South Carolina Archives -

Congaree

November 17, 2014 Drew

The first stop on our route south is Congaree National Park. This place is beautiful, and adds another unexpected and awesome location to the list of great travel experiences that we are slowly but surely accruing.

We also survived our first thunderstorm in the camper! Coming from the Midwest, I am definitely no stranger to some decent severe weather. While this storm really wasn’t all that severe, it was interesting to feel the thunderclaps rumble through the whole camper. We got boatloads of rain, and thankfully only one leak in the corner of one of the windows. I think I see where it is coming in, so I’ll be caulking that asap.

After the rain subsided, we headed out for Congaree. This National Park is the largest “old growth” cypress and hardwood forest in the US. The visitor center was closed today, and we didn’t see another person the entire time we wandered the boardwalk trail.

The trees are among the tallest in the world, and the park has a nice little self-guided tour that provides some information and context. The pictures don’t really do this place justice. Noelle and I were both left feeling a little bit in awe of nature after doing the 2 mile loop through the dense forest.

She is such a creep!

They say the polar vortex is coming and it is supposed to get freezing cold – hope we make it!

Road Trip, South Carolina

Ninety Six

November 6, 2014 Drew

Ninety Six is the name of the site we visited today. This Revolutionary War era National Historic Site is steeped in pretty a violent and bitter history. The place is basically just a bunch of earthen mounds (the remnants of a star shaped fort and attached town) with a visitor center at this point, but the story that they contain is pretty intense!

It was decently warm, but raining this afternoon, and there weren’t really any other visitors to the site. We checked out the little museum, watched a very well put together video, and went out to the site.

Ninety Six started as a popular Cherokee trading route. Some early pioneers built a trade post, and a town eventually formed. Then everything fell apart. The gist of the story pits one group of Americans (the Loyalists) vs. their former friends and neighbors (the Patriots) in a strikingly similar, mini precursor to the later Civil War. It’s a story about people fighting each other over a site that very soon afterwards lost any real significance, and is now essentially non-existent.

We felt the graveness of the battlefield, we imagined the struggles of the people that used to live there… then we found ourselves down the road shoving our faces full of greasy fried chicken and sweet tea. Such is life on the road in South Carolina!

We’re staying in the Greenwood State Rec area, and got a sweet site on the shores of Lake Greenwood.

Road Trip, South Carolina

Georgia Guidestones

November 4, 2014 Drew

We left the beautiful tree lined shores of Lake Keowee, and headed further south to Lake Hartwell. We finally made it to a sight I’ve wanted to see for quite a while – the Georgia Guidestones!

Lake Hartwell is a reservoir between South Carolina and Georgia. This thing is big too – if it were summer, I think we would be staying here for quite a while – there is so much to do!

But it’s not summer, and we are here for one thing only – the Georgia Guidestones. I’ve wanted to come see these things since we saw them on that awesome conspiracy show “America Unearthed”. This big granite “American Stonehenge” was erected in 1980 by a mysterious group of people, and aims to provide some rules on how to rebuild society in a new “Age of Reason.” A crazy New World Order conspiracy and big monolithic stones – sounds like a good time to me!

On the way back from the monument site, we stopped at another little roadside attraction: “The Center of the World.” When I first heard about this little sign, I thought for sure it was yet another example of our lovely American way of thinking the world revolves around us. It’s actually a reference to an old Cherokee meeting ground and trading center. I guess it’s crazy to think about how some small patch of land in tiny-town rural Georgia used to be the center of things for a thriving, well-developed society – interesting stuff!

Back at the campsite, we discovered that we had new neighbors. They were a really nice couple from Florida, but it was their first time camping, and they had a brand new rig. They had some troubles getting it all set up, so soon enough I found myself over there, flashlight in hand inspecting the multitude of pipes and switches that were to run their hot water. Noelle has taken to calling me Macgyver due to the many times she finds me tinkering away with a variety of tools spread around me. She even has a nice little song to go with it – isn’t she nice!

Road Trip, South Carolina

Keowee Toxaway

November 2, 2014 Drew

We spent the last three nights at Keowee Toxaway State Park. They were by far the coldest, but also the best nights so far!

The drive down to Keowee Toxaway was really pretty. The steep and windy roads of the North Carolina Blue Ridge gradually straightened and stretched out into the Cherokee foothills. The leaves are in a wonderful sort of middle stage between fall and winter – some are still hard at work clinging to the branches, while many have fallen, covering the road in orange and red layers. The pictures (and my lack of any decent photo editing skills) don’t really do it justice.

The Jeep is certainly glad to be out of the mountains as well. I’ve noticed that it likes to drink a lot of gas while we tow this camper. I started the drive with a quarter tank thinking I would stop at the next station. That station never seemed to arrive; I was getting a little nervous as the needle crept lower, so Noelle checked the Google maps.

The Google said there was one location for gas a little way off our route. We made the turn, found the town, and found the station – except it wasn’t a gas station anymore. It was more just a decrepit old building and a decaying concrete lot… I went a little further down the road and spotted a nice modern gas station just in time – whew!

As we got back on the scenic highway 11, we passed not one but TWO gas stations right off the main highway – the moral of this story is that Google Maps sucks. Oh, and I should probably start looking for gas stations at a half tank from now on!

We eventually pulled into Keowee Toxaway State Park – this place is beautiful. It’s on a lake, it has hills, it has trees (watch out for falling walnuts, those things are deadly!), it has electrical and water hookups, and its only $16.50 a night – sweet!

Also, this campground was pretty empty, unlike most of the other “RV” places we stayed at. Most of the campers at those places looked more-or-less permanent. I kind of wanted to camp, not live in a trailer park…

We took it easy this weekend; got some work done, made some good camp food, hung out. We went and saw the lake, and did the 1.5 mile nature hike. At one point a deer came trotting down the path to say hello to Noelle. I got a decent picture of it too (I know I need to get one of those sun shade things for the stupid camera to fix the glare spots).

We had a great three days here, and this is the first place that we are honestly a little sad to say goodbye to – I hope we can find more places like this. It’s starting to get pretty damn cold at night, so we’d better be heading further south soon!