Day 1 Sunday March 12, 2023 We headed out this morning for a trip to Perry Georgia to attend the FMCA 106th International Convention that is being held at the Fairgrounds in Perry GA. This will be the 4th time we have attended this event in Perry. It is 4 days of interesting seminars on different topics about RVing. After a stop at McDonald's for a quick breakfast we drove in rain for about 180 miles for an overnight stop in Camden SC at Winged Star Farm, which is a Harvest Host location about 2 miles off I20. We arrived about 12:30PM and setup for the night. They have a walking trail but with the rain still coming down we passed on taking a hike. We met Betsy, the host and talked for awhile before calling it a day. They don't really have a farm as I know it. They called their farm a Hobby Farm. They have a few chickens and did have some ducks but a predator got all them. They have a small barn with a few gift items in it. It was very quite here so we got a good nights sleep.
Day 2 Monday March 13, 2023 A cold start but much nicer weather for a more pleasant drive to Milledgeville Ga for a one night stay at Scenic Mountain RV Resort. This is our third time staying here on the way to the FMCA event in Perry. After checking in and getting setup in site 71 we drove into Milledgeville to get a pizza at The Brick. We had one here on one of our other stays here and it was very good as was this one. After stuffing ourselves with pizza, we decided to save part of it for lunch tomorrow when we get to Perry. So we stopped at the Blackbird Coffee shop just down the street for a Latte and we shared a cinnamon bun. We have also been to this coffee shop before.
Milledgeville was the state capital from 1804 to 1868. The capital was moved to Atlanta after the Civil War. There is a military college dating from approximately 1879 and also a regular college so there are lots of college age people here milling around. It is a pretty town and one street over from main street are some really large historical home with huge fluted columns holding up the two story porch roof.
We returned to the RV Resort and got some walking in around the streets before calling it a day.
Day 3 Tuesday March 14, 2023 It was 39 degrees this morning. We departed at 8:45AM and headed for Perry after a stop outside of Macon for a fuel fillup. The roads around Macon have been under construction for several years and it looks like it will be several more years before they are finished. We needed a full tank of fuel because our next stop was at the Perry airport to get the motorhome weighed. I wanted a weigh done that is called 4 corner weighs where there is a scale under each set of tires. So I needed the weight of the motorhome to be at it's max as we travel. So we had a half tank of fresh water and a full tank of fuel. The weighing only took about 15 minutes. There is a team here that travels to these type of events providing the service.
We left the weigh area and was at the fairgrounds in about 15 minutes. I pulled into the wrong entrance so we had to wait a few minutes to be escorted by a person in a golf cart to the correct location. We were not the only ones to pull into the wrong entrance. They have reconfigured the parking this year from the last three times we have come here and I didn't read the instructions correctly as to which entrance to use. They have dozens of volunteer FMCA members doing a variety of jobs.
After lunch we walked from our parking area over to the area where the activities will take place starting tomorrow. It is really windy and cool today but nice sunshine.
Day 4 Wednesday March 15, 2023 After breakfast we walked over to our first scheduled seminar. We only have three seminars we will attend today. There were two others I wanted to attend but they were going on at the same time as the first one today and none of the three were going to be offered again at this event so I picked the one I wanted to attend the most.
After a lunch of Brunswick Stew from one of the food vendors we watched the opening day welcome parade of several people in their golf carts decorated with St Patrick Day dodads.
There are several vendors here that sell RV related products and some that have nothing to do with RVs. We walked through the vendor area and talked to a few of them on those items that interested us. We did buy two items to go on two of our air conditioners on the motorhome. They allow the air conditioners to start up very quietly and not require as much starting amperage so we could run two ACs on 30AMP power rather than the normal 50 AMP power. The installer came about an hour later and installed them.
Day 5 Thursday March 16, 2023 FMCA is providing hot coffee and tea with Krispy Creme donuts today through Saturday for breakfast starting at 8AM in the Sheep Barn. Don't be alarmed, all the sheep and their poop has been removed, just the building don't have any heat but it takes a rather large building to serve about 4,000 people coffee and donuts. Yes, there is almost 2,000 RVs here and most have two occupants. We walked over and joined the crowd at 8AM. Then we attended several seminars with a break for lunch from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM then we attended a couple more seminars. Then we walked back through the vendor area again and called it a day and returned to our motorhome.
Day 6 Friday March 17, 2023 Same routine again today, coffee and donuts followed by seminars, lunch and more seminars. We met a couple at lunch that are planning a trip to Alaska, leaving in May so we shared some tips from our trips and gave them the link to our travel Blog so they could read about what we encountered.
