Charleston & Hurricane Isaac

It was raining when we arrived in Charleston set up camp and headed out to stock up on some essentials.  The next morning we headed out to Drayton Hall one of the only original plantation homes in the area that is a preservation not a restoration. This home saw action during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War and still remained in the Drayton Family. One of the rooms is recreated in a scene from "The Patriot"  where Cornwallis set up his office. Mr. Drayton after the Civil War abandoned the home to move to Mexico since he didn't like the outcome of the war, but he still managed it as a working plantation.  There is one of the oldest African American Cemetery still in use today on the plantation, the most recent burial was in 2009.  Mr. Bowen was born on the plantation as a slave and ended up being a caretaker and historian until his death.  His wife is still alive and her place is reserved next to him.  To date they have been able to locate 40 unmarked graves.

The front of Drayton Hall, there were two out buildings with breezeways to the home when it was originally built.  One fell during an earthquake the other during a hurricane.  

This is the main room you enter into the home, it was were the family would've have met there guests.  The original fireplace mantle was stolen sometime before the home was given to the historical society, the decision was made to not replace it in the spirit of preserving the home and not restoring it.

This less formal fireplace was in the family parlor.

The main staircase up to the second floor is maghogany, but the newel post was replace sometime during the family's history with pine.

The balcony at the top of the stair goes into the ballroom.

This is the ballroom which is on the second floor of the home.

The basement, where the kitchen and storeroom were.  The columns you see are thought to be the original ones for the front of the home that had to be replaced after a hurricane early in the family's history.

 This is the fireplace in the basement where all the cooking was done, you can actually stand up inside of it  

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This is the privy, the tides from the river cleaned it out.  Later it became the management office for the plantation.

View down the driveway to the plantation.

"Leave 'Em Rest" quote over the arch to the slave cemetery.  This was actually made after the death of Mr. Bowen by a local iron worker in his memory.

After leaving Drayton Hall, we attempted to head to Magnolia plantation which was Mr. Drayton's ancestral home (he was 3rd Son so didn't inherit, but built his own down the road), but Hurricane Isaac had other plans for us.  Bands from the Hurricane reached all the way to Charleston and dropped 6" - 12" of rain on Charleston in two hours.  They were actually closing roads behind us as we tried without success to get into downtown Charleston.

Oh well spent the rest of the day in the camper!

After leaving Charleston we are headed for Aiken to see my childhood friend Denise Duncan Courtney.  Made camp at Aiken State Park and headed down to Denise's, she only lives right down the road.  Denise took us downtown to see the Aiken Brewery and eat at her favorite place "The New Moon Cafe", she really had us pegged, good beer and good food.  We walked around downtown, now this is what I call a quaint, beautiful little town.  Afterwards she took us on a tour of Aiken to see the lovely polo horse farms and pretty old houses, what a fantastic afternoon. Went back to Denise's and sat at her kitchen table to enjoy her "Chocolate Cola Cake" and talk for hours on end.  All of the sudden we remembered that we hadn't seen the Ranger before leaving the park and weren't sure how to get back into the gated campsite area....LOL  Fortunately, Southern Hospitality prevailed and the ranger had left the gate unlocked for us, knowing that we didn't have the combination.  It was a little eerie staying in a campground with only the camp host on the grounds.  As we were driving to our site one of the biggest owls flew across the road.  Next morning we arrived back at Denise's to enjoy a breakfast of eggs, bacon, grits, toast & hash browns, best we have had since our trip began.  Unfortunately we have to move on from here.....Asheville, NC is our next stop!

 Beautiful, amazing Denise & Me

Denise, Me & Trey