South Carolina: Flooding & History

The drive from Brunswick, Georgia to Yemassee, South Carolina: Everywhere we look we see swamps. Sometimes the land would open up to be a marsh. Saw several rivers, as well. Same as the other south swamp states. Got to The Oaks At Point South Campground, Yemassee, SC, at exactly 1:00 p.m. check in time. The sites are pull through, which is nice. And like the reviews, sitting water everywhere! Some of the other trailer steps are in the water. Thankfully, for now, ours isn’t. The roads in this campground are dirt and the site is dirt with a scattering of gravel but very little.

Blocks To Keep Power & Water OUT Of Standing Rain Water, The Oaks At Point South, Yemassee, SC 03/24

Water and squishy mud everywhere. Our shoes were soaked and muddy. I helped Kevin get things set up outside since his back still hurt. So thankful everything worked! (Read last week’s post.) I cleaned inside, as I always do when we get to a new place. Kevin sat outside but soon came in as it was getting “bug-y”.

Tomb – Signer Of Declaration of Independence, Thomas Heyward, Jr, Ridgeland, SC 03/24

We wanted to get out and see the area. I found a place online: Tomb of Thomas Heyward, Jr 1746-1809. He was a Signer of Declaration of Independence! He was born here and represented South Carolina. We walked a short ways to the tomb. There are several tombs there with a brick wall around it.

Kevin Keeping A Cat Away From Me So I Can Take Some Photos, Ridgeland, SC 03/24

And then, we saw a cat. A very clean cat but it was too friendly for me. It kept coming over whenever I walked to the wall to get a picture. Thankfully Kevin kept it away from me. There are a few older mobile homes there with one quite close. In fact, I wanted to walk around the brick wall of the small cemetery to get a picture through the rod iron gate but it felt to me just too close to that trailer house. Soon, this was weird, a boy, probably 5 or 6 years old, all of a sudden was standing next to us. No one else around at all. He was clean but in jammy pants and unmatched shirt. By this time we started walking back to the truck and he walked right along. Kevin asked him if that was his cat but he never said a word. I got a creepy-weird feeling as he moved ahead of us and went near the truck. I turned on my iPhone video camera and started recording. I held it facing the ground so he was never recorded but I wanted our words and video if something went down. He was a long ways from the house trailers and too close to us and our truck. Thankfully, as Kevin opened the door for me, the kid walked back to a house trailer. Just weird. Why did he walk along side of us? Why did he then walk ahead to near our truck? Who knows.

Gullah-Geechee Bible, John 3:16, Frampton Plantation, Yemassee, SC 03/24

A mile or two from the campground is Frampton Plantation House. This also has Lowcountry Visitor Center inside the house. The plantation house was much smaller than I thought it would be. The lady inside said there was a bigger house but it was burned down. A sign on a parlor chair said, “The Frampton Family worked and lived on this land since it was granted to them by the King of England in the 1700s. We saw a Bible in the words of Gullah-Geechee. I turned to John 3:16 and it was fun to read. I took a picture of the page.

The Frampton Line, Frampton Plantation, Yemassee, SC 03/24

Another sign said, “Frampton family oversaw the production of 4000 acres, which were used for growing cotton, rice, and other crops. Outside we walked the path to the back of the house. I wanted a unique angle of a tree that was fallen down. As I walked across the yard, my right foot fell into a hole. As my other foot kept going, it slipped on the leaves and down I went. Grass stained my pants pretty good. Thankfully I wasn’t hurt. 

Reconstruction Era National Historic Park is in Beaufort. I had learned about this place earlier and it was one of my top places to see. Didn’t realize until we were there that it is a national park. Kevin got another passport stamp in his National Park Passport book. 🙂  Reconstruction Era is a very small building in an old firehouse. Inside it was very crowded; a volunteer came over and said something and next thing I know we are standing outside. Apparently we are going on a tour with a ranger. It was a good walk and at 2 points, the ranger stopped and talked. Kevin interpreted. This is what I learned: *The Union thought there were a lot of people in this area ready to fight. The Confederates thought the Union was coming. When the Union came, they bombarded two forts that protected the ports. Bombed it to smithereens. Turns out, no Confederates were there. The Confederates, ran away. The entire area, ports, towns, all the white people went farther inland. What a surprise for the Union! *The houses and plantations had been abandoned. Crops were in the fields and needed to be harvested. Union hired former enslaved people to do the harvest since they didn’t know what to do. The former enslaved people said they wanted to be paid before the work and the Union paid them in full and very good wages. *Abandoned fields and plantations were behind in taxes. Union said whoever pays the taxes and swears an oath to the Union can buy the property at an auction. Robert Smalls bought the house of his enslaved owners.  Many people did that and good for them. Read about Robert Smalls – he had quite the story! https://www.nps.gov/people/robert-smalls.htm We even saw where he is buried. That was the second and last stop on our tour. The tour took an hour and we enjoyed it very much. 

