Welcome to Round O

From the Bates Motel to our end destination became one of those "heading home" drives. We were so tired of being on the road and our booties were so numb that it was time to find our destination and park for a while. The other thing that happened the last few dayson the road was the lack of systematic packing of our gear. Ron got to the point of "throw this junk in and let's get out of here".

Again we relied on the Navigator and got a tour of the backroads and small towns of South Carolina. This made things go a little slower than we wanted because of what seemed like hundreds of 35 MPH zones. We overcame these issues and rolled into Ron's sister's house about 8:00 PM Monday night. We spent most of the week "just" visiting with Ron's sisters and Roberta's family. We visited her oldest son and wife at their new log home on the Edisto River

and got a chance to visit an Edisto River fish camp. The Edisto is beautiful, southern river that meanders throught cypress groves and has been known to yield 8 pound large mouth bass and 40-50 pound catfish. This is a real fishing area and Roberta and her family love to fish. On Friday night we got a chance to try some real southern comfort food as Ron's niece Bonnie took us all out to Dukes BBQ for dinner.

Friday during the day we traveled Beaufort South Carolina. On our way to Beaufort we stopped

Pon Pon Chapel, one of the areas on the Historic registry.

Following is a clip from Palmetto History.org:

Established in 1725 by an Act of the General Assembly, Pon Pon Chapel of Ease was one of two churches serving St. Bartholomew’s Parish after the Yemassee War (1715) aborted plans for a parish church. The chapel site was located on Parker’s Ferry Road, the busy stagecoach thoroughfare that connected Charleston and Savannah. In 1754, a brick chapel was erected to replace the earlier wooden structure. This brick chapel burned in ca.1801, causing Pon Pon Chapel to become subsequently known as the Burnt Church. The chapel was rebuilt between 1819 and 1822, and was in use until 1832 when it was again reduced to ruins. The façade of Pon Pon Chapel had a central, rounded arched entrance flanked by rounded arched windows on either side, all constructed in a brickwork pattern of one stretcher alternating with two headers. The two round windows in the façade’s upper level utilized the same brickwork pattern. The walls were constructed in Flemish bond. The chapel’s historical significance is due in part to Rev. John Wesley preaching two sermons here on April 24, 1737 and for its burial ground that contains the remains of Congressmen Aedanus Burke and O’Brien Smith, in addition to numerous local leaders. Listed in the National Register January 5, 1972.

It is still amazing to us to see old the history of our country truly is once we get out of Oregon.

In addition to being within a stones throw of one of our Marine air bases, it is also just a few miles away from the training ground of America's finest, the Devil Dogs of the USMC. Parris Island is the east coast camp where our young Marines become MEN. Beaufort is also a very scenic old town that has had many movies shot in the area. The Great Santini, Prince of Tides and Forrest Gump are just three of the better known movies that have been filmed there. We also went out to Ladys and Hunters Islands. Hunters Island has the only public accessible lighthouse in South Carolina and is in a beautiful setting among the Palmettos. It is, like most light houses, only a short walk from the Atlantic Ocean. The problem with the day that we were there was, like the rest of the country, it was cold. We walked out onto the beach, took three pictures and said let's get the heck out of here.

Coming soon St Augustine.