The last days, or we made it home!

We’re winding down our trip as we’re getting closer to home.  For time’s sake, I’m going to combine the last days into this blog entry, and then I’ll follow that with an overall observations summary.  If you’ve been reading all along, thanks for hanging out with us and for your interest.  I like doing these so I have something to go back and reference when I’m trying to remember something.

We made the quick drive from Lynchburg over to the Appomattox National Historical Park where General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to General Ulysses S Grant.  I’d heard of the Appomattox Courthouse, but I didn’t realize that that wasn’t the site of the surrender; the surrender actually occurred at the McLean house that was nearby.  We learned that in the 1890s, the house was disassembled so it could be moved for the World’s Fair, but the company went bankrupt, so the rubble was left in a pile.  It wasn’t until the CCC came in a few decades later that the house was able to be rebuilt and restored.  The courthouse serves as the visitor center and has a small museum with a lot of artifacts including the pens used by the Generals.

The park has living history guides that perform throughout the day, telling stories and setting the scene for visitors to gain an understanding of the events that occurred there.  And on some days, they are printing parole passes in the style of those given to the Confederate soldiers to help provide them safe passage back to their homes once the surrender had happened.  They’ll give you one if you ask, so we did – after all, we’re a couple of southerners who were headed home!

Printing Press

This squirrel was just hanging out.

McLean house

The day we were there was a cooler day and there was a really nice breeze.  This park is set up with several shorter paths for walking that take you to where specific events occurred such as the laying down of arms.

We left from Appomattox and drove down to Charlotte.  DH had been wanting to try Cracker Barrel since they reportedly had reversed some of their bad decisions about food preparation, so we found one on the way to the hotel.  It was a bit of a bust because they had run out of mashed potatoes.  How in the world does a Cracker Barrel run out of mashed potatoes?  They offered us baked potatoes in their place, but it wasn’t the same.

Our hotel was within viewing distance of some of the rollercoasters at Carowinds, and it was also right on the flight path for the Charlotte airport.

When we changed our plans mid-trip to head home through North and South Carolina, we decided to add Charleston, SC, as a destination.  We’ve both wanted to go there for a while but hadn’t figured out when or how to get there, so it was an obvious decision to go.

A few years ago, I had been listening to a podcast, My Grandma’s Diaries, that was done by a man and his friend from Charleston.  His friend was Liz Butler, and she’s a seasoned tour guide in Charleston.  I really liked her contributions to the podcast and thought it would be fun to take one of her tours.  We did her Storied Charleston walking tour in the afternoon that we got to Charleston.  It was wonderful.  She’s a 10th generation Charlestonian and is very knowledgeable about the area and its history.  We walked all over the downtown area as she pointed out sites of historical and cultural interest and wove them all into a wonderful description of Charleston.  This was my most favorite tour we did!

After the tour, we asked her if she had any recommendations for dinner.  She suggested a place called Page’s Okra Grill based on where we were staying in Mount Pleasant.  I had the best plate of shrimp and grits.

While we were in downtown Charleston, we went ahead and went to the Fort Sumter visitor center to get my passport stamp, get a preview of the fort we were going to see the next day, and get a few books for DH.  We parked in two parking garages while in Charleston because the Visitor Center was too far to walk to the walking tour meeting spot.  The first place we parked was at the Aquarium Garage which was nice because there was an attendant to help if you needed it.  The second place we were going to park (recommended as a parking location for the tour) was full when we got there, so we had to navigate the narrow and often one-directional roads to find public parking.  Once we did, I took pictures of the lot, the street corner, etc., so we’d be able to find our way back.  Thankfully we didn’t have any trouble.

The next morning, we packed up and after a quick stop at Publix, we went over to catch the ferry to Fort Sumter from Patriots Point.  We figured this was easier than driving back into Charleston, and we were right!  The parking is a text-to-pay lot, so I had to figure out another parking thing!  They only let you get an hour, 90 minutes, two hours, or all day.  I needed 3 ½ hours.  It acted like you could add time when your time was about to run out, so I figured I’d just have to keep an eye on it.  But thankfully once I put in the initial 2 hours, it gave me opportunity to pay for additional time.  (If you’ve been reading a while, you’ll know that this whole parking business was the most nuisance of the trip.)

The ferry ride to Fort Sumter took about 30 minutes.  Once you arrive, the ranger gives a quick welcome and tells you how long until you need to be back on the boat.  The fort is only accessible to visitors by the ferry.  We had about an hour which we found to be plenty of time.  After you’ve been there about 15 minutes, a ranger does a ranger talk about the fort and its history.  But don’t worry, you don’t have to stop looking around because they use a microphone system so the talk can be heard pretty much anywhere at the fort.  We were able to explore some of the areas that had been full of people earlier once the talk began.  Here are a few pictures from the fort.

Once we returned to the mainland, we got ready to head for Pooler, Georgia.  This is where my parents live.  There is a Mexican restaurant nearby that DH and I really enjoy, so that’s where we were having our meal for the day.  Then we got checked into our hotel and went to visit my folks for the evening.  We spent the whole next day with them, and then got gas at Costco ($3.55/gal thanks to the Georgia Governor suspending tax on gas for a while).

Then the next day, we headed for home. We were gone 35 day / 34 nights  Our ending milage was 4,758 miles, and Maisy averaged 32.9 MPG.  We came in over $1,900 under budget (but no worries, I’ve already used that for a grand European river cruise and land expedition in 2028).  But that's for another blog series.

~ Cindy D.