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 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 33 - Mississippi

 Day 33

Nov. 13

Clarkco, MS

My Dear Miss Smith,
    I realize that I wrote a letter to you last night, but Amy said that if I would write you this evening, she would write you tomorrow.

    It has been a lovely day. We got on the road early in spite of the lateness of the preceding night. Our first stop of the day was in Biloxi to see the last home of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. The house was shrouded in a light fog when we arrived, but that quickly burned off when the sun came up a little more. We all loved the outside of the house with its pillars and high veranda. Inside was just as lovely. The house is called “Beauvoir” which is French for beautiful view because the third owner of this house loved the view of the Mississippi Sound from the front porch. I had wondered why it had that name.

    There is a statue of Jefferson Davis with his son Joseph and another boy, Jim Limber behind the house. I believe it was dedicated in 2010.

    After spending much time wandering around the gift shop, we purchased a few things and then went on our way. Each of us now has a penny with Jefferson Davis’ head on it instead of Lincoln’s. I’m contemplating the idea of attaching a pin to the back of mine and adding it to my 50-States hat. I have not decided for sure, however.


    Heading on, our next stop was just north of Lucedale. There we visited the Palestine Gardens.

Oh, Miss Smith, everyone of us enjoyed this stop immensely. The gardens are a miniature replica of the Holy Land. It is a one yard/one mile scale and we were able to see the Dead Sea, Bethlehem and Jerusalem and took a journey to Ceasarea Philippi.
Getting to see what everything looked like, the hills, the streets, the walls around the cities, all made the Bible much more real. There has been a lot of hard work put into this garden and it was well worth our visit. I’m sure we could have remained there much longer, but we had to continue our trip.

    It was several hours later before we reached Clarkco State Park where we had decided to spend the night. It is near Quitman, if you would like to find it on your map. Oh, it is a lovely place. Quiet and peaceful after the noise of the cities. There is a lake and our RV is parked under tall trees.

It wasn’t quite dark when we arrived and everyone was glad to get out of the RV. The dogs were no exception. We have been so busy in cities that this place is a delightful retreat.

    We all agreed to build a fire and roast hot dogs for supper with s’mores afterwards for dessert. It was chilly, so warm jackets were welcome. Penelope couldn’t decide if she wanted to lie down beside Lydia and Natalie or over near me. There was no indecision with Timber; he was overjoyed to be outside with Amy once more.
    Now I have retired to the RV to write as the light of the dying campfire is not bright enough to see. It was with a great deal of giggling and excitement that Amy, Natalie and Lydia came in to get warmer jackets and for Amy to get one of our lanterns. They said they were going to go for a walk with the dogs. I have no fear for them since Timber went along, and I imagine it will be a while before they come back for the novelty of such a walk in the dark with only the light of a lantern will no doubt keep them energized for some time.

    Now, Miss Smith, how are things back home? Is Bekah helping you at all? Are the dogs doing all right without me? I do hope Patches and Perky are staying out of trouble. You haven’t re-organized all my books again, have you? I know I will be gone for a year, but how I will ever find my books on my return remains to be seen. Amy tells me that Bekah had told her that for each state we visit, you post the map of it on the bulletin board and put a colored pin in each place we visit. That is a charming idea and I wish I had a place to do that here. I will just keep my notebooks going, however. I have a feeling they will be full long before we complete our trip. If that is so, I will simply mail them to you to be filed until my return and create new ones.
    But I am growing sleepy. The girls and dogs have not returned yet, but I am going to retire. I’m sure I will hear all about their adventures in the morning. Sleep well, Miss Smith.

With love,

~Priscilla

Day 18 - Texas

Day 18

Nov. 1

Corpus Christie, Texas

My Dear Miss Smith,

   I’m hoping my writing is legible enough for you to make it out. I’ve gotten so tired of not being able to write that I’ve decided to try writing with my right hand. My wrist is getting better but it will probably be several days before I can use it again. So this letter, I’m afraid, may not be very long as I don’t have a lot of time before bed and I am very slow with my right hand.

      As Levi said, we visited the aquarium this morning. It was a great learning experience! I’ve never been that close to sharks, stingrays, and all of the others!

      After lunch we headed to the South Texas Botanical Gardens. You know how much I love gardens and gardening so you’ve probably guessed that this is my favorite spot in Corpus Christi. 

      Fairly recently they put in a butterfly house. It’s amazing all the different kinds of butterflies there are! They were everywhere in the house! ‘Cilla was wearing her big hat with the bird on it which the butterflies seemed to delight in landing on! She decided to get a butterfly or two from the gift shop to adorn one of her hats.

      You would absolutely love the orchid greenhouse! They have about 2000 varieties there! It is amazing! I’m told it’s one of the largest orchid collections in the entire south!

      I think my favorite spot must have been the rose gardens. They have 300 rose bushes planted in 12 big raised beds. Right in the middle of them is a brick path, often called the “bridal path.” There is also a gorgeous pavilion there where people frequently have weddings. One of the favorite stories to tell about this area is that of two big javalinas walking down the bridal path (the workers are convinced that it was her idea)!

      We’d looked around in the gift shop when we first arrived but before we left we went back so Priscilla could get her butterflies. While there I found several gardening books that looked very interesting. Guess what I’ll be doing on some of the long drives now!

      Well, my hand is getting tired and ‘Cilla is ready to go to bed so I should probably join her.

~ Amy ~