they don't have the time or energy to deal with their dogs. It was nice to to be able to put our extra time to good use. 

First visit to Charleston

Today we went to church with Elissa and Jonathan in West Ashley.  They go to Good Shepherd Lutheran.  It is a small congregation that meets in the sanctuary of a Seventh Day Adventist church.  I was impressed by the economy of this arrangement.  Their pastor is in the Naval reserve and is currently deployed. They've made friends with another Navy couple in their church and we got to meet them.

After church, we headed to historic downtown Charleston for lunch.  We ate at the Southern Brewery and Smokehouse.  We had a delicious lunch of brick-oven pizza.  After lunch, we checked out the harbor, wandered around Charleston and browsed through the Charleston Market. 

This is the Pineapple fountain near the harbor.

This is the entrance to the City Marketplace. 
I love all the architectural details. 

Summerville

We went into Summerville with Elissa and Jonathan on Saturday.  It is just about 20 minutes from Goose Creek.  It is a pretty town along the banks of a river where the Charleston elite used to spend their summers because it was cooler and had less mosquitoes.  We had lunch at Franks's with every imaginable kind of hotdog.  Elissa and I walked around the old downtown section and visited a few stores while Eric and Jonathan checked out the historic pub.  On Sunday, we are planning to go to church and then into Charleston.
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South Carolina at last!

We slept in on Friday, before heading out to finish our drive across Georgia.  We stopped in Augusta, Georgia to get a peek at Augusta National Golf Course.  A peek is all we could get.  We couldn't see any of the course, but we did get to turn around at the clubhouse.  It was in a very pretty area. 

When we entered South Carolina, we stopped at the visitor's welcome center for brochures, sweet tea and boiled peanuts.  I think if South Carolinians would eat some nice roasted peanuts like those Max and Sherry sent with us for trip snacking they wouldn't touch those soggy, boiled peanuts again.  We decided to get off the interstate and drive the shorter, but slower route through several small rural towns to get to Goose Creek.  We really enjoyed the drive.  We even saw an old plantation-style home with the family cemetery beside it that was surrounded by oaks dripping with spanish moss.  It was picture perfect.

We finally made it to Elissa and Jonathan's!  It was so good to see them after all this time.  We had a nice dinner together at their favorite restaurant in West Ashley.   

Talladega drive by

We got a good day of driving in today and made it about 30 miles east of Atlanta.  We took a quick detour to go by the Nascar mecca of Talladega Super Speedway in Alabama.  We saw a barn by the speedway offering $5 hot showers.  I can only imagine what a race weekend there is like.  Eric has been once and says it is unlike anything he has ever experienced.  We've got about a 5 hour drive tomorrow to Goose Creek where Elissa lives.  Willie is traveling like a trooper.  He nestles in under my seat while we drive and pokes his head out when we stop.  He is roaming around the hotel room now checking things out.  We are excited to see Elissa and Jonathan tomorrow!
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Heading out on the Mother Road

We finally got on the road!!  We finished the last of the house cleaning and loading the car Wednesday morning and hit the road about 10:30.  Not bad.  We pretty much drove straight through with stops once an hour to exercise our legs.  We couldn't stop anywhere very long with Willie the cat in the car and the temperature climbing to over 100 degrees.  We made it to Olive Branch, Mississippi (just southeast of Memphis) and spent the night. We had a little snafu getting into our room.  They gave us keys to someone else's room.  When we unlocked the door, we could see feet in the bed.  We hope they were just watching tv :0  

Our drive went pretty smoothly with the only hiccup occurring in Tulsa.  Some Google maps person must have thought it was funny to detour us to Route 66 for a bit.  When we read the instructions, we thought perhaps there was construction we were avoiding, but after seeing it, we don't think so.  Oh well, we started our trip with on jaunt on the Mother Road.
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