Category Archives: Pet travel

Immersed (and very happy) in the Bighorns!

There were a couple of typical small Western towns we wanted to explore on the way to Yellowstone National Park – Sheridan and Cody, both in Wyoming.

We stayed a couple of nights in the super tidy Peter D’s RV Park: walking distance from downtown Sheridan, very clean showers and laundry, Wi-Fi included (although the signal was slow when the park filled up in the evening) and very, very dog friendly. Pete met us with a couple of dog treats for Rigby and then showed us the four-acre, fenced off-leash dog yard. This was great – after being cooped up in the van with us, Rigby really needed to stretch her paws.

What we liked most about downtown Sheridan is the authentic Western town feel. No fancy airs, a beautifully restored, historic downtown main street, small independent shops and all set against a backdrop of the stunning Bighorn Mountains.

This region is the setting of the Longmire book and TV series (Netflix) – author Craig Johnson is a local fellow who writes in details about the landscape and the people here.

Sheridan has long been a railway town – the tracks run a few blocks above main street – it was a nice stop to take a break and get settled into the Western mindset. Here were the highlights of our stay:

Main Street has beautiful architecture with dozens of brick buildings on the National Historic Register. At almost every street corner is a piece of public art sculpture, almost all Western themes.
The Mint Bar (Main Street) with its very cool neon sign and photos of cows alongside local celebrities blanketing the walls.
They have everything (and we mean everything, except the horse) you could possibly need for a horse at King’s Saddlery. It’s also prominently on Main Street, right close to the bookstore and the coffee bistro.
Just looking up and seeing the Bighorns. Sheridan is a popular spot for excursions to the mountains.
A five-minute drive from downtown is the Trail End State Historic Site, a beautifully restored early 20^th-century brick mansion that once belonged to the prominent Kendrick family.

Once we tore ourselves away from Sheridan, we went west along Highway 14 into the Bighorn National Forest and up and over the Bighorn Range on the Wyoming Scenic Byway. There was a dusting of snow on the trees at the 8,300-ft pass and we slowed down for a herd of cattle and wranglers making their way along the roadway. Outside temperature up top was just above zero Celsius. Back in Ontario they were sweating through an unusual September heatwave!

What an amazing drive! One scenic vista after another and barely passed another vehicle the whole way (cattle yes, cars not so much). After the mountains and at the edge of the Bighorn Basin we passed through Shell: population 83 and home of two establishments, a campground and the Shell Beer-Café (guess they have to cover all the bases).

We arrived in Cody and were immediately taken with the main street – again, great, authentic architecture. Cody has a beautiful location, a rodeo grounds and lots to explore in town. We only had time to spend a few hours at the world-class Buffalo Bill Center of the West (a Smithsonian affiliate museum). It is huge – divided into five smaller museum galleries from natural history to the Plains Indians to firearms.

The museum aims to immerse visitors into the story of the real American West. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody believed that by encountering authentic western things, people would come to understand and appreciate the West. He started as a scout for the U.S. Army but is best known for his Buffalo Bill Wild West Shows. Lots of archives on display like a cancelled Wells Fargo envelope, Pony Express saddles, telegraph equipment, etc.

The part we liked the best was the natural history (the Draper Natural History Museum) on the sights, smells and sounds of the Greater Yellowstone region. It was very hands-on and touched all the senses. Howling wolves, bubbling hot springs, raging forest fires. Could have spent a whole day just in this section.

It was a 90-minute drive to the east gates of Yellowstone National Park and another hour from there to our first night’s campground. So, more of Cody will have to be on the “next time” list. The drive east out of town is stunning – the beautiful drive up and over the Absaroca Range (a part of the Central Rocky Mountain Chain). We passed beautiful riverside campgrounds that are on our list for another time. We could happily be based in Cody for a few days to explore the town and the hiking/driving opportunities in the nearby mountains.

On to Yellowstone . . .

www.travelwyoming.com

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Hitting the road in our “new” Roadtrek 210 for a trial run …

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Summer is a crazy time for us both – Craig is gigging and we both have all sorts of writing assignments on the go. This translates into very few available days for our camper van travels. We always try to head out for several long (6-8 week) trips in the delicious fall and spring “shoulder seasons” when campsites are only half-filled and the weather still tempts. Shoulder season works the best for our lifestyle.

Read below for two parts: 1. Our Vermont camping trip and 2. What we learned about Class B travel this time around.

1. VERMONT IN THE SUMMER

We’ve been itching to do a trial run in our newly acquired 2006 Roadtrek 210 (we are carrying over the van’s nickname – High Cotton), so we blocked off four summertime days and crossed the border into Vermont. We have a long trip coming up in the fall – exploring U.S. national parks in South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado – and really needed to get acquainted with the workings of the “new” van before departing on the Big Trip. 2016 is the centenary of the U.S. National Park System.

The Vermont state parks are lovely – no hookups, so the big rigs stay away and the campgrounds are small, nicely wooded with nightly rates that are very affordable (even with the dollar exchange). It’s Class B heaven.

We hopped around the state, starting with our all-time Vermont favourite, Silver Lake State Park in the hamlet of Barnard, just north of beautiful Woodstock, VT. Silver Lake is compact, the swimming in the small lake is perfect, it’s a 10-minute stroll to the quintessential VT country store in Barnard, a five-minute drive to the trailheads of the Appalachian Trail, and just 15 minutes into Woodstock, home to beautiful New England architecture, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Site and the time capsule at the Billings Farm & Museum.

From there we travelled east, stopping at the Cabot Cheese outlet – loved the Alpine Cheese and the Special Reserve. Then north to Stillwater State Park, which was nice but a lot like our Ontario Parks, so we are not likely to travel there again, given that we have something very similar (and nice) just down the road from home.

Our final stay was at Grand Isle State Park, on Lake Champlain. It is one of Vermont’s largest state parks but did not seem huge or crowded. The sites were nice, clean and private. But the real find of the trip was the day-use park at Niquette Bay State Park (about 20 minutes north of Burlington, VT). What a fantastic find! It’s a one-mile hike through mature woods to the two swimming spots. We opted for Calm Cove: less crowded, slab rock shoreline, more secluded and – wait for it! …- off-leash dog friendly! Rigby had a blast jumping into the water and swimming about (as did we). There were three of four dogs there at a time – all well behaved with attentive owners. Not a single issue or problem. Niquette Bay is a bit off the beaten track, so fewer people go there, but it was the highlight of our travels.

2. THE CLASS B LEARNING CURVE CONTINUES …

Vermont has hills – small by the Rockies standard but pretty big by Ontario stats. We learned that a Roadtrek 210 is not a car; it is more like a truck so it needs to be driven like one. On the long, winding downhills, this means being judicious with the brakes (or they will overheat – very scary) and shifting to low gears to use the engine to provide some of the braking needed. The advice we received was to power down when cresting a hill to be at the speed you’d like to drive down the hill at – then use the lower gear and brakes to maintain that low speed.

All in all, we are in love with our new High Cotton. It performed flawlessly and we had fun learning the new, upgraded systems – water, dump tanks, sleeping compartment, etc. We also added an external Coleman camp stove with a combination grill/burner bought at Canadian Tire. Our van has an external propane hookup to go directly to a BBQ, so it was super easy. The camp stove is more compact and more versatile than the larger barbecues. Loved, loved, loved it. Cooked and ate outside every day. And we happened to be in Vermont just as corn season was beginning.

Asheville: Loophole of the Bible Belt

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Oh, could