Atlanta to the Coast - Day 5

After a night in a very comfortable room (thanks hotel points!), we kicked things off at the Edgar Allen Poe branch library at Sullivan's Island. Built originally as a military bunker with 2 feet thick walls and iron doors. Poe was stationed there, hence the name. Inside, a regular library.

This goes under the category of—what the???

One of many bridges we crossed today—there’s a lot of islands here.

Our first major stop—the Charleston Tea Company. It’s the only place in the US where tea is grown and processed (they make tea for Bigelow and Sam’s Club, among others). Here’s shots of the processing center. It takes less than 24 hours from field to tea bags.

More from the plantation…

Hey, Mindy found a friend for tea!

This is a field of tea plants. Half the year, 5-8 inches are trimmed are trimmed off the top every 21 days. The rest of the year they go dormant. These are ALL based on cuttings from China in the 1800’s. The plants stay in place going forward—there are plants in Asia that are 600+ years old.

As no insecticides (or pesticides) are used here, this pond is stocked with fish and an alligator to eat up all the mosquito larva. Most other bugs (apart from butterflies) stay away due to the caffeine in the plants.

This custom built harvester goes over each of the rows—it takes only 4 guys to work the fields. One to run the harvester, two to walk ahead and weed, and one to drive a pickup to transfer the resulting loads to the plant.

A way up the road is the Angel Oak—a 450 year tree that wasn’t quite as impressive than we thought. Much of the tree is held up with cables and other supports. They hope to keep it going for another 450 years. I’m doubtful.

Moving on to the World’s Largest Sweet Tea (2500 gallons) in Summerville, where it was reportedly invented. It’s sandwiched between two municipal buildings.

Here’s a mural displaying the life of the “Swamp Fox”, a local historical hero from the 1700’s. Older people might remember a Disney show about him. This is one of 28(?!?) murals in the area.

As we passed from South to North Carolina, we reached a cheesy oasis known as…

It’s like every tourist trap ever. Fireworks, souvenirs, restaurants, rides, a big tower, minigolf…

We reached Smithfield tonight, and tried the White Swan—a hole in the wall, which means great BBQ and chicken.

Enough for now. Tomorrow, we visit with old friends and our second niece of the trip.

Atlanta to the Coast - Day 4

After a surprisingly comfortable night (if you walk out of your room and you’re outside, its a MOTEL, not a HOTEL)…

…we went down the street to fulfill one of our road trip rules. We visited an obscure museum—in this case, the Vidalia Onion Museum.

On the way to Savannah, we stopped to pick up our mail.

Savannah. Home to Spanish Moss and a LOT of bars. If you’ve ever gone on a cruise, you would recognize a port of call—five stores endlessly repeated. Despite that, it was pretty.

Lunch was held at the British Tea Company—meat pies! A Cornish pasty and chicken curry, plus a very thick shortbread.

The afternoon had a Gothic theme. First, the Bonaventure Cemetery, which was the site of the book and film “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”. It’s very creepy.

Second, the ruins of the Sheldon Church, which was burned down in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Finally, we made it to Charleston. We’re still on the outskirts (it took a couple attempts to find the hotel—Charleston must have an issue with signage). While waiting for a Baptist convention to check in, we went across the street for dinner—shrimp po-boy and an omelette.

TOAST!

OK, that’ll do it for today. Onto Charleston and NC!