BootsnAll Travel Network



Mile 4631: The boiling point

Hampton Plantation Mansion

On my way to Charleston, South Carolina I passed a sign on the highway for the Hampton Plantation State Park and decided to make a brief stop. I mean this is the South right? It’s almost obligatory that one goes to a plantation, no? The park is about two miles off of the highway on a skinny dirty road sort of out in the middle of nowhere. I was there a total of about 15 minutes and in that time:

  1. A frog jumped on me while I was peeing in the bathroom.
  2. An insect that appeared to be a grasshopper on steroids crossed my path.
  3. I was bitten head to toe by a swarm of small but evil mosquitoes. The bites of which I’m still recovering from 4 days later.

Restored ballroom in Hampton Plantation MansionThe parks departments’ sites that I’ve encountered thus far on this trip seem to be mostly concerned withRear view of mansion with plantation kitchen on the right preservation rather than restoration and that seems to also be the case here with the Hampton Plantation and the on-site mansion. They are restoring bits and pieces of it (eg. the ballroom pictured on the left) but for the most part have stripped away sections of the walls inside to demonstrate 18th century building techniques. This was rather interesting as the entire house was put together using mortise and tenon joints secured with pegs. Each piece of wood for the frame of the house was cut and marked with roman numerals and then put together like a puzzle. Here’s an example of what a mortise and tenon joint looks like:

After serving as a morning snack for the South Carolinian insect population, I continued on my journey towards the great city of Charleston. Now, can anyone remember whose genius scheme it was for me to travel through the deep south during the hottest week in recent memory? Anyone? Because I’m quite sure I don’t know anyone who would be that stupid. Indeed, it was a hot one in Charleston on August 7. Record-breaking even as it was the hottest August 7th ever recorded in Charleston history. So how hot was it? 100 degrees (the first 100 degree day since 2001) but because this is the muggy swamp the heat index ranged from about 115 to 118. Yes, I am completely serious.

Rainbow Row

So I roll into town around 1 pm…aka the hottest damned time of the day to be alive. I had gotten another great Hotwire deal on a cute bed and breakfast down in the thick of things…The Elliot House Inn. Since it was a bit too early to check in and I hadn’t eaten, I stopped off at the restaurant next door named 82 Queen which is also, conveniently, the address of said restaurant.

It was here that I stuffed myself with such a ridiculous amount of food that I couldn’t even find room in my stomach to eat dinner later: She Crab Soup with garlic cheese biscuits, Tabasco Fried Shrimp Po’Boy and homemade potato salad. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

I tried you guys, I really tried to walk around and get some fabulous pictures and collect some extremely interesting facts about Charleston…but it was so hot. And I was so miserable. And after a quick tour of the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, I had had enough and headed back to the Elliot House Inn arriving just in time for the 5 o’clock wine and cheese hour in the courtyard. So my deepest apologies for these lousy pictures and miserable sightseeing endeavors. In keeping with the miserable theme of this post I’ve decided to include a different twist on my general fact collecting:

3 Miserable Things You May Have Forgotten About Charleston, SC

  1. The Civil War started in 1861 at Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor and while there were no causalities at that first battle, the casualty toll would top 620,000 for the entire four year war…though the majority of deaths were actually caused by disease rather than in battle.
  2. In 1886 Charleston was nearly destroyed by an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale that was felt as far away as Boston and Bermuda. It damaged 2,000 buildings and caused $6 million worth of damage ($133 million(2006 USD)) , while in the whole city the buildings were only valued at approximately $24 million($531 million(2006 USD).View from Waterfront Park with view of Ravenel Bridge in the background.
  3. June 2007 Warehouse Fire – In an unprecedented tragedy for the City of Charleston Fire Department, 9 firefighters were killed on June 18, 2007 in a furniture warehouse fire, while searching for possible trapped occupants and attempting to extinguish the blaze. It was the greatest single loss of firefighters in the United States since 343 firefighters were lost in the collapse of the World Trade Center which resulted from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the greatest loss of firefighters in the history of the Charleston Fire Department. One station lost all but one of its firefighters.

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A few housekeeping items…

  1. Firefox – People, I implore you. Download it. Use it. Love it. It has come to my attention that occasionally the formatting in Internet Explorer is screwed up…eg. big spans of white space at the top of a post. This is a known annoyance that frequently occurs in old versions of IE. It’s easy to fix but sometimes I can’t see the issue so don’t know that it’s occurring. If this happens, please send me an e-mail. Or just download Firefox because it always works.
  2. Hotwire Tips – Since I’ve been bragging all week about the great deals I’ve been getting on hotels with Hotwire, I thought it might be nice to share these tips with all of you. Be sure to check out the newly updated Trip Info page on the right hand side of the screen or click here.
  3. Itinerary Change – Unfortunately, my friend Amanda who I was going to visit in Lubbock, TX this weekend had a work thing come up so instead of heading north across Texas I’ve decided to reroute myself and am going south through Mobile, AL and New Orleans and then on through to San Diego via the southern I-10 route. Also, I have removed Colorado from early October as my sister, whom I was planning to visit there, will now be coming to see me in September in Montana.


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One Response to “Mile 4631: The boiling point”

  1. Andrea Says:

    Oh, dear Stacey. I have been thinking about you with the heat issue we’re having in much of the country….but I am glad to hear you have not been totally fried yet. As long as the A/C in the Civvy holds out I think you’ll be okay. I did get a chuckle about the frog jumping on you and insect attack. Did you know you’d have so many wildlife encounters on this trip?? 🙂

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