Drayton Hall Plantation–Charleston, SC

There are many plantations in Charleston that you can visit. Years ago we had visited Boone Hall in North Charleston and so this time we decided to see Drayton Hall on the south side of town. Of course that was due partly to the fact our rv park was located on the south side of town!

Drayton Hall is different from many of the other plantations in that it is the oldest unrestored plantation house open to the public.

 

Drayton Hall, is in the South Carolina "Lowcountry"  about 15 miles  northwest of Charleston, South Carolina. It is one of the best examples of Palladian – Georgian architecture. The house was built for John Drayton and was begun in 1738 and completed in 1742, using both free and slave labor. John’s parents lived in the plantation next door, but as John was the youngest son, he was not in line to inherit Magnolia Plantation. Therefore he built his own. In building it, his primary focus seemed to be in impressing his guests.

The seven-bay double pile plantation house stands in a 630-acre site that is part of the plantation based on raising indigo and rice. Drayton Hall is the only plantation house on on the Ashley river to survive the American Revolution and Civil War intact.

Seven generations of Drayton heirs preserved the house in all but original condition, though the flanking outbuildings have not survived: an earthquake destroyed the laundry house in 1886 and a hurricane destroyed the kitchen in 1893. The last Drayton to own Drayton Hall stated in her will that no improvements were to be made to the house – no electricity and no plumbing! The descendants then decided that the best idea would be to sell to the National Historic Society!

Drayton Hall was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

The ‘public’ rooms were always very elaborate in order to impress guests. The ‘private’ rooms were more plain and basic. Below are pictures from ‘public’ rooms.

The amazing ornate wall decorations:

The bricked in doorway below once had a door, but it never went anywhere. It was put there just to match the other door on the same wall. Everything had to balance, so there were always a matching pair of everything.

The staircase on the left was used by slaves to bring food into the dining room. The staircase on the right was for taking guests up to the elaborate second floor.

The Ashley River is not only a beautiful place to relax, it was also the primary route into Charleston.

The drive up to a plantation home is always very impressive.

Surrounding the plantations are acres of swamps.

While the house stands intact, the grounds no longer have the elaborate gardens which were once there. However, you can do a walking tour with a printed guide and imagine the masses of camellias, azaleas, and garden paths.

The tour guides were very informative and entertaining and we thoroughly enjoyed our look into plantation life on the Ashley River. Tomorrow it is on to Savannah!

Happy travels to you!

Teas and Trees

We spent a couple of days being tourists in the Charleston area. We did not go into Charleston as we had been there once before and so we focused on the area south of town.

First we went out to the Charleston Tea Plantation. This is the only tea plantation in North America and is home to American Classic Teas – grown, processed, and packaged here in the US!

We started with a brief tour of the processing area. Tea is harvested from April through November. That means that this is off season and the processing area was shut down for the winter months.

After a quick look at the factory, we boarded this small bus for a tour of the plantation.

The driver was very informative. Here are a few of the facts I remember:

Black, oolong, and green tea all start from the same tea plant. They are only different in how long they are processed, or dried.

Tea (ounce for ounce) has more caffeine than coffee. However, you don’t use as much tea when you make a cup of tea and therefore you drink less caffeine with a cup of tea. Black, oolong, and green all contain the same amount of caffeine.

This is the only tea plantation in the US and the owner (Bill Hall) is the only certified tea master in the US. He studied for 4 years in England to earn his master certificate.

80% of the tea we drink in the US comes from Argentina.

Per person the Irish drink more tea than anyone else in the world!

I bought two teas from the gift shop. A can of peach tea leaves that smells wonderful and a box of black tea with mint. The box contains tea bags. The tea was grown and processed here at the plantation and then sent north (Massachusetts?) to be put into tea bags! Its cheaper to send it north and then back again than it is to build a bagging factory!

So if you want All-American tea, look for American Classic Tea!

