MT. PLEASANT and MYRTLE POINT SC 5/14-15/2011

After the good night's sleep at Camp WalMart we were ready for another day of historical experience.  We drove to Sullivan's Island across the water from Mt. Pleasant.  And were we surprised!  They had manhole covers there!!

  We were there to tour Fort Moultrie, sister fort to Fort Sumpter.

  We have been amazed as we go through the states by forts and the play they took in our nation's development.  We have been to many and it is fun to be able to compare them to each other and now to begin to see similarities and begin grouping them into timeline and style categories.  Cannons too are beginning to fit into groups.

Fort Moultrie is very similar to Fort Stevens on the Oregon.  Both coastal forts designed to defend a river entering a port

We took a couple hours to explore the fort and its grounds.

 Tim and Marcie, look familiar??

 The grounds gave us a good walk!!

  And lots of history to read, very similar to Fort Stevens too!

 Then we walked back to our trailer and see the park on the other side of the trailer?

 We had a picnic lunch there.  We love doing picnics!

 Then on up Hwy 17 to another historical place.  The plantation of one of the composers and signers of the U.S. Constitution, Charles Pinckney.  He was so instrumental in the writing of the constitution that they began to call him "Constitution Charlie".  I felt blessed to be able to see this place as he was one that I read a lot about a few months ago as I read about the lives of the signers of the Constitution.

 The grounds were beautiful and very peaceful.

Though the house was not the original, it was one built shortly after his life here and on the same foundation.  But this land was his and it was where he spent his off days, walking and contemplating.

 The inside of the house is now dedicated to teaching about him.

The remains of this well is the well he used.

 As we walked the grounds that he walked we were amazed at the many magnolia trees there.

 The paths through the forests were very peaceful.

 This is the front of the house.

 We spent time on the porch looking over the grounds and pondering the great ideas that came to Charles Pinckney as he sat on a porch in the house that was here before this one.

 This was our view.

  We left this plantation and moved on to the Boone Hall Plantation nearby, but found they wanted $20.00 each to get in and see it.  We took a picture of the oak lined road leading to it and left....

 ... to go down the road to the Hampton Plantation, which was not as well maintained in its original state, but it was free!!!

 Through the imposing gates we went.

 The plantation house is in really great shape considering it is so old!

  From its porch we looked out on the grounds and tried to imagine it all in its heyday.

  Out where Mr. Hampton had his race horse track.

 Down the road that led up to the big house, imagining visitors coming up the way in horse and buggy to visit and stay the night.

 And looking out on the tree that tradition says was saved by George Washington when he came to visit here as president and when Mrs. Hampton threatened to cut the tree down because it blocked the view of the race track from the front porch and President Washington said, "Leave the tree be."  And she did.

 And there the tree stands today.

 Then we drove north to Georgetown, where we spent the night at and LDS Church parking lot so we could go to church on Sunday.

 At church, to our surprise, we ran into some friends of our son, Sean and his wife Amanda.  They used to live in Redmond, Oregon too!  Also a couple that was serving as missionaries there happened to be from Morgan, UT and lived right next door to some people we counted as dear friends when they lived in Etna, CA.  Sam and JoAnn Thackery!!  Small world!!!

 After church and a quick lunch, we drove to Myrlte Beach, SC to spend two nights at Braircliffe RV Park.

We will leave here Tuesday, May 17, and continue our travels north.