Wednesday
Back to setting an alarm... Never a good thing... But a necessary thing when you're a heavy snooze sleeper and you've already spent $18 on a ticket to a National Park.
I woke up at about 8:00 AM, out of bed a half hour later, into the shower, and dressed by 9 AM. I had done the research (the old fashioned way no less) and knew I had to be out the door by 9:20 AM if I wanted to catch the 213 bus to the Visitor Center, and then get the 211 to the Aquarium by 10:30 AM to pick up my ticket for my trip to Fort Sumter (the actual bus was meant to arrive at 10:10 AM according to the schedule I had grabbed). I was awake early enough to get the free breakfast, which was a bagel (I think... It was a circular piece of bread, like a roll, but not a bread roll like at home), which I covered with a scrape of Nutella... As much as Nutella is never disappointing, the bagel was super disappointing... I'm not sure if it was meant to be or not, but it was really hard, and eating it was a chore... But it was free, so I ate it, and I forced myself to enjoy it...
I had one eye on the clock the entire time, and after doing my dishes (which is customary in a hostel) I exited and walked to the bus stop I exited at the night before. The dishes were interesting though, because after I cleaned my plate and silverware there was nowhere to put them (as they were already out for me, so I didn't need to go searching for anything), and not wanting to go looking when I had to leave I just left them there... So, I don't know if someone else needed to clean them later or if they just put them away, but I did try to do the right thing, so hopefully the dishes karma bus doesn't knock me over later in this trip...
I hopped on the bus, rode it close to the Visitor Center, before it stopped abruptly for some reason, so I just jumped off and walked the two blocks. I got the next bus without any real issue and ended up at the South Carolina Aquarium. I needed to find the Spirit Cruise Line offices, which I figured would be easy... I found a sign for them, but the ticket window was closed... I entered the building and asked a woman, who clearly didn't work for them and clearly didn't care about anything (seriously, if there was a picture to illustrate the word 'apathy' this woman would be in the dictionary), and got directions to the wrong place from here... I found out, by pure chance, that tickets were meant to be collected at the U.S. National Park Service office from where the actual ferry departs... Makes sense right?... I got my ticket, I entered, what amounted to a visitor centre, got a brochure and read about the lead up to the Civil War.
It is amazing to think of the United States of America as a fragile place considering the position they hold in the world, but 200 years ago after the Revolution, and again during the middle decades of the 1800s, their country was not at all politically stable (as much as you could argue that this remains so, I meant in the sense that the country would break apart and form smaller countries, just like what ended up happening with the Confederate States of America). As an example, I read that the issues of slavery and state sovereignty were so volatile that they were not directly addressed in the US Constitution. At the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the Southern economy depended on slave labour for agricultural exports, and whilst most delegates professed Enlightenment ideals and believed that the continued progress of man would eventually result in an end to slavery, any direct reference to slavery in the document might cause a fatal rupture in negotiations between the different regions and prevent a federal union.
I won't write the entire history of the lead up to the American Civil War in this post, this has partially been covered during my time in Atlanta, and if you feel interested in the lead up to the Civil War then you can look it up at your leisure.
I read about the years leading up to the war, including things such as the escalation of tensions and conflicts after the War of 1812 (when the US expanded substantially in the number of states and general population), the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (which prohibited slavery above the latitude of 36.30 degrees for any new states seeking admission into the Union), the 'Nullification Crisis' (which was designed to protect American-made products, but was viewed by Southerners as harmful as they traded agriculture to Europe for manufactured goods; South Carolina, citing states right doctrine voted to nullify these tariffs, and when they called for secession the situation had to be diffused by a compromise in 1833... The South had learned that cries of secession could be a powerful political weapon), the Kansas-Nebraska Act (essentially, new Western states were allowed a popular vote on the issue of slavery, which lead to an influx of pro-slavery supporters or abolitionists, and lead to 'Bleeding Kansas'), and the 1857 Dred Scott Decision (where a slave sued for his freedom because he had lived in a free state, but was ruled by the Supreme Court to be not free, and that he could not even sue because blacks had no rights of citizenship at the federal level; the court further ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional as is infringed on Southern rights to take property (slaves) anywhere in the nation).
