April – Begins the 2023 GA Travels

Don Pedro Island, around the Edgewater area is where Jerry and Michele LeAnderson winter. What I enjoyed most is Ty brings me coffee in bed every morning (I am not a chatty person in the morn) and I had the extreme pleasure to watch the most beautiful sunrises from the comfort of bed with coffee in hand!

A very nice, relaxing 3-day visit: bike riding, reading, walking the beach, and doing a jig saw puzzle. Thanks J&M for letting us stay with you.

Melbourne – now this is not exactly on our way back to Wanda, but Leslie and Tom Welbourne were in from Michigan and invited us over for the Easter weekend. Again, another nice couple of days with this best of friends. Went to Easter Sunday sunrise service on the beach. Must have been over a 1000 people in attendance.

After retrieving Wanda, we then headed to Aiken, South Carolina (one overnight at Cracker Barrel) to see Will and Pam`s new home. It is a beaut! Much what is expected of a southern house, big and white. Chet loved it too – maybe too much.

We were very surprised at what a lovely quaint town Aiken, SC. Lots of hiking for Ty and Chet, horse farms, polo (which were just about to start), old historical sites and beautiful Angel Oak Trees which line the streets. Also, got to see a cousin of mine, Jerry and Ann (wife) Kohls which was a plus– but darn it, forgot to get a picture.

Interesting fact: Stumphouse arrived at its’ name because this is a town where crossroads would intersect and politicians from the local area would come here to give speeches which was known as Stumpin’ because they would stand on a stump to be above the crowd. Hence Stump Speeches.

Charleston is the next spot and that turned out to be a lot of fun with family –nephew Dennis, his mother Marianne who is also the ex of my brother Dennis, wife Alison. Briefly saw Ian, son of Den and Ali, but just briefly. What we envisioned to be a one-night stand turned out to be a 3 day dinner affair. Lots of catching up to do as we haven’t seen this Ouellette clan in a long time, and know what? It is nice to see them NOT at a funeral. Highly recommend visiting love ones when it is easy to laugh and catch up.

Charleston is an easy town, full of rich history both Revolutionary and Civil War abound. We touristed the Rainbow section (ahead of it’s time as so named for the colorful house paint not sexual orientation), Battery Park, Fort Sumter was originally occupied by the North, captured by the South but bombarded by the Union for the entire war. It was a prime real estate right on the Charleston River and much needed by the South for shipping supplies to Southern Armies. And then there are the plantations.

Took a tour: History of the Enslaved at Magnolia Plantation. Still remains today (restored of course) was a cabin that housed up to 13+ people. The takeaway was how horrible it was for the slaves as the US policy was to have chattel slavery: one person had totaled ownership of another. Life on these plantations which were swampy and not cotton but rice was the main crop, was brutal and short lived: 7 years if you worked in the house, 5 years if you worked in the fields. The plantation owners not only bought slaves, but made it a practice to have as a “crop” as many babies as possible to raise into slavery.

By far the most interesting for us was the Angel Oak tree that is well over 400 years old. It is a variation of a Live Oak (don’t know why it is called Angel) with the branches that reach out forever, touching the ground then reaching skyward again. The branches are hollow, which allows them to be supported by the trunk until the foliage area where it becomes solid again.

Myrtle Beach was the last stop of April. Now we have always heard of Myrtle Beach and it lives up to it’s reputation as a tourist tee shirt – pancake breakfast – drink and eat town. You can tell it is an old town by the outdated style of decorations and main attraction is a Ferris Wheel. We walked the famous boardwalk, had a drink on Pier 14 and enjoyed a windy but warm day. We are here for the week, so will continue to explore MB.