Day 63 - South Carolina

Day 63

December 13

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

My Dear Miss Smith,
    It has been a few days since I last wrote you though the girls assured me that they have faithfully kept you updated on our travels. It is truly wonderful that I have others to help with all my correspondence, for if I had to keep it all up myself, I would either not get to see much, spend most of my nights writing, or you wouldn’t hear anything! I do hope things have been going well at home. Be sure and tell Amy when you see her next that Timber is getting along just fine and Penelope and I would feel alone if we had to part with him.

    This morning the girls and I took the dogs for a last romp on the beach outside our cottage before we left. Timber has no fear of the ocean waves even in this chilly weather and seemed to enjoy himself tremendously.

We were all a little sad to leave that lovely little cottage by the sea and return to life in the RV, much as the RV feels like home. Getting out of Charleston wasn’t too hard since we waited until the morning rush of traffic had dissipated.

    The drive to Conway, South Carolina was only a few hours and we passed the time with talk of all the places we had been and what Abigail and Susanna were going to do when they arrived back home, since this is their last day. I am just thankful that when I take the girls to the airport, I can pick up the next travelers and don’t have to spend the night alone in the RV. I know, Miss Smith, when I was following the Marshmallow Thief I traveled all over with only Piccadilly for a companion, but this trip is different. It was meant to be shared. But I must get on with our day or I will never get to bed!

    Arriving at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm, we met several members of the farm and began our experience on a “one horse family farm.” This farm was begun by Larry Paul who offered to fund its construction. The goal was to create what a family farm would be like between 1900-1955. I must say it was quite interesting.

We got to help make butter and grind grits and visited the smokehouse to bring some hams to the house for cooking.

They have a darling little wood stove in the kitchen that they cook on.

And you should have seen the front room, Miss Smith; you would have fallen in love with it.


    Abigail and Susanna tried their hand at spinning and did a remarkable job!

I had the job of washing some clothes. Dear me, what a job washing days must have been back then.

They have some darling little speckled hens and of course the other animals you’d expect to find, such as a cow named “Daisy.” Why is it that most cows seem to bear that same name?



    Well, we couldn’t stay too long, as they were starting preparations for tomorrow’s Christmas at the Farm Day. It would have been fun to stay, but we must keep going. Since there were still several hours left in the day, we decided right then to head over to Myrtle Beach State Park.

    Oh, the delight of the beach again! We have gotten so used to hearing the sounds of the waves as we drift to sleep, that we unanimously voted to spend the night right here, since they have hookups for RVs, instead of trying to find a place down the road. The dogs were delighted to be out and we had a campfire this evening. We roasted marshmallows and ate s’mores while I told the girls about my experiences with that elusive yet sticky marshmallow thief.

    Now it is quite late. I let Abigail drive the RV from Conway to Myrtle Beach today. She did a good job, and I was delighted to be relieved from driving. That’s another reason I miss Amy. The girls are in bed and as I don’t hear anymore whispering, I imagine they are asleep, so I should join them.
    Good night, Miss Smith.

Sweet dreams,

~Priscilla

Day 62 - South Carolina

Day 62

Dec. 12

Charleston, SC

Dear Miss Smith,
    Wow. We saw some pretty cool places today! It was quite the full but fun
day:)

    We were all up and on our way early because we knew there was a lot to see! Our first stop was Drayton Hall. Drayton Hall is a beautiful brick house located outside of Charleston. It has survived the American Revolution, the Civil War, a local earthquake in 1886 and large hurricanes. It's one of the only Pre-Revolutionary houses that stand in close to their original condition today, and is the only plantation on the Ashley River to survive intact. Through the years, it had been passed down through 7 generations of Draytons, and served as a rice plantation, a military headquarters, a site for strip mining, and a country retreat before being bought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1974. The Trust decided to preserve the site as is, instead of restoring it to look like a certain time period like many other places do. Quite the history, huh?

    We took the house tour, which lasted just over 45 minutes. The house had beautiful wood floors and walls. In one hall there was a marble mantle which was original to the house!

A couple rooms had plaster ceilings, which were pretty cool. One of these plaster ceilings was the original 1742 ceiling for that room. The basement was all stone; walls, floors and all!





    Once we finished looking around the grounds, we ate lunch as we headed to our next stop, the Magnolia Plantation.