There was a section on the election of 1860, which, following the election of Abraham Lincoln, lead to the secession of South Carolina (many of whose citizens regarded this as the beginning of a second American Revolution). On December 20, 1860, South Carolina passed and signed an Ordinance of Secession, taking the state out of the Union. What surprised me in reading about all this was that when the other original states in the Confederacy left the Union, travel and mail and shipping and railways all still continued to operate between the regions... This was a surprising fact to me.
After reading the displays for 30 minutes it eventually became time to board the boat we were taking out to the Fort, The Spirit of the Low Country. The day in Charleston was beautiful again. Not too cold, the sun was out, and a slight breeze; although in speaking to people around me they all seemed to think it was freezing... It was, in truth, about 14 degrees, but with the sun out it felt a touch warmer, and I had dressed for colder weather (same as the day prior), so I was laughing. The ride over to the Fort was good, the harbour and the city and the surrounds were beautiful and the water was really calm. The city of Charleston sits on a peninsula which is between the Ashley River, and the Cooper River (both named for the same person).
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| Charleston, S.C. |
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| The Battery and the historic district |
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| Me and Charles's Town |
The Ranger told us that anything we'd heard saying that Fort Sumter was fired upon by the Battery in Charleston was wrong... NEEEEEEEEEVER HAPPENED... Cannon fire back in those days was 1-1.5 miles at best... Charleston was over 3.5 miles away... Later in the war when the Union had upgraded their cannons to rifled barrels there was the chance to fire over 3 miles, but when the first shots were fired it was not possible to fire from Charleston to Fort Sumter (the Fort's position in the bay meant that it could hit the islands on each side and was therefore a good position for the defence of the harbour).
When South Carolina seceded they demanded that the Union occupants of Fort Sumter withdraw (after being incensed by the American flag being raised on the site less than a week after the Ordinance of Secession was signed), and were refused consistently by the Union occupants... This lasted until April 1861. The Union tried several times to re-supply the fort with men and supplies, but unsuccessfully, and the food supply was due to run out on April 15, 1861... With the prospect of the fort being re-supplied with up to 600 men, the Confederates needed to act (as the current garrison was about 80 Union troops, 13 of which were the marching band). After negotiations, which went back and forth for some time, the Confederate troops fired a round from nearby Fort Johnson at 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861, which exploded above the Fort, which was a signal to the other Confederate forces around Charleston harbour to open fire. Eventually a hot shot cannonball hit the top of the officer's quarters, fell through the floor and landed in the gunpowder store (which was beneath the officer's quarters), and this caused a massive fire... As a result the Union troops were fighting starvation, the Confederates and a fire... They eventually surrendered on April 13, 1861 and the Confederates occupied the Fort until the Union began shelling later in the war (the Fort was originally 2-3 stories tall, but the severe shelling over a prolonged period caused the current single story ruins to take shape as it currently sits).
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| Fort Sumter - Imagine walls more than twice as tall as in this picture and that is what the fortress would've looked like |
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| Interior of the fort. The large black building was built during an upgrade to US Coastal Defences during the World Wars |
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| Gun turrets at the walls |
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| Flags flying over the fort. From left to right: 2nd flag of the CSA "Stainless Banner"; 35 star flag of the USA circa 1865; State flag of South Carolina; current flag of the USA; 1st flag of the CSA "Stars and Bars"; and 33 star flag of the USA circa 1861 |
Well, I'm glad you asked... The tree is a Palmetto tree (which explains South Carolina's nickname as the Palmetto State), and was added after the Revolution, where a small band of defenders held off a British attack on a fort on Sullivan's Island which was constructed with palmetto logs. The white palmetto tree in the flag commemorates that battle. Early South Carolina regiments wore blue uniforms with a silver crescent on their caps. The crescent is actually representing a 'gorget' (pronounced 'gor-shay'... Yeah, it is French), which was a piece of metal worn around the neck to protect the throast, it was common in military uniform in the era of the American Revolution. Although, this is debated... Some believe it is a moon; in the 18th century, the firstborn son of an English family inherited pretty much everything, and the second son got nothing... The moon, according to this theory, symbolised that nothingness as many of the first Charlestonians were second sons who came to America because they had nothing in Britain. It is a pretty amazing flag meaning for something that is so simple!