After the tea plantation we made a short detour down a dirt road to see the Angel Tree:

This is the largest Live Oak tree east of the Mississippi. It is estimated to be between 300 and 400 years old.The tree’s height is only 65 feet, but it shades over 17,000 square feet. The name ‘Angel’ could be from the aura that the canopy gives – an Angel’s wings spread over you. The one limb seen below (coming toward you and close to the ground) is 107 feet long and has a 12 foot circumference.  The tree was amazing.

Next we plan to visit one of the many plantations of the Charleston area.

Hope you had a great day.

How do you get the perfect spot?

I love planning our route and campgrounds. I spend lots of time looking at maps and reading about places. I have folders full of information I have pulled from magazines and I have lots of books about different areas. Good reviews on rvparkreviews is a requirement for any campground. And of course I spend time on the web doing research. I even occasionally ask Lee what he would like to do and see. So far I’ve been happy with our routes and the campgrounds we’ve chosen. We’ve enjoyed all the sights we’ve seen and the people we’ve met.

There has only been one problem…the site within the campground. Getting the RIGHT site seems to be an issue for me. Since we like to stay at least four nights and often longer, the site is important.

Once in Kentucky we were planning on staying just one night and as we were in a hurry, we told them we did not want to unhook, so please give us a level pull-through close to the entrance. (I always explain why and say Please ) Well they put us in the farthest row and the most unlevel site. We tried several sites in the row and none were close to level. We called and asked if they had another possibility. This time someone else talked to me and she happily told us a different site…easy in, easy out, and perfectly level. Why?

We planned on staying for a month in a California campground and so asked to be near other people who would be here for a while as well. So we were put in the back section with a long term camper on one side of us and one behind us. I have nothing against long term, but these were parked there and the people were off site for  months at a time. No one to visit with there!

So now here we are in Charleston and again I said that we like people and would like to be near some other campers:

Somehow I am NOT communicating very well!

What do you ask for when you arrive at a campground and how well is it working for you?

ps…after I wrote this a lovely couple moved into a site behind us. It was nice having someone to talk with for a day!

Cleaning with a q-tip…you’ve got to be kidding!

Once we settled into our spot in Charleston, we realized it would be a great place to do some deep cleaning. Great big site, no one next to us, gravel driveway and lots of room. So on Friday we got out all of the cleaning supplies and got to work. Lee went up on the roof to scrub and I looked for a project inside. I’m always really scared when Lee is up on the roof, so I prefer to stay inside and busy until he finishes!

Looking for a project inside I finally decided on the windows. I planned on washing the windows outside once Lee did the sides, so I figured I would do the windows inside. As I started on them I noticed that down in the grooves it was looking pretty dirty. Back when we had a house, I didn’t mind the occasional times when I needed to wash the windows… whoosh, swoosh, dry and you’re done. But an RV’s windows are something else. There are little grooves and ridges everywhere. I got out my microfiber cloth and some cleaning spray and set to work. No luck…that cloth was NOT going down in those grooves. hmmmm…ah ha!!! Q-tips!!! So armed with a whole pile of q-tips and a little bowl of water I cleaned the window grooves. I never did get to the windows, but now we have the cleanest grooves and ridges in town!!!

Oh … the top and sides of the rig are looking mighty fine too! Next on the agenda is waxing and doing the windows. And then of course the truck needs doing as well. But not with q-tips!

Hope you had a great day!

Terrific last day in Wilmington

We had a great ten days in Wilmington, NC visiting with our son and and our friends. The weather wasn’t always great, but we had a few really nice days and the company was always great.

On our last day, we were up early as we had to take the rig over to Mike’s Collision to have a small crack in the front cap repaired. Once the rig was at Mike’s and unhooked we drove over to Salt Works (an old time favorite restaurant of ours) to have breakfast. Nothing like southern biscuits and grits!

After breakfast we decided to walk off some of those biscuit calories by walking around Greenfield Lake. It was a lovely walk and at 5 miles, we walked off plenty of those biscuit calories!

