We are now at Little Pee Dee River State Park, located just south of the North Carolina border and near Dillon, SC. It is very rural and remote with no cell coverage and very poor and intermittent Internet. I am posting this blog now because I did not have time to do so before we left our campground near Charleston. I am not able to attach the photos I took, described mentioned before because the size of the photos are too large for the weak and narrow bandwidth of the Internet we now have. I will try to post them in a few days when we move to our next campground in North Carolina. Hopefully, we will have better Internet at that time.
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Yesterday and today we explored more of Charleston. Our time here is limited so we wanted to pack as much in as possible. Charleston is the home of Fort Sumter, the fort where the start of the Civil War broken out back in April, 1861. It is now part of the National Park system with a little passenger boat running between the museum at Liberty Square in the historical district of Charleston and the Fort out in the bay. We had made reservations a couple of days ago to take the boat over to the fort and explore it.
South Carolina was the first of 11 states to secede from the Union when they declared independence in December 1860. At that time, the US was maintaining a small garrison of 85 men at one of the three forts that guarded the opening to the bay and Charleston. The commander decided to move his small force over to Fort Sumter which was the best protected of the three forts. At that time, the fort was five stories tall and was designed to be manned by 650 men. When the forces of South Carolina started its bombardment of the fort, it was lobbing its shells 1 ½ miles. The shells were heated before firing so they would cause fires to break out upon impact. After the third fire broke out after two days of bombardment, the commander decided to surrender because he did not have enough men to control the fires and still maintain any of his cannons. The terms of the surrender were such that the garrison would be released and allowed to return to the north, while South Carolina would take control of the fort and their bay. No lives were lost during this first conflict of the Civil War. I will post a number of the photos I took below.
FORT SUMTER BEFORE THE BOMBARDMENT
FORT SUMTER AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT
Our two-day exploration of Charleston included walking around the historic district to see the various historic houses that are so unique to this town. The weather was perfect and I will let the pictures I took show what we saw.
This afternoon we decided we just needed one more ocean “fix” so we returned to Folly Island but this time drove to the south end of the island where there is a county park. Once again, we walked the beach, walking through the surf as it rolled up the shoreline. Mary Margaret found a live whelk during our stroll.
Our day ended with some very good news. Our daughter, Heather, called to share with us that she can now start the adoption process of the little girl she has been the foster parent to since shortly after birth. The court has rules that the natural parents no longer has visitation rights and that opened the door for adoption. Victoria is the cutest and brightest little girl and also has a big smile on her face almost all of the time. We are so excited for both of them. Whoo Hoo!
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 