Park #16-Hunting Island State Park

Well, we are now at our last "planned" park - we were supposed to have one more (Edisto Beach) but we've decided to cancel that one and gradually begin moving back toward home. Right now we are at Hunting Island State Park, which is in South Carolina, maybe 50 miles or so north of Savannah, Georgia. It is right on the ocean, slightly to the east of Beaufort, S.C. The park itself is "ok" but, to be honest, we were kind of spoiled on Jekyll Island. There is a nice enough campground, although it is pretty old and the bathrooms are kind of scary. The whole park is maybe 5 miles long, but you have to go out onto the road and drive down to each separate section. After the campground, you drive another mile or so and go into the middle section of the park - this is primarily the visitors' center, a pretty cool lighthouse (which I plan to visit tomorrow) and a lot of parking for day use of the beach. This whole section is THICK jungle-type brush, with very narrow, old roads running through it, so it's not really nice for biking, plus we'd have to go out onto the road which has no shoulder and is surprisingly busy - apparently the Island is the entry point to the very last island (called Fripp Island) which is actually a gated community with only this road for getting on and off the island, so there is a LOT of traffic. The final section of the park is the fishing pier and a small nature center. We drove through the whole thing on Wednesday when we got here and will be spending tomorrow (Saturday) in the park.
This is really different terrain - the area in general is referred to as the "low country" and it's primarily miles and miles and MILES of tidal salt marshes - when the tide is out it just looks like lot and lot of mud, and when the tide is in it looks like lots of grassy marsh areas. It's interesting to us, but we've decided this is not our favorite type of environment - we probably won't make a point to return to this area again. Once is probably enough.
Our next park (Edisto Beach) is just a few miles up the coast as the crow flies, but about 80 miles by road (!) and we decided that it is probably going to be almost identical to this park, so we are changing our plans and next Tuesday will begin moving upward through South Carolina, eventually getting to Knoxville, Tenn, and we plan to just take our time coming back. We're a little anxious because we've never driven over the Appalachians before - we've been in the foothills (i.e. Chattanooga) a number of times, but we're a little nervous about driving the RV across the top of the mountains, especially pulling the car. So we decided we'd rather start a few days early and not feel any pressure about covering any specific number of miles per day.
So - anyway - we got here on Wednesday and just settled in. On Thursday we went into Beaufort - there is an AVA walk there so we did our "bike and walk" routine - Dave rode his bike around town, while I did my AVA walk, and we agreed to met at a specified time down on the riverfront - there is a great riverwalk area right on the water so it seemed like a great spot to meet. Well - Beaufort is VERY nice - it's a smaller city (pop. 13,000) but it's very pretty. There are lots of old historic buildings, some dating back to the 1700's! There is a very interesting old National Cemetery, with hundreds (thousands??) of identical white grave markers - according to the plaque the majority of the graves are Union soldiers who died during the Civil War! But I saw lots of Vietnam and other graves also. The walk was very nice, and Dave enjoyed his bike ride, and we met up at a really cute bar right on the river. The riverwalk area was very attractive with lots of swings set up for people to just sit along the edge of the river and swing - very cool. (I can't believe I didn't take ANY pictures, but I didn't! Normally, the longer the trip goes the less pictures I take - I've noticed this in previous years too.)
And then today we made a trip up to Charleston. Everybody has told us "if you like Savannah, you'll love Charleston." And Charleston IS very nice - the historic area seems to be a lot bigger than Savannah and there are a LOT of beautiful antebellum mansions - beautiful three and four story homes with gorgeous porches running all along the length of the house, and on each story - so a three story home has three huge porches. Very beautiful (but no pictures!!!). The harbor (or maybe it's called the wharf) area is also very VERY nice. A few blocks from the wharf area is where the bars and restaurants are - and there's a big market area that runs for a number of blocks. But, to tell the truth, Charleston is almost TOO big (pop. 96,000). We actually like Savannah better - the historic area is more "friendly" - it's smaller and easier to walk - plus, one of the most beautiful things in Savannah are the squares - there are probably 25 or more squares, located about every 3 or 4 blocks, and they are just SO pretty. Charleston doesn't have the same "feel". We are glad we went there (and, of course, I did an AVA walk while Dave biked) but we don't think we'll be returning. We DID have a drink at a very cute bar after my walk - Dave had found it, about a block away from the market area - and it is an OLD church! Very different! According to the waitress, the church dates back to the early 1800's and there is a "ghost story" attached to it - apparently the pastor's wife killed him in the church, in front of the whole congregation! Ultimately it became a chapel for seafarers, and then in 1964 it was "deconsegrated" - and now it is a bar/tavern/resaurant. Weird - there are still stained glass windows and everything - I DID actually take a picture of this. Very unusual!
Actually, we may have a slightly negative attitude toward Charleston because we had a HORRIBLE time getting in and out. Apparently tomorrow (Saturday) is some big 10K run - we read that 40,000 people come in for it! - and I think they were ALL downtown. The traffic was an absolute gridlock - with dozens and dozens of frazzled-looking police directing traffic at virtually every intersection. We were trying to get to the Visitors' Center and simply could NOT get to it - we kept getting sent down different streets. People were laying on their horns and it was absolutely INSANE. We finally parked about 10 blocks outside of the historic district (NOT a very nice neighborhood! I definitely woudl NOT have parked there without Dave!) and then we got our bikes off the car and rode them to the Visitors' Center where we got maps and were told that the "bar and restaurant" area was the Market place. So we rode our bikes there and then I locked up my bike and started my AVA walk from there. The actual historic area was very easy to move around in - there was almost no traffic at all, because it was ALL being directed away from the area. Then, when we were done with our day, we rode our bikes back to the car and fought our way through the traffic to get back to the highway - by now it was about 4:00 and there were still a jillion cops and the traffic was just as snarled up as it had been when we came in. Our fault - we had NO idea the run would create this type of a mess. But we were pretty stressed on both the drive in and out. But we made it home ok - thank God - we were exhausted! - and now we're sitting here watching the last of the Elite Eight March Madness games. Tomorrow we are STAYING HERE! Geez!