When your vehicle struggles to go 8 miles on a gallon of fuel, the price of gasoline is of great interest. We like South Carolina's gas prices. They are the lowest we have yet encountered. We got excited when we found a price below $2.50 per gallon in Virginia, but in South Carolina we got down to $2.099 per gallon for a fill, and 10 miles later in Anderson it was just below $2.00.
This was on our way to the Redcliffe Plantation. To properly appreciate history we have to understand the dark sides of our past as well as the exciting and noble aspects. Redcliffe was not a 'working plantation' but a summer retreat (for the owners and their friends) from the heat and humidity of the cotton-growing plantations the Hammond family owned. It had decorative gardens and plots of trial crops. It was staffed by about 60 slaves prior to emancipation.
James Henry Hammond was an influential politician, who championed slavery and the plantation system.
The guided tour gave a good explanation of how the buildings had changed since initial construction. We asked about the practical effects of abolishing slavery after the Civil War. In truth it was very little in the short and medium term. Most slaves had nowhere else to go and continued doing the same work for very low wages. A few moved away. Dennis Wigfall (age 3 at emancipation) moved to Augusta, Georgia where he and his son Clarence operated successful grocery stores, but that was exceptional.
The plantation house. It has been significantly modified inside.
Not far from Redcliffe we came upon the Ditch Pond Heritage Preserve. We had to have a look.
Didn't you believe us?
The Fondaws recommended Folly Beach, near Charleston so we went and had a look.
It's a long, broad, sandy beach.
One of the beachfront properties.
And another.
Charleston itself has a lot of post-Columbian history. We took a tour.
The Charleston “single house” is the dominant residential building type in the Charleston Historic District. Built during the 18th and 19th centuries and adapted from the English row house plan, traditional single houses are detached, one room wide, two rooms deep and at least two stories tall. Thus the wall facing the street is the side of the house. The door from the street leads to the piazza (veranda), not into the house. The true front door to the house is located at the center of the lower level of the piazza.
A “double house” is four rooms deep, with the entrance in the centre.
Charleston residents love their piazzas. We are promised that, in summer, it is important to have somewhere that catches the breeze.
Like all cities in the developed world, Charleston has facilities for tertiary education. They include The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. All the students are in uniform, which is totally alien to the cultures of the tertiary institutions that we know.
One of The Citadel's main buildings.
The Seraph Monument on the campus contains artifacts from the British submarine HMS Seraph, which was involved in some combined operations with US forces in WWII. It is the only shore location in the United States authorized to fly the Royal Navy Ensign.
The tour bus driver suggested a few places for lunch. This was one of them. We recommend it, too. The food and the service are excellent and it's a bit quirky, which is always nice. On the tables, with the menus, are some of Eli Hyman's suggestions for a better world. These include a channel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea, which would flow towards the lower Dead Sea and could be used to generate electricity, which could be used to desalinate the water, which could be used to irrigate desert land. He also had an idea to promote peace in the Middle East. And he appeared in person to ask how we liked our meal and to offer an extra cup of coffee. He admitted that his ideas need more work, particularly the peace initiative, but how many restaurants have that kind of philosophy on the table?
There is a store attached to the restaurant that sells souvenirs and foods. It offered tinned boiled peanuts. Now boiled peanuts are a Southern specialty. We quite often saw roadside stalls advertising them, but few roadside stalls of any kind give enough advance warning or enough space to park our 28ft vehicle. Recommendations from Americans we met ranged from “You MUST try some” to “Don't touch them”. Some stalls advertise a particular flavour, which we suspect is based on the broth they are boiled in. Some give no more information than “Boiled peanuts”. They weren't expensive, so we bought a can from Hyman's General Store.
We were surprised to find that they are boiled in the shell. Do connoisseurs eat the shell? We didn't. We peeled them and ate the nuts. Bill thought they were pretty bland and Eve thought they were disgusting. We wouldn't tell anyone to avoid them, but we are not tempted to buy any more.
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