Since we had gotten rid of those extra calories, we felt we deserved a trip to Krispy Kreme Donuts…oh yummm! The hot light wasn’t on, but the donuts were still very fresh and delicious with a big glass of milk. From there it was a quick stop at K-mart and then back to check on the rig. All done and looking mighty fine!

We ended our day having dinner one more time at Genki’s with Scott. The Katsu Curry was terrific and there was enough leftover to make dinner tomorrow night as well. I love leftovers!

Then it was good night and sleep tight…well try to as we were sitting in front of Mike’s and right on the highway.

Sleep was brief and then we were up and on our way to Charleston, SC to be tourists again!

Hope you had a terrific day and happy travels to you!

Odds and ends, bits and pieces

First off, let me thank all our friends for their words of wisdom concerning the ‘art of doing nothing’. Lee and I will certainly need more practice. Yesterday when we thought we would get in a full day of practice, we managed to do a few of the maintenance to-do’s and then a Walmart and Costco run. Today has been cleaning and laundry! I’m sure there is a doing nothing day somewhere in our future, but till then we’ll keep practicing. Tom, we may have to settle for your ‘one day each year’, but I’m hoping we can push the concept to two!!!

Our trip to Walmart was interesting. At least as interesting as Walmarts can be. It seems that Walmarts all have a lot in common, but then there is also some individuality among them as well. In Oro Valley, Arizona is one of the fanciest Walmarts you’ll ever see and then in other areas are some of the dirtiest Walmarts you can find. The surrounding population must have a strong influence on the type of Walmart found in that area. The Walmart here is unique in two merchandising areas. First there are lots and lots of storage containers, baskets, shelving, etc. I guess that’s because it’s a college town and the students have just returned for spring semester. Parents are in town helping them to get set up and organized for the new semester. Probably hoping that room organization will lead to better grades. Then also the store has the largest selection of toys I’ve ever seen in a Walmart. I think that must be because this is also a major retirement town. All those grandparents wanting new toys for the little ones. I know I sure was looking!

Today we drove along the beach and visited a Natural Foods Store…so much nicer than Walmart. However, it doesn’t have the right toilet paper or black tank drop-ins, so I guess Walmart will continue to be a part of our travels. At least I can compare them…maybe I should start a ratings and postings like on rvparkreviews…I’ll call in Walmartparkreviews!

Hope you have a great day whether you are in Walmart or just practicing ‘the Art’.

Its difficult doing nothing.

We don’t have too many destinations for this trip south. We only have three definite ones: Wilmington, NC to see our son, Pensacola, FL for our niece's graduation, and then back to Wilmington, NC to meet our daughter and family. With lots of time in between we have decided that one of our goals for this trip is to sit back and RELAX.

The January issue of Escapees Magazine even has an article on this dilemma. Its titled “The Fine Art of Doing Nothing”. Lee and I have never been very good at Art…even this kind. So we arrived in Wilmington yesterday and made our list of to-do’s for today. But somehow things just don’t work out the way you planned. The water froze! So now we can’t take showers till it thaws and we can’t start on our list till we take our showers. Things must be done in order you know!!!

We did, however, get to see our son yesterday and we had a great visit. He took us out to dinner at his (and our) favorite Japanese Restaurant. It was so good to have REAL Japanese food made by REAL Japanese! We had sushi, tempura, tonkatsu, gyu-don, and several other dishes. The sushi chef has also started making his own flavored after dinner caramels…tiny little things, but oh so good! Of course I forgot to take the camera, but I’m sure we’ll go back and then I’ll get some good photos of all that wonderful food.

After dinner we came back and just chilled (practicing you know!). We discussed the fact that it was still really cold and we should leave the water dripping just in case it froze during the night. But too much chilling and we forget our lists of to-do’s and so forgot the dripping water. It froze and now we are waiting for the sun to warm the water so we can begin our list of to-do’s. Somewhere on that list is the ‘fine art of doing nothing’. Wonder if we’ll get to it today!

Hope you have a great day – whether it is doing nothing or checking off your list!