There is so much to do there! We started with the tour of the house which took us through ten rooms.
    We explored the slave cabins and spent some time in the Zoo and Nature center, then headed to the gardens. The gardens were amazing. It must be unbelievably beautiful in the warmer months!! Definitely a place to come back to!

    The Swamp Garden was probably the coolest part of it though. Trees growing from the water . . . egrets and herons . . . lots of bridges and dikes. And you're right in the middle of it all. I took lots of pictures!

    By the time we finished our walk through there, we decided we wanted to give our feet a break though, so we took the Nature Train. The ride took us over the plantation and it was a good way to get a sample of every bit of the place. We even saw an alligator! Before leaving, we stopped at the Peacock Cafe and got something warm to drink. It was warmer than usual today but we were still getting a bit chilly after being outside most of the afternoon!

    Now we're enjoying our last evening at the Cottage. It's been really nice having a cozy place to come to the last several evenings :) Only one more day in South Carolina! It's gone really fast!

-Abigail

Day 61 - South Carolina

Day 61

Dec. 11

Charleston, SC

Miss Smith

            Today we had a light breakfast so we wouldn’t be late to our tour. The tour we took was called “Savor the Flavors ofCharleston."

The streets were beautiful with the trees and all. Part of the tour we got to sample some food. It was delicious.

The tour was two and a half hours long. When the tour was over, we visited the gift store. I bought my mom some hot pads cause she’s always losing them. Abigail bought a cookbook and Cilla bought a chef’s hat. I have no idea where she is going to store it since the RV is already pretty full. Abigail is going to embroider Priscilla's name on the hat.

            We had a light lunch and drove to the Fort Sumter office. Since the only way to get to the actual fort is by ferry, we had to wait for the ferry to come back. While we were waiting, we looked around at the museum they had.

            Soon the ferry returned and we loaded up. It was a nice day so Abigail and I rode on the open top of the ferry. Cilla was afraid she would lose her “Mrs. Walton” hat so she stayed inside. While on the ferry we saw some dolphins following it. All too soon we reached the island. There was so much to see. The fort was exciting.

They had cannons, a few museums and you could walk on the fort.

42 pounder cannons

The museum was about the history of the fort. 

Ruins of the Officer's Quarters

Sadly we had to leave after an hour. Riding back we talked about everything we did that day and this time Cilla rode on top with us.

            We listened to some Christmas music on our way back to the cottage. We all sang along as we knew the words. We spent another relaxing night at the cottage. My absolute favorite part of the day was the ferry on our way to Fort Sumter.

Your friend,

Susanna

Day 60 - South Carolina

Day 60

Dec. 10

Charleston, SC

Miss Smith,

            We got up early today so we could finish the drive to Charleston. Our first place we stopped was Boone Hall Plantation.

Boone Hall Plantation

We only spent a few hours there so we could go everywhere we wanted to, but we could have spent longer. The house was beautiful.

Middleton Place

            After that we went to the Middleton Place. The house museum was neat.

The furniture and furnishings were beautiful. We went to the garden afterwards. The flowers were pretty. They had some white flowers blooming that were just gorgeous.

 

Middleton Gardens

            Eventually we tired and decided to go to our cottage. We stayed at the Cottages on Charleston harbor. The cabins were roomy.

Soon we settled in for the night.

My favorite part of the day was when we took a tour of the Middleton house. Got to go now.

Sincerely,

Susanna

Day 59 - South Carolina

Day 59

Dec. 9

St. George, South Carolina

Dear Miss Smith,
    This morning we got up and quickly ate breakfast. We were eager to be on our way and finish our drive to Redcliffe! The Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site is near Beech Island. It wasn't too long of a drive until we arrived.

    The Redcliffe Plantation was finished in 1859 and was once the home of James Henry Hammond and three generations of his descendants. The mansion is a tall house, but it didn't look quite like what I think of when I think of a Plantation house. I guess it's more box shape than spread out. I'm not sure quite how to describe it, but it was pretty in it's own way: white with dark green trim.

    We decided we wanted to take the tour of the mansion, so looked around a bit while we were waiting for the next tour to start. The wide open front porch had a really cool view. It would be a really relaxing place to sit and unwind! Especially in the spring or summer!  It was kinda breezy and cool today so we didn't spend too much time out there.

    The tour of the house lasted around two hours. Plantation houses are so cool! Especially all the wood floors! The square grand piano in the parlor looked so tempting to play.:)

    After the tour, we headed outside to check out the slave quarters and the magnolia lane. Redcliffe Plantation has one of the few surviving 19th century slave quarters in the state. The magnolia trees were larger than I expected! It must be so pretty in the spring when they're blooming!