We had planned to attend the entertainment provided by FMCA tonight but it started raining about 6PM and by the time we were to walk over to the building it was pouring down so we didn't go. Didn't feel like getting soaked.
Day 7 Saturday March 18, 2023 About the same routine again today except we did not attend any afternoon seminars. We decided to go to Cracker Barrel for a late lunch and was going to the entertainment tonight but it was cold and windy and it is about a ¼ mile walk to the building so we passed on the entertainment again.
Day 8 Sunday March 19, 2023 Yesterday was the last day of the Convention so we packed up and departed about 8:30AM for Charleston SC for a 5 night stay at Oak Plantation Campground. We haven't visited Charleston in several years.
We arrived about 2PM and checked in and setup in a pull through site G3. This is a nice campground. It covers about 43 acres and has lots of shade trees which will be nice in the Summer. After lunch we set outside for awhile and watched a very friendly squirrel play just a couple of feet from our chairs. He looked like he was begging for a snack. He would stand on his hind legs and curl his front paws up against his chest.
Day 9 Monday March 20, 2023 We slept a little late this morning and it seemed good to not hear vehicle traffic all during the night. Where we were parked at the convention in Perry we were only about 3 hundred yards from interstate 75 and the traffic never stops on it.
After breakfast we drove to the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island. It was started in 1963 and is the only commercial tea garden in North America. They have hundreds of thousands of tea plants on the 127 acre farm. They have several different types of ice tea and hot tea for you to sample for free. There is a trolley tour of the farm.
The tea plant is a Camellia sinensis, a cousin to the Camellia bush you might be familiar with. To the untrained eye the bush looks just like a normal shrub bush you might have in your yard. They take clipping from the established plants and pot them in the greenhouse and when they are ready they are set out in a newly prepared field. A new plant is ready to harvest from in one year and is fully mature in 4 years. They never replace a bush that may have died. They have three irrigation ponds they use to water the fields if they don't get enough rain.
They will start harvesting the tea leaves in April and can harvest from the same bushes again in about 18 days. They normally get about 8 harvest from a plant in a year but if the warm weather lasts into the Fall they can get more. They don't use any kind of chemicals on the bushes. Any weeds that come up in the bushes are cut out by hand. They have a unique harvester that they was made from an old cotton picking machine. It can harvest one row at a time by clipping the new leaves that are formed at the top of the bush. Then the leaves are carried to the factory that is in the back of the visitor center/gift shop and processed. Their product is marketed under the Charleston Tea Plantation name. This was a very interesting tour.
On the way back we stopped to see the Angel Oak Tree. It is the oldest oak tree on the East Coast of the US. The tree is massive with huge branches coming all the way to the ground. The trunk must be 30-40 around. We heard one little girl ask her father “did this tree come from just one acorn”.
From there we stopped at Ellis Creek Fish House for a seafood lunch on James Island. I was looking at Google Maps while waiting for our meal to come and noticed Fort Johnson was just a few miles farther down the road. So after our lunch we drove to it. There is only one remaining building from the fort. This is the location where the first shot of the Civil War was fired from over to Ft. Sumter across the bay. I know the Civil War is a touchy subject but it is part of history and I was surprised that the location was not better preserved. The only remaining building is in disrepair. There is a informative marker about the location and that is it.
The grounds around the building are part of the College of Charleston.
Day 10 Tuesday March 21, 2023 This morning we went to the Old Town part of Charleston to checkout the City Market. This is 3-4 long buildings with lots of vendors selling all kinds of items from jewelry to locally made sweet grass baskets. It was a little cool this morning but not to bad. Lena found one hand made item that she thought would be a good gift for one of our grandsons that has a birthday coming up in April. After checking out all the crafts we found a nearby coffee shop and got a Latte, a very good Latte actually in a ceramic mug, which is kind of unusual anymore.
We road across the Cooper River on the Ravenel Bridge to tour the WWII aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and the WWII destroyer the USS Laffery. They were both really interesting. We got to tour several decks on the Yorktown including the flight deck which had several airplanes on it. There was also a few airplanes on one of the lower decks. Not sure how they got them down there. The stairs to get to the decks were steep and very narrow with narrow steps but we were able to maneuver them without falling by being slow and careful. There was actually an escalator on the ship but it was not working but it had worked at one time. I am sure the modern aircraft carries has better technology on them. I have always wanted to go on an aircraft carrier and I finally got my chance even though it was not a modern one.
The destroyer the USS Laffery saw a lot of action in WWII and was badly damaged by 5 Japanese kamikaze pilots and some bombs dropped from airplanes but with the help of American fighter planes from a nearby aircraft carrier that shot down dozens more the ship was saved but lost over 30 men. There was a film playing in one of the rooms and several of the men that served on the ship spoke about their experience during the major battle with the kamikaze pilots.
