Getting my car, viewing my cousin's funeral, pizza and uno

Tim called  a little after 8:00 am and said my car was ready to pick up,  so Dan drove me out to get it. I really like Tim. He is knowledegable and fun to talk with. He suggested that I have the technicians add Lucas Synthetic Oil Stabilizer whenever I get an oil change, and explained how he saw a demonstration that sold him on it's value. He used half a bottle on my oil change, so he gave me the remaining half for my next oil change.

On the way  home, we stopped at the farm and tested a new water purifier Dan bought for the sink.

My cousin Richard's funeral was today. The funeral was held in Utah, and since I wasn't able to attend in person, I watched it on zoom. I learned a lot by reading his obituary and listening to his children share memories of their father. He was a good man.

After I finished watching the funeral, Dan, his two children, and I went out for pizza at Vivo Ristorante. We originally wanted to go to Peri Pizza, but they only had takeout because their dining area was being remodeled and expanded, so we went across the street to Vivo. 

The pizza was good... NY style. Dan's son liked the mages of North Carolina and Italy that were painted on the wall above one of the tables, so I took a photo.

Dan's wife Jasey wanted Pho instead of pizza, so she didn't come with us and we brought home takeout Pho for her from the nearby Pho Sure restaurant.

After dinner we played Uno flip, which is a fun version of the Uno card game. 

Chicken at Alpaca restaurant for lunch, status on the car

Dan has a tradition of meeting friends for lunch on Fridays at the Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken near the airport. Dan, Lucian and I rode together and Dan's friends from Microsoft -- Tim (not the same Tim who works on cars) and Richard (who recently retired). Dan and I both get the Friday special: jerk chicken with plantains, rice and beans, and a fountain drink. It is really good.

This afternoon Tim (the one working on my car) texted Dan asking him to tell me give him a call. Tim wanted to let me know that he ran into a snag. The lugs and lug nuts on one of my wheels had damaged threads. Tim said whoever rotated the tires last overtightened the lugs and damaged the threads! Tim said the tire lugs are supposed to be torqued, but many tire shops just zip them on with the power tools without really paying attention.

My last tire rotation was done at Discount Tire in Lubbock, Texas, so I really couldn't take it back to them and complain. Tim said he had a tool to fix the threads, and he would  buy new lug nuts for me,  but he wanted me to be aware of what he found. He said everything else was going well and should be finished sometime tonight. I told him no rush, as we'll pick up the car sometime tomorrow morning.

Rain, feeding hogs, and taking care of the car

Last night when we were walking Hershey the dog, he would stop abruptly, sit down,  and not want to move again if he heard any thunder. He doesn't like thunderstorms. We got back home before it started raining, though, and Dan always got Hershey going again after the thunder.

Today it rained a lot. I stayed inside and got caught up on my blog. I went to the store this afternoon, despite getting a couple of flood warning alerts on my phone (the roads actually weren't bad), to pick up some black fabric paint and flexible glue to fix a small worn area in the leather driver seat of my car.  

The worn area started as small cut from a pen that was in my back pocket. I tried fixing it with a leather repair kit when it first happened, before my cross-country trip, but the fix didn't adhere so I ignored the blemish. The worn area has started to grow lately, so I figure I better not ignore it any longer. 

I bought the supplies this afternoon, but I am waiting until Saturday to fix it because my car is getting worked on and I won't have it back until Saturday morning. Jasey fixed pork chops for dinner, then Dan and I fed the pigs and dropped off my car at his friend Tim's house. Tim does automotive work on the side. 

Tim lives near Dan's farm, so I followed Dan to the farm to feed the hogs and then left my car with Tim. Tim agreed to perform the 60,000 mile maintenance on my Subaru for a good price. He will change the spark plugs, change the front and rear differential oil, change the transmission and brake fluids, rotate the tires, change the oil and filter, and replace the air and  cabin filters. Dan lets Tim do the maintenance on his cars and trucks, so I trust him.

The hogs were happy with all the rain we have been getting. They are about up to their bellies in mud.

Dinner with Elizabeth and Carolyn

It felt great to just relax with friends today! I think my body needed it after being on the road for so long. Dan and I walked the dog in the morning, but other than that, I spent most of the day hanging out around the house with whoever else was home at the time -- Dan, Jasey, or their two children.

By far, the highlight of the day today was going out to dinner with my good friends Elizabeth and Carolyn! I knew them both when I lived in Raleigh in the 1980s. Back then, before they were married, I knew them as Elizabeth and Carolyn Abe, but now they each have a different last name.

