Charmed, I'm sure

We are at the Wal-Mart in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (map), just east of Charleston.

While only some 70 miles from where we started yesterday in Murrells Inlet, we stopped here because it is the closest legal parking spot to downtown Charleston, about seven miles away, and we wanted to have dinner last night at our affiliate club in town, the Harbour Club.

We found a stealthy corner of the parking lot, which in this instance is chock full of signs warning about securing valuables, of all things, and unloaded the scooters. Louise trundled off to the laundromat, while I went into the store for the inevitable restocking visit. This store was unusual in that it was recently turned into a "SuperCenter" (Wal-Mart's term for a store with a full grocery department) and the grocery area is arranged along the back wall of the original store footprint. Smaller than the usual SuperCenter, but they had everything we needed.

We had a nice ride into town over the fancy modern Ravenal bridge. The Harbour Club is just a block from the waterfront and two blocks from the Charleston City Market. The whole downtown was hopping on a pleasant Friday night. After a very nice dinner at the club, we walked through the lovely waterfront park with its wading-allowed fountains, then rode around the historic town, from the market all the way down to the battery on Bay Street, across the south end to the Captain of the Port, then back across town on South Battery to Meeting Street for the trip back up to the market and town center before heading back up to the bridge.

Charleston is perhaps the epitome of genteel southern towns, and we really enjoyed our ride. Even though it was after dark, most of the immaculately kept houses along the southern end of the peninsula are well lit; many are historic, and a handful are now guest houses of one type or another. We're adding Charleston to the list of places where we need to return by boat, so we can stay closer to town and explore for several days.

This morning we will again head across the bridge, this time in Odyssey (her second crossing, having done this route five years ago) on our way to Savannah, Georgia, where we will visit some friends. They actually live halfway to Tybee Island, so our challenge this afternoon will be finding a place to park; on our last visit, their condo complex was not yet finished and we were able to park on-site, but that is not an option this time.

Photo by Willie T. Neckbone, used under a Creative Commons license