I walked around the outside of the island for a short period of time, stopping to talk to a guy who asked where Fort Johnson was, then had a brief conversation about Cairns (I don't know, apparently people in the USA know all about North Queensland), and then knowing I was short of time rushed into the museum. This was one of the most rushed museum experiences of my life... Spending an hour on an island with so much history and a museum is just not long enough... So, I rushed through and then briskly walk (no running!) to the boat so I wasn't left in a National Park!
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| Palmetto guard flag raised over Fort Sumter once the Confederates had taken the fort |
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| Union storm flag raised over the Fort during the battle |
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| Rushing from the Fort just slowly enough to post for a photo! |
The tour guide was quite knowledgeable, but so he should be, apparently in the city of Charleston all tour guides have to take two tests to become accredited. And, according to our guide, you have to pass the tests! Who'd have thunk it?
We were going through the historic district, beginning right by the Visitor Center, then driving down through the Southern reaches of the city. We ended up at the Battery, where some of the most amazing houses in the area are located. When Hurricane Hugo hit the city in the late 1980s (as many other weaker ones had done over the course of the years) these waterfront houses were flooded with water up to and including their 2nd story, but survived the disaster, due to their build. They were built by settlers who had been to Barbados previously (and they know a little something about weather), and the walls were over a metre thick, solid brick... Considering the wall of water that jumped the sea wall and flooded this area it is amazing to consider how they were built (especially considering newer houses on Sullivan Island were washed away completely... They really don't make them like they used to!). I will go into a few of the things I learned on this tour a bit later, because most of what I took from it was about the amazing architecture and beauty of the buildings in this section of Charleston (and I revisited it later in the day). Newer buildings in Charleston even have to make sure they match up with the houses around them, so it keeps with the style and feel of the area... The preservation society in Charleston really have done a thorough job!
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| Fort Sumter from a distance (at the Battery) |
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| Amazing houses at the Battery - These were flooded up to their second floor during Hurricane Hugo and remained standing |
Sam: "Can I just ask, why did they change the name to Charleston? I saw it was originally Charles Towne, but I can't work out why they changed it"
Guide: 'Oh, that was simply because they wanted to make it sound less English'
Sam: "Legit? That was it?"
Guide: 'Yeah, it was originally Charles's Towne, after the King, but in 1783 after the Revolution they wanted to make it sound less English, so they changed it to Charleston'
Sam: "Wow, I had no idea... I was expecting something crazier than that, though that is still pretty crazy"
After the tour finished I said goodbye to my companions for the afternoon and caught a free trolley to Broad Street where I had ended my Tuesday adventures. I walked down Meeting Street back to the Battery, and just took in the amazing architecture and streets. Charleston's Southernmost tip is built entirely on landfill, it was originally marshland, so, many of the buildings are sinking and tilting which makes for a really interesting walk through the streets.
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| Example of the sort of houses I walked by. It is one room wide, and the front door there is actually just the door to the patio (the front door is on the patio) |
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| Such grandiose architecture |
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| House circa 1803 - House of Thomas Heyward Jr, a South Carolina signer of the Declaration of Independence |
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| Battery Park |
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| Statue of Moultrie and the guns at the Battery |
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| Statue at the Battery erected for the Confederate soldiers who fought at Fort Sumter |
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| Points of interest from the Battery (too far away to make out with any quality with a camera) |
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| One of the houses near the Battery - Slave quarters in the rear, major house in the foreground. |
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| Castle Pinckney - Flying the 3rd flag of the CSA, and a site where prisoners from the Union were held during some times during the Civil War |
I eventually ended up walking all the way back to the Market Street markets, and then on to the Visitor Center. Whilst waiting I walked by a replica of the first submarine to sink a warship in battle, which was used by the Confederacy, the H.L. Hunley. It had a spar mounted torpedo and sank a Union ship blockading Charleston harbour. Though, after completing its mission it never returned to port and was lost until 1995. The ship contained 6 or 8 people, and to get in you'd have to be about half as wide as me, because the hatch on the top of the vessel was tiny... I hate to think what it would have been like drowning to death on that sub... According to our tour guide from earlier in the day it was tested twice before being used on the attack run and both previous crews perished... I didn't ask the question, but I was confounded on how they'd have gotten the dead bodies out to re-use the sub...
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| Scale model of the Confederate submarine |
I caught a bus back to the hostel from next door to the Visitor Center. I sat there for a while and took a look at a few things online before Steve came back from his work again, and we went off to get dinner. Just before that happened a Cambodian guy showed up to stay in the room, so, it is overcrowded with 3 people in the room... I mean, the room is capable of housing up to 10 people, but who wants that? Especially when I've spread my stuff around the room very liberally!