I knew three Abe sisters back then: Elizabeth, Kathy and Carolyn. Elizabeth and her younger sister Kathy were going to school at NC State when I moved to Raleigh in 1984, and they were some of the first singles I met from church. They were really fun to be with, and  we became good friends and did a lot together. I remember them coming over to my first apartment when the only furniture I had was a fold out couch I purchased new and a dining room table set I had picked up at a garage sale. Sadly, Kathy passed away sometime after I moved back west and was living in California. 

Carolyn lived in Greensboro during the years I lived in Raleigh. I met her either at a church dance or when they invited me to their parent's house in Greensboro. Singles from all around the area used to meet at the church building in chapel hill for regional dances.

When I later had a roommate named Ralph, we used to drive in his Ford Pinto to the Abe's house in Greensboro for Thanksgiving dinner. Ralph was a graduate student at NC State, and the trip to Greensboro burned about a quart of oil in his old car.

I called Elizabeth yesterday while I was driving from Charleston to Raleigh. It was great hearing her voice! She sounded the same as 40 years ago -- full of energy and enthusiasm. We discussed meeting for dinner, and she said she would contact her sister Carolyn to see what day would work for all of us.

Elizabeth lives in Greensboro now, Carolyn lives in Holly Springs, and I'm staying with friends in north Raleigh. We finalized our dinner plans this morning and decided to meet somewhere in the middle -- at Town Hall Burger & Beer in Durham. Carolyn brought her husband Dan, and I came with my friend Dan, who had met the Abes before on an earlier trip.

It was SO good to see Elizabeth and Carolyn! We reminisced on old times and old friends, and caught up on what is happening in our lives. Elizabeth and Carolyn both look great, as you can see below!

I'm so glad we got together tonight! It's always great to see old friends.

McLeod Plantation on James Island, and the drive to Raleigh

I wanted to visit a historical southern plantation before I left Charleston. McLeod plantation was closed yesterday, so I visited it today. The plantation is located at the top of James island, a little north of Folly island, where I cooled off in the water at the beach yesterday evening.

The barrier islands, like Folly island, protect the interior islands, like James island, from some of the harsher weather. I arrived at the plantation in time for the first tour of the morning that started at 9:30 am.

The tour guide was a man of African descent, from the Gullah Geechee people who were imported as slaves from the west coast of Africa and live in the coastal region of the southern United States... mostly in South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah part of the name is derived from the word Angola -- the name of the coastal Aftrican countries.

Many of the slaves were farmers back in Africa, and knew how to grow rice and cotton. They came from a diverse areas on the west coast of Africa, where different languages and dialects were spoken. In order to communicate in the new land, the slaves developed a mixture of languages known as Creole.

A display at the plantation mentioned that in many coastal locations such as James island, where the McCleod plantation is located, the Gullah people were relatively isolated until the 1970s, which helped preserve their culture and language. The Wappoo creek, which has a bridge now, separates James island from the mainland.

The McLeod plantation included a big house and several smaller buildings for the slaves. The current front of the big house used be the back of the house. The pillars and steps were added to the back of the house to make an impressive entrance for paid tours. That was before the plantation was purchased by the state as a museum. Evidently it is common to charge to view many of Charleston's old mansions. 

Below is the original front of the house, which is on the opposite side of the house from where I stood in the above photo.

Sea island cotton was grown on the plantation. Slaves brought cotton growing skills from Africa and cultivated the cotton. The sea island cotton grown here was very high quality, with long silky strands that were much longer than regular cotton. Sea cotton plants also grew to 5 or 6 feet tall, wheras regular cotton plants were much shorter. The seeds were a protected  asset that were often kept in safes to safeguard against competition.

Slaves constructed all the buildings on the plantation. The original plantation was much larger than what is  left today. This brick in the wall of the cotton gin building shows the fingerprints of perhaps  a small child.

Below are some of the buildings used by the slaves, including a colorful-windowed worship house.

The grounds had lots of live oak trees. An interesting fact about live oak trees is that their centers become hollow with age, so you can't tell the age of such trees by counting their rings. The first tree below is over 300 years old.

I spent the morning at the plantation, and then headed for Raleigh, about a 4-1/2 hour drive to the north. As I passed the South Carolina / North Carolina border on I-95, I saw the familiar Mexican-themed stores and restaurants that were a landmark even when I lived in North Carolina in the mid-1980s. 

