The Magic Trip: Charleston, SC

After we left Ben in Richmond, we headed down to Charleston, SC–or at least we tried to.

About halfway there, I lost any and all of my pickup. I could barely get the car to go 30 mph. I pulled off at the nearest exit and stopped at a gas station. Robby and I had no idea where we were. Two southern gentlemen saw that we were having car trouble and offered to take a look for us. They thought it could be the converter and recommended a shop down the road. We putted along down the road to the shop as fast as we could. When we finally arrived, the mechanic took it around the block and indeed it seemed like the converter. We ended up spending the whole afternoon in St. Paul, SC waiting for our car to get fixed. I asked the mechanic if there was any place we could wait while he worked.

“There’s a McDonald’s down the road, ma’am.”

So we walked down the road to McDonald’s where we waited. All afternoon.

We didn’t arrive in Charleston until 10:45 pm that night. We were supposed to be there at 3pm.

Talk about Southern hospitality, though. The gentlemen at that shop were so amazing. They stayed 2 hours after closing to finish our car. Believe it or not we had issues once again later on in the trip so I gave them a call asking what we should do. He told me to rest the car for an hour so we did. It seemed to help. I received a call later that evening from the mechanic. He was worried and wanted to make sure we had made it down to FL. When I said we had, he told me he didn’t feel right that we were still having issues and wanted to refund me for the work hours since he couldn’t refund me for the part. We couldn’t do that of course considering all the time he put in. Who does that though? Southern hospitality.

We later realized that we couldn’t take the car past 70 mph (normally this isn’t an issue up north, but the speed limit down south is 70 mph and if you go any less than 75, they tend to tailgate you and give you dirty looks). After we came to this conclusion, we didn’t have any more issues with the car (dirty looks aside).

The following day we explored Charleston. If you’ve never been, you should make it a point to go. It’s one of my favorite cities.

Charleston is full of old graveyards that you can walk through and take a glimpse of the past. It’s also one of the few cities that still uses gas lamps.

Stroll along the city admiring the architecture and colors. Especially Rainbow Row and the Battery.

If you visit Charleston, you can stay at the famous Two Meeting Street Inn, right on the Battery.

Just around the corner from the inn is The Calhoun Mansion, the largest single family home in Charleston. It’s also where they filmed the TV miniseries, North and South. It’s a must-see if you visit Charleston. The house is full of antiques and treasures from all over the world.

I can never have enough of the architecture and houses in Charleston. They’re truly majestic.

We stopped to take a look at the Dock Street Theatre. People, this is a community theatre. How gorgeous?!

After ~~goggling~~ viewing the theatre, we headed down to the City Market. It’s been there for hundreds of years and you can pick up all kinds of fun stuff.