We drove to a local Pizza Hut and shared a pizza, because the large here is larger than our large. It was another cheap meal because we split the cost, and it was a really enjoyable conversation. I got to learn about the animals that are on his farm back up North and how you defend the animals from predators (apparently coyotes are breeding with dogs to make, like, super coyotes). We chatted about currency (Australian and American) and a few other topics. He is a really nice guy, and one of the beauties of hostelling is being able to meet people like that.
I actually got really worried about local wildlife all throughout the day. When I was on the tour bus the driver told us about the Palmetto Bug, which is apparently a massive cockroach which can fly... I can't begin to tell you how disconcerting that was to hear, especially when they apparently have gotten onto the bus from time to time... Though, he may have just said that to mess with us...
After Pizza Hut we drove back to the Hostel, and just hung out and did our own thing. Open day tomorrow, not sure what to do... Take it as it comes I guess...
Thursday
Well, with taking it as it comes is a lot of on the fly and not really worrying... This results in a sleep in... Roughly 11 AM... After a shower I got dressed and, knowing that my best bet for something to do was a trip to the Visitor Center, I checked the bus timetable, and was amazed to find that with such a stroke of luck the next bus to go by my closest stop was at 11:28 AM, with the time being 11:22 AM I finished tying my laces and rushed out the door. The bus stop was at the corner of Canon St and President St, which was about a 3 minute walk from the back door of the hostel...
I rode the bus and got to the Visitor Center at about 11:45 AM, and quickly perused a few brochures. I had the thought of going over the Cooper River to visit the USS Yorktown, which was a maritime museum, and also the carrier which had picked up the Apollo 8 capsule (and had just opened an exhibit), but the fact that the water taxi only runs on Saturdays at this time of year, and the fact that I had already been to the Kennedy Space Center, I decided to give Borman, Lovell and Anders a miss and had to decide on something else to do. I had a brochure about taking a tour of a few of the nearby plantations, though, regrettably, all of the tours departed at 9:30 AM.... All the tours but one.... Tour B going to the Boone Hall Plantation departed at midday... So, I went to the desk, asked them for advice in the form of asking for a ticket, paid and then walked out the back door of the Visitor Center and straight onto a bus.
The driver was a heavy set black guy named Tony, who told us that he was not a Tour Guide yet and as a result could not tell us anything whilst we were inside the City Limits of Charleston.
Messing with a woman from New York Moment of the Day
*Spoiler Alert*
NY: "Is the road with the oak trees lining it the place where they shot the last scene of The Help?"
Tony: 'Uh..."
NY: "You know, after she got fired and is walking away from the house..."
Sam: 'WAIT! SHE GOT FIRED?!?'
NY: *Turns and looks at me*
Sam: *Horrified look on face* 'I haven't seen it yet... Completely ruined the ending!'
*All laugh except for woman from New York*
NY: "Oh, well, I'm sorry"
Sam: 'Well, you should be, but don't worry, I'm just messing with you'
Author's Note: I have since watched the scene on YouTube for the purpose of comparing the scene to the Plantation... And this woman has no idea... If she mistook the street in the scene for the approach road at the Plantation then she truly is stupid... Honest to god, I don't know how you could mistake the two as the same place...
The bus eventually got rolling and we ended up crossing over the Arthur Ravenel Jr bridge spanning the Cooper River, at which point Tony was able to give us a bit of a talk... Just pointing out landmarks, and then deciding that once we'd seen one strip mall we'd seen them all and decided to leave it.
The Boone Hall Plantation was picturesque and beautiful, though somewhat confronting at the same time. The 3/4 mile row of live oak trees, planted in 1743, covered in Spanish Moss and creating a natural corridor to the house was a beautiful way to be introduced to the house and grounds... The row of original slave houses to the left of the row as you entered was a confronting and obvious reminder of a time in America where the grandiose South was built on the back of slave labour.
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| The road into the Boone Hall (looking away from the house) |
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| View towards the Boone Hall |
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| "Slave Street" - Original slave quarters |
Not wanting to follow a bunch of old women around I chose to walk around the grounds by myself until the house tour came around... I walked on by the Slave Quarters and then on to the Cotton Dock. The Cotton Dock is a popular place for weddings nowadays, but back in the pre-Civil War Plantation days is was used to transport cotton and bricks down to Charleston harbour... The building there now is a recreation, as the building that previously stood on the site was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The Boone Hall Plantation is located on a tidal river, the Wampancheone.