Then we visited the Vietnam war section on land. There were several Vietnam era helicopters and vehicles from the war and a film about the war. As we were leaving the room where the film played I found someones car keys. I turned them in at the gift shop as we were leaving.
We stopped for a late lunch at Wendy's before returning to the campground. A hamburger, french fries, salad and a drink was just over $20. Food prices are much higher than a couple of years ago. I wonder why!!!
We walked over 2.5 miles today and climbed up and down several narrow stairs on the ships.
Day 11 Wednesday March 22, 2023 Today we visited Boone Hall Plantation on the banks of the Wampocheone Creek. This is a rare plantation in that it has been in continuous operation since it was established in 1681 by Englishman Major John Boone. In 1743 his son Captain Thomas Boone planted live oak trees on either side of the road leading up to the plantation house. It took more than 200 years for the trees to meet overhead to form the present day scenic corridor as you approach the house.
The plantation was cutoff from from most of the fighting and pillaging that took place during the Civil War because there were no roads from the Charleston area at that time. The only way to get to it was by boat. At some point there was over 4,000 acres in the plantation by now it is only 738. The current plantation home was built in 1936 by the then owner the Canadian Ambassador Thomas Stone. This is the fourth house to occupy the same spot. Thomas Stone salvaged and reused as much as possible of the third house when he built the current house.
There was a beautiful flower garden on either side of the front lawn. We had a guided tour of the first floor of the house, a guided trolley ride around the acreage and a tour of the horse stables.
At one time there were over 15,000 pecan trees on the plantation making it one of the largest pecan orchards in the world. Hurricane Hugo blew down over 7,000 of the trees and a later hurricane blew most of the rest down. Now there is only 50 or so trees remaining and they are about 150 years old. They had to turn from harvesting pecans and start producing vegetable crops, like strawberries, onions, etc.
They are repairing the old cotton gin building to use as an event venue. When they started to renovate it they discovered that it was not built on a foundation but they just laid the brick right on the ground. Due to the historic value of the building they could not tear it down so they are spending over a million dollars to fix the building so it can be safety used.
There are 9 remaining brick slave cabins. It is rare for a plantation to use bricks for slave cabins but the plantation had a brick factory at one time so to show off their wealth they built 9 cabins from the brick and built them to one side out front of the plantation house which is also rare. They made over 4 million brick a year all with slave labor. The adult men slaves dug the clay and the pre-teen children formed the bricks. The bricks used to build Fort Sumpter came from here as did the bricks used in several of the reconstruction of the buildings in Charleston. The other slave cabins were made of wood and were located behind the plantation house and they are long gone.
There was an informative history talk near the slave cabins and all of them had interpretive displays inside. At one there was a direct descendant of some of the slaves that lived on the plantation explaining the history of the Gullah Culture and sang several songs.
We bought 2 quarts of the strawberries grown on the plantation and the clerk said she thought they were the best strawberries in the country. We think she might be right because they were very large and really sweet.
The lady that currently owns the plantation and her late brother had the property put into a trust so it can never be converted to a housing development as part of the original acreage was when it was sold off.
Day 12 Thursday March 23, 2023 We drove to the port area of Charleston, parked in the parking deck and was going to visit the aquarium before taking a boat tour over to Fort Sumter. But as we walked out of the parking deck we saw several school buses unloading school kids and they were going into the aquarium.......NOPE not going to happen for us today. Sure glad we didn't buy advance tickets.
We got our tickets for the boat trip out to Fort Sumter and boarded about 12 noon for the 4 mile ride out to the fort. This is the location of the first attack of the Civil War when a shot was fired across the water from Fort Johnson on April 12, 1861. At that time the fort was a Union fort and Fort Jackson was a Confederate Fort. We only had just over an hour to tour the fort and listen to a 10 minute ranger talk about the fort. Later after the Confederate forces captured the fort the Union forces bombarded it for a long time during 1863-1864 and pounded the walls into rubble and Union forces were finally able to recapture the fort after the Confederate forces evacuated it.
We stopped for a good meal at Olive Garden on the way back to the campground. When we got back to the campground I discovered a nail in one of the rear tires.
Day 13 Friday March 24, 2023 I was at a local tire shop about 5 miles down the road when they opened at 8AM but they couldn't get to my tire until about 10:15 after I told the attendant that we needed to be out of the campground by 11AM. When they finally checked the tire it had two punctures and they said it could not be patched so I had them to put the spare tire on. I returned to the campground, ate breakfast and finally departed at 12 noon.
We got home about 5:30.
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