    We're now on our way to Charleston and spending the night at, you guessed it, another RV park ;) Not that I mind, it's been fun spending evenings with Priscilla and Susanna!

-Abigail

Day 58 - South Carolina

Day 58

December 8

Lexington, South Carolina

Dear Miss Smith,
    Our stop today was the Lexington County Museum! It's not actually a museum in the usual sense of the word, but a 7 acre area in the heart of Lexington that consists of 36 historic structures and buildings! The "museum" (It seems weird to call it that, since it's not all contained in one building.) has several restored houses and their outbuildings, barns, a school, and also a post office!The post office is the original Lexington County post office and is believed to have been built around 1790!

Leaphart/Harman House

    After browsing through the exhibits in the main museum building and exhibit hall, we headed outside to the first house, the Leaphart/Harman House. This house was built some around 1800 and has been home to only two families in it's 200 year history. I thought the brick chimney was really cool. It has a diagonal pattern in the bricks! We were told that that diagonal pattern is the last remaining example in the county.
    From there we debated where to head next. Across the street were several houses, the post office and school, while on this side was the John Fox House, the most notable building in the museum, and all it's outbuildings. We ended up deciding to cross the street first.

Corley Log House

    After stopping in the post office and school, we headed to the oldest documented house in Lexington, constructed in 1771: the Corley Log house. The original owner, Laurance Corley, owned the land that became the town of Lexington! The log cabin consisted of one downstairs room and a loft. Wow, I think I would have gone stir crazy in the winter! It was so tiny and not really any windows!

Daniel Koon house

    The Daniel Koon house made me think of a little model house for some reason. I think maybe because of the green shutters and white siding . . . and the fact that it was small. :)

Hazelius House

    The coolest part of the Hazelius house was the corner where you could see evidence of an attempt to set fire to the house by Federal troops in 1865. That, and learning that this house was the location where Charlie Tillman wrote the gospel song "Give Me That Old Time Religion!" :)

John Fox House

    The John Fox House is really a neat looking house, two stories tall with a long porch with white pillars along the front of the house, and a row of windows above the porch roof on the upper story. It was the first building in Lexington County to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house features furniture and other artifacts made in Lexington County that show how the house would have been set up around the middle of the nineteenth century. It has six bedrooms, but originally had more!
    We could have spent more time walking around and taking a closer look at all the outbuildings but instead Priscilla thought it would be a good idea to start the drive to Redcliffe and get part way there.

 We did check out a few of the buildings though before leaving. The Wadlington Pigeon House is a very unique looking building! It's octagonal shape with a peaked roof, and 112 access holes. I guess the octagonal ornamental architecture style was popular in the 1850s, but it's kinda rare to find now. There's only one other pigeon house from that period still known to exist in South Carolina.

    After all that walking, it felt good to sit in the vehicle! Actually it put me to sleep for a while. We're now at an RV park where we'll spend the night. And Priscilla just informed me that she and Susanna are going to take the dogs out, so I think I'll stop writing and join them.

Hope everything is going well there!

-Abigail

Day 57 - South Carolina

Day 57

December 7

Lexington, South Carolina

Dear Miss Smith,
    This was our first day without Amy and I must say that I missed her. Susanna, Abigail and I began our day with a delightful breakfast fixed by the girls while I took the dogs out for a morning walk. It was a lovely morning to drive over to Kings Mountain, and since we were headed to such a place of interest, Susanna and Abigail took turns reading Manly Wade Wellman’s book Battle for King’s Mountain aloud. Miss Smith, you really ought to pull that book off the shelf and reread it if only for the sake of feeling more connected with me in my travels.

    A fact I found quite interesting was that we were there two months to the day (and many years later) of when the battle was fought. Thomas Jefferson called the battle “the turn of the tide of success” since it was the first major victory by the Americans after the British invaded Charleston.

Loyalist's hat on left, Patriot's hat on right

    When we arrived we first visited the Museum, as all well bred persons do. It was fascinating to see an original Ferguson Rife. And as we wandered through the exhibit, which was created to resemble an old growth forest, we listened with interest to the talking trees which tell the story of the battle and the people involved. We also watched the film “Battle for Kings Mountain.” Did you realize, Miss Smith, that the battle for Kings Mountain only lasted one hour? I wonder if that was the shortest battle in the American Revolution?