Also, read my pictures from the place called A History of Violence – Racial Terrorism During Reconstruction. Just awful. One of the rangers came up to me and started to use American Sign Language. He had signed his name to Kevin and Kevin sent him to me. He didn’t know a lot of ASL but I am always so thankful when someone tries, even just to fingerspell their name. Great people! 

We decided to drive on to see what Hilton Head Island is all about. The island is huge. I thought it was all wealthy and ritzy but not so. Google says Zillow says average price of house is only $450,000. There is even a Walmart there! We saw 2 beach access parking but Kevin’s hip and lower back is hurting and he wasn’t keen on getting out and walking. That is fine; I don’t want him hurting. We drove back home (footnote 1). It was just dark and I offered Kevin for dinner: sandwiches, Frito pie, or Waffle House. He had never been to a Waffle House and I had only been there when traveling to the midwest for Nationals in high school. There is one just a mile or so from the campground so we stopped there. We had eggs, toast, hash browns, bacon/ham, and a waffle. Quite tasty.

“Lake Dolan” At The Oaks At Point South Campground, Yemassee, SC 03/24

Lake Dolan, that is what I am calling the water that is right up to the edge of our steps. HA We are “lucky” because a lot of the campsites around us are fully covered in water. Not kidding – entire sites covered in standing water.

A Guy Has Buc-ee’s Bags Around His Shoes. So Much Water! The Oaks At Point South Campground, Yemassee, SC 03/24

I saw one guy trying to wade through the water to get his 5th wheel hooked up. A lot of people here are wearing tall mud or water boots. Good idea! Then I saw a guy walk past who has Buc-ee’s bags tied over his shoes. Now THAT sight took me a while to stop laughing. Very resourceful guy! 

Marshland Of Port Royal, SC 03/24

Another day Kevin said he was ready to explore. Where did he want to go? Let’s go to Parris Island. We followed Garmin’s directions and at the base entry went left. The guard told us we needed to go to the other side as this was for Marine’s and those with passes. He was nice. Got in line in the other line. A young Marine had a rifle gun that was almost as long as his shoulders to knees. Another Marine talked with Kevin and had him get out, open all doors, compartments, our mini fridge, tool box in back, get driver’s license and registration for the truck ready, put it on the seat, and then walk to in front of the truck. They did a quick check. I don’t know if they did the dolly with the mirror to look for bombs underneath our truck or not, but they did that to the van in front of us. We were cleared and told directions to the museum. It looks like it is getting close to family day because there were a lot of signs about it, where to park, trams, etc. Not too many people there when we were there. From a sign: *island purchased by Alexander Parris in 1715 *became a major commercial port after the Civil War We read a lot about the recruits and what they go through. Women were admitted into the Marines since 1949. The museum was very well done and had great information. 

Carolina Rice, Sea Island Cotton & Gullah Culture Information From Parris Island, SC 03/24

For Friday Brunch I made a recipe I have had for a long time but hadn’t made it. https://flavorite.net/sausage-gravy-breakfast-pizza/ It is sausage gravy breakfast pizza. It calls for a pizza stone but since I don’t have one in HOWE (footnote 2) I halved the recipe and just made it a rectangle on a cooke sheet. We both really liked it and ate it right up! We didn’t go anywhere this day; mostly cloudy during the day and by afternoon dark clouds and late evening rain. We stayed home and watched a few old movies and laughed at the endings as they didn’t quite conclude. Nice time together.

A Saturday: It rained a lot last night and continued to rain in the morning. It is funny being under these trees…Kevin not only hears the rain but the water will get on the trees and then “plop” down. He said it is very loud on the slides of HOWE . He said it was like that with the acorns that would fall near Shipshewanna, IN. He is nice to explain what he hears to me since I am deaf. Charleston was having a lot of flooding; I could see the alerts on my iPhone. I had decided in my brain that today we would just stay home. Not a day to be out in the rain and it was enough that it wouldn’t be fun to walk around in and try to see and explore. But Kevin said we should go. I told him about the rain but he said it would be done by then. We left around 9:30 a.m. The rain was starting to let up but there was water everywhere. As we came into the Charleston metro area the rain had mostly stopped. We decided to go to the visitor center first.

As we got close we saw police barricades closing the road. Wonder why. We turned to do a detour and ah, water everywhere. We would turn down a street and it would be flooded. Back up, turn around, try another road. Flooded, repeat. It was crazy. Lots of people out on their porches looking at all the water. At one place, the water was higher than the orange emergency cone! We finally made it out of that area. We drove the hour back home and will try again another day.

1. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.

2. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country.