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| Recreated Cotton Dock |
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| Inside the Dock House |
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| The Dock |
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| The view down-river |
The house has had tours running through it since 1955, so it is a long running tour! It was interesting to learn that the general custom of the (white owner) pre-Civil War era was one meal a day, which was a large meal at about 2-3 PM that lasted several hours until it got dark (think Christmas lunch every day of the year).
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| Boone Hall |
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| Boone Hall |
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| Boone Hall Sam |
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| View from the porch |
The Boone Hall Plantation was founded in 1681 when John Boone came and founded the plantation on land that was virgin wilderness up to that point in time. He married the 'next door' neighbour's daughter, who in the marriage brought 400 acres, and more than doubled his original land grant. The Plantation is still in operation, but has changed its crop many times over the years, the major products included cotton and pecans (on rotation, as one used up the soil, while the other enriched it). When the plantation was sold the men who bought it continued the cash crops in the soil and also added a brick building business, which they used to provide bricks to the city of Charleston (this business continued until after the Civil War when it became cost prohibitive (who knew paying your workforce would cost money!)).
After the house tour we exited at the back and walked through the gardens at the back of the house, there was a live oak tree out there which was over 600 years old, this was pretty cool as it pre-dated European colonisation of the Americas.
I then headed over to 'Slave Street' and listened to a History Talk with a staff member of the Boone Hall Plantation. The talk was interesting. The houses we stood in front of were made by the slaves who lived in them, using 'imperfect bricks' that were produced at the brick works and could therefore not be sold in Charleston. Some imperfections included visible fingerprints... This was really cool... When you found a brick with finger marks it felt like shaking hands with a slave 200-some odd years ago. I kind of like the idea of knowing where I'm standing... That is why I go to places like Fort Sumter and the Old Exchange and the Lorraine Motel and these kinds of places, you're standing in a place where a major event in the world occurred... I really like that... Standing there and imagining the historical setting and like I said, knowing where you're standing... So, touching a brick with the fingerprints of people who would have died over 200 years ago was cool to me...
Even the mortar they used was interesting, as it was created from the sand on the banks of the tidal river and contained shells and anything else in the sand. They called it tabby. The slave houses standing are, for the most part, as they were built originally, so, include the unsaleable bricks and the tabby mortar.
Up to 3 slave families would live inside these houses, usually placing boards in the rafters so that they could increase the size of the living space in the small, cramped cabins. The houses still standing would have been used for house slaves, while the field hands would have stayed in wooden houses (that no longer exist).
I got to talking to the woman who gave the history talk and just chatted about travelling and the history of the houses and a whole bunch of other things... I then walked through the houses and read all the exhibits, and even chatted to a woman making grass baskets using the methods and styles that were used back in the slavery era (as those enslaved individuals had to be as resourceful as possible).
I lost track of time a little bit in walking through and viewing the exhibits, but it was interesting to me. This also precluded my from taking the bus tour of the Plantation, which, according to the old women who took the tour, gave no new information, but was good to go on just to understand how immense the property was... I'll let you look it up, but it was something like 700 acres, which I guess isn't small...
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| Shaking hands with the past |
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| The wildlife portion of this post |
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| Cramped living quarters |
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| Not very big for 3 separate families |
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| I could touch the rafters without really exerting myself... Very cramped living space |
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| Knowing where I stand... Also, very proudly making the most of the auto function of my camera and not having to resort to taking selfies... |
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| One final look at Boone Hall |
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| Resorting to selfies again |
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| And again... |
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| Boone Hall horses |
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| Tony earning his tip being a driver and photographer |
Steve made his way back after work and came into the room (he had a private room for the night), noted that he hadn't intended on staying the night and therefore didn't have much money to spend on dinner... Cheap works for me... So, we drove to the nearest Little Caesar's, paid $5 each and made our way back to the hostel to eat our food... There were some very questionable drivers on the roads, but it could well have just been us chatting and missing our turns a few times...