    We were all so interested in what we saw that it was nearly lunch time when we left the visitor center and headed outside. After a quick lunch at one of the picnic tables, we leashed the dogs and headed out for the one and a half mile walk up the mountain trail to the top of the ridge where the Patriots assaulted the Loyalists. We even saw Ferguson’s grave. Timber seemed to greatly enjoy getting outside for a nice long walk, and even Penelope pranced along with a perky tail. The weather was perfect for a walk up the slopes of Kings Mountain; the air was brisk and chilly, but we didn’t have to wear heavy coats and warmed up quickly with the climb.

    We thought we might drive over to Kings Mountain State Park but discovered that most things were closed, so, after a trip to the bookstore, where we purchased a few things, we headed on down the road to Lexington. Of course as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot, Abigail picked up our book and began once again to read aloud.

    I purchased three Kings Mountain pins, one for each of us. Perhaps I’ll wear mine on my 50-State hat. I haven’t decided. The girls say I should wait and see if I discover something else. That sounds like good advice and I do believe I will follow it. Oh, how I miss Amy at times like this.
    We are now situated in an RV park. Supper is smelling good, and after we eat, I promised the girls we’d finish the book, so I must go and help with supper.

Farewell,

~Priscilla

Day 56 - Georgia

Day 56

Evening

Dear Miss Smith,
    Since Levi has written you about the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum, I won’t spend much time on it myself except to say that it was a fascinating place to visit!

    Of course my favorite exhibit was the centerpiece of the museum which was a train. It was an old steam locomotive named “Texas” which was used to pursue the Union raiders who had captured the Confederate locomotive “General” and were steaming away with it. The “Texas” not only pursued them, but also recovered the coveted engine much to the Confederates joy. The story about the raid, pursuit and recapture of the “General” was so interesting that Disney made it into a movie in 1956 called “The Great Locomotive Chase.”

    The other thing worth noting was the purchase of Civil War Rifle Pens for each of the boys, Amy and myself. Mine will go on my hat to add quite a unique touch. Amy has fixed it so that I might pull it out to use should I so desire.

    It is evening now and growing late. We met Susanna and Abigail at the airport, and, since the boys’ planes didn’t leave until a later time, we all enjoyed supper together. It really was quite interesting, Miss Smith, since Abigail is the older sister of Christian, and Susanna is the older sister of Levi. The four of them chattered non stop until the boys boarded their planes for home. And alas, Miss Smith, I had to say good bye to Amy as well. The farewell was touching, for in spite of our extreme differences in character, we had grown quite fond of each other. I will still keep Timber for a few more days before he is picked up. I am grateful to have Susanna and Abigail with me for South Carolina or I would be quite lonely.
    But all is now quiet and I must get some rest.

Must love,

~Priscilla

Day 56 - Georgia

Day 56

December 6

Atlanta, Georgia

Dear Miss Smith,
     We were up and ready to go by 8:00 a.m. We went to the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum. It was fantastic. This is some of the information I found. The Atlanta Cyclorama is the largest of only three Cycloramas in the U.S.. Overseas there are only sixteen that still exist and they are known as panoramas. A Cycloramas is supposed to give the viewer a 360 degree view. 

The circumference of the painting is 358 ft. and covers 15,030 sq. ft..

The depth of the display is 30 ft. The painting alone weighs more than 10,000 lbs. The tallest figure in the diorama is 3 ft. 

The Cyclorama was painted in 1885-86 by German artists. The shortest figure in the diorama is 17 inches. 

One of the dying soldiers in the diorama is a portrait of the actor Clark Gable.

When we were done looking at the cyclorama we went to the store. Christian and I got a Rifle pen each. Pricilla got a Rifle pen to add to her states hat and Amy got an Atlanta Cyclorama Pin.

Love,

 Levi

Day 55 - Georgia

Day 55

December 5

Atlanta, Georgia

Dear Miss Smith,
     Today we went to Nash Farm Battlefield. It was fun!! There were four battles fought there
during the Civil War. During the second half of 1864, the Nash farm was the scene of considerable
military activity!! One of the most famous battles was a Cavalry charge that was done by General Sherman's Cavalry.

     While we were walking around I was imagining what it would be like to be there when it happened. It was too bad that we were not here in September when there was a Battle Re-enactment and Living History. It would have been exciting to see that!!
     Well, I have to go now.

Til later,

-Christian