It felt good to stay with Dan and his family in Raleigh again. Dan's wife Jasey had quesadillas ready dinner. I got the same comfortable  sleeping spot as before on the futon cushion upstairs.

Walking Tour of Charleston, SC, then cooling off at Folly Beach

I decided to have a hearty breakfast this morning, so I went to the nearby Waffle House restaurant. Waffle Houses are all over in the South. The waitress was really friendly and patient as I looked at the menu, deciding what to order. I liked her.

I ordered one of their standard breakfasts: a waffle, 2 eggs, toast, grits and a few slices of bacon. It was really too much to eat, but I managed to finish it all except a few of the grits. 

After breakfast, I drove to the visitor center in downtown Charleston. A multi-level parking garage is located next to the visitor center, and I parked there rather than hunting down a space on the street. Having taken the hop-on hop-off bus in Savannah, I wanted to do something on my own in Charleston. The visitor center had a couple of cheap walking tour booklets for sale... one for Savannah and one for Black Savannah. I thumbed through them, but opted instead for an online walking tour that I found on the Internet.

The walking tour started at the Charleston City Market, several blocks from the visitor center, so I boarded the free city bus for a ride to the market. The market entrance is at the 4th bus stop, but traffic was so slow and the traffic lights so long, that I got off the bus at the first stop and walked the rest of the way.

The city market has a lot of crafts. What first caught my eye were the handmade woven sweetgrass baskets. The basketmaking skills were brought over from Africa by the Gullah/Geechee people who came to this area as slaves.  A very nice lady named Letha Mae German-Brown was sitting and weaving baskets.

She had beautiful baskets for sale. Each had a tag telling how many hours she spent making it. I remember reading on a tag for one of the baskets that it took her 47 hours to make. It is no wonder they are expensive. She said they can be washed in cold water and should last a hundred years or more. They are beautiful! She weaves sweetgrass, bullrush, pine needles and palmetto leaves to make the designs.

Another lady was selling baskets that she imports from Africa. The baskets are made of wire, and some were very colorful. In times past, the baskets were made with old telephone wire, because that is what was available to the people, but nowadays they are made with new wire.

Below is a view of the City Market entrance and a view of its interior. 

The self-guided walking tour included a visit to the Old Slave Mart museum.

Slaves used to be sold in the market and held in the surrounding area. Originally, they were sold outside, but later it seemed more polite to keep the selling out of the streets, so it was moved inside the building. 

Inside the museum, I learned about the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trade. Slaves were central to the early economy of the South. They cleared swamps of trees, planted rice and cotton, built their masters' fancy homes, performed other duties around the house, and worked the land. When the importation of slaves from Africa became illegal, the domestic sale of slaves within America continued. It's sobering to think how much of this city and other southern cities were built with slave labor.

The Charleston waterfront has fountains where children can cool off and play, which is great on hot days like today! I have to say I felt a litte jealous. There is even a beautiful pineapple fountain. The pineapple is symbolic of southern hospitality.

 

Fort Sumter island is in the middle of the Charleston harbor. Fort Sumter is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. I had taken a ferry to the fort many years ago on an earlier trip, so I didn't go again, but I took a photo from the shore of a boat sailing past Fort Sumter.

A bridge spans the harbor and connects Charleston with Patriots Point, where tours can be taken of the U.S.S. Yorktown aircraft carrier and U.S.S. Laffey destroyer. I toured them many years ago, so I didn't visit them again this trip.

The southern tip of Charleston, called the battery, looks out over the harbor and has some beautiful homes -- mostly built by slaves in times past for their wealthy masters.

The old part of the city has carriage tours and several old churches.

Some of the trees have interesting vines growing on them, and roots popping out of the ground.

After a hot day of walking around old Charleston, I drove a little south, past James island to Folly island, and cooled off at Folly beach. The water felt great! The water was warm, not hot, and the breeze felt wonderful.

The beach had good wave action. The waves were big and the tide was rising.

Folly beach also has a fishing pier.

A unique feature of this beach is a partially buried metal pipe that runs along the beach, parallel to the coastline. I don't know its purpose or what runs throuth the pipe, but sand is piled up every so often to create a walkway over the pipe.

Looking back, I should have found a place near the beach to bed down for the night. There was no camping on the beach, but I could have found somewhere else. Instead, I returned to Summerville, about a half hour away, to spend the night at the same Walmart parking lot as last night.