Over dinner we continued chatting, and I got some of the funniest stories I've heard all trip... I'll share a few of my favourites, but perhaps you had to be there (at dinner) to appreciate them... I absolutely lost my shit listening to them
Steve's Stories
On being a trucker...
Steve: "So, you generally had teams of two people going at a time, so when you were driving the other guy was sleeping and when he was driving you were sleeping"
Sam: 'Just went to the back of the cab and napped? How long could you drive for?'
Steve: "Yeah, you went to the back of the cab. You could drive for 12, no, sorry, 14 hours before you had to legally stop, but in that 14 hours you had to have stops for a certain amount of time, so, like, to refuel, or to eat"
Sam: 'So, you'd have seen heaps of the country'
Steve: "Yeah, after a few months I had been to all 48 of the continental states... I did a drive from Seattle to Miami, which is about as long a trip as you can possibly do"
Sam: 'Yeah, bet you've seen all kinds of things on the road huh?'
Steve: "Yeah, the guy who was paired with me was like, 80 years old, and he had been trucking for 60 years or something, so he knew all these places to eat, like, no chain restaurants, he'd just be like *puts on grizzled voice* 'Oh, no, come on, I know this place, best in the city', and sure enough, there'd be place there... This one time we were in Portland, Oregon, and he says 'Come on, there's this steakhouse I know', so I followed him in and there wasn't a steakhouse, but we ordered the clam chowder because it was the best in the city. Anyway, I keep looking around this bar and I work out that there aren't any women in the bar... A bit of time goes by and some more guys come in and I say to myself, this is a gay bar... I didn't have the heart to tell him, because he was going on about the food... He's probably dead now as well, and I never told him"
Sam *laughing and gasping for air* 'So, he went to his grave extolling the benefits of a gay bar?'
Steve: "Yeah, pretty much"
On crazy crashes...
Steve: "This one time me and my friend were out in the woods, absolute middle of nowhere, at 3 AM, playing with these Kendo sticks..."
Sam: 'What?'
Steve: "They're like, bamboo sticks... Anyway, out of nowhere this truck and car collide on a bridge nearby and the next thing you know this truck is in the trees and slowly working its way down. This truck driver was thrown clear out of his truck and had a tree stump sticking out of his shoulder, and so I go up to him to see if he was alright, smell of alcohol on his breath, clearly under the influence... I go through his wallet to try to find a licence to see who he is, I ask him if he is alright and he asks me my name and I say 'Steve' and he just starts yelling "Steve was driving! Steve was driving!" all the way up until the cops showed up... All the while the other guy (who had this small knick under his eye) was going nuts because he has a small scratch, I mean, you've got one guy calm as hell, bleeding out, with a tree sticking out of him, and the other guy with a scratch going insane... Anyway, the cops came and were like 'What the hell are you guys doing out here?', we were like, 'Nothing, just hanging out', and they said something like 'We're going to have to speak to you later', so we just kind of slinked away and watched from the distance... The paramedics had to winch their way down there, like, there was a guy bleeding out and they're using a winch..."
Sam: 'That's an amazing story!'
Steve: "Yeah, it was pretty crazy"
The girl who was supervising the hostel for the night came in to make some popcorn, and she joined the conversation... At which point, she out of nowhere mentioned Vegemite, to which I said 'I've got some if you want to try it'... So, I pulled out the Vegemite and they both struggled through a small amount... Steve described it as 'like chewing on a B vitamin followed by an aftertaste consisting of salt and ass'
I then got a phone call... As I have an American SIM it is usually a wrong number, but for whatever reason I picked up the phone...
Apparently when I was in Indiana, at the Pacers game, I signed up for a free competition and my ticket got picked out... I WON A PRIZE!! The prize I won (after attending a 1 hour presentation) was an all expenses paid trip to either Cancun, Jamaica or Puerto Rico (after paying taxes)... They asked me when I could come in and I said that I was in South Carolina... Next place I could go to go to my 1 hour presentation was in New Jersey... I don't reckon I'll be picking up the prize... Still, it is either a timeshare scam or I got super lucky and then unlucky for not being able to collect...
I then followed the others into the entry room and we just continued to talk about random things... I even found a game that, whilst not as good as Card Against Humanity, was really messed up. The title of the game was What the F*ck (not kidding), and was basically random questions with two answers... For example, 'Would you put angry squirrels in your pants for $200?', yes or no?... There were many more than were way more messed up, but I can't remember them off the top of my head...
As we were playing this some teachers from New York came in and dropped off some bags for their students (they were in Charleston to give a presentation on oyster preservation, or something). They left, and at about 10 PM as I was about to head to bed, the high school kids showed up... I shook hands with Steve, said my goodbye and thanked him for being so wonderful to me over the course of the week... I know I have already said it in this post, but he was a really great guy and was an example of the benefits of hostelling, so many brilliant people around!
Before bed I got to talking to one of the teachers, chatted about Australia, showed him a clip of Australian football (to dispel the myth that we only play rugby), and eventually got to the room. I really do feel bad for the guys trying to sleep, because there were another 4 people trying to get into the room. I took my computer back out of the bedroom to continue downloading some films (to make the most of the strong internet connection) and watched a bit of Apollo 13 which I had downloaded after my day at the Kennedy Space Center. I sat at this table with 3 New York City high school kids, who really did not know the first thing about hostelling... I.e. If you think that you're going to be able to make your bed after everyone else in your room is asleep then you've got Buckley's... They left to go to the shops at about 11:45 PM, clearly not worried about their 7 AM morning the next day, but they're high school kids... They don't know anything...
I went to bed at about midnight, and hated that the Mexican guy was already asleep, he snored as badly as Max Walker on the 12th Man... I was already missing Steve...
Friday
I woke up well after the kids had left (I think they came back at like 1 or 2 AM) but before the Mexican bloke woke up, so there was plenty of snoring to wake up to... I am amazed he slept that long! But I got out of bed, showered, and returned to my bags and undertook the arduous task of repacking... I had spread out my stuff way too much and needed desperately to consolidate and clean up my bags... I didn't achieve this as well as I'd have liked but I did alright, and made the most of plastic bags (which made carrying my heavy jacket easy).
I sat in the hostel lobby for a while after 'checking out' (which involved putting my dirty sheets in a wash basket) and continued to use the good internet, before getting an Uber to the bus station.
The chat to the driver on the way was informative, we went over the lobbying that the cab companies were going through to try to block Uber (because it meant that they would need to become accountable and start not overcharging people)... The money structure is also way better for Uber drivers when compared to a cab driver...
I arrived at the Greyhound station in North Charleston, and as soon as I left the cab I was propositioned for spare change... Followed by being asked again as I entered the 'terminal'... It was a single room, and the bus that ran through wasn't even a Greyhound bus, it was a 'Southeastern Stage Coaches' bus... I waited in the station for close to 1.5 hours before a bus rolled up... The bus was due to leave at 1:30 PM, and there'd been no boarding call by 1:20 PM. I asked the guy behind the desk (who looked casual and unprofessional) and he told me I could take my bags to the bus and stand in line (though there was no line at the time)... This sparked a rush to the bus, but I was there 2nd in line and jumped straight on.
The driver took tickets, but also gave out some brilliant lines... There was one guy in the line who had a garbage bag full of clothes... The bus driver in a sassy black man tone said 'I know you don't think you taking that onto this bus... This ain't U-Haul'... I smirked... There were two super white trash guys in the line... One of them, wearing a Clemson cap, sat across the aisle from me and kind of stared at me uncomfortably once or twice or more on the bus ride... Anyway, I got there in one piece... The bus driver gave his rules, the biggest of which was 'respect!' which he repeated about 14 times... 'Don't turn on music, show respect, don't talk to loudly, respect, don't disrespect, respect' and so on and so forth...
We had a stop at Orangeburg, SC, where I bought some super cheap Reese's chocolate peanut butter cups (those things are addictive) and then jumped back on the bus and continued on to the South Carolina capital, Columbia.
On arrival the bus driver gave the spiel on where each bus went (which seemed like major overkill) and then parked. I was staying at a hotel walking distance from the Greyhound station (which was why I booked it), so I walked to my hotel, got to my room, and made the most of having a TV. The reason I chose to stop at Columbia, which would seem like an odd place to stop, is that there was no bus that got me in to Charlotte at a decent hour and I was getting a free night's accommodation in Charlotte courtesy of EY.
I watched a few basketball games (Portland @ Chicago and Lakers @ Spurs), I downloaded a few more films (Clarion Columbia Downtown... Amazing internet connection!)... I ordered some dinner, I caught up on my blog and now I'm writing this...
Charlotte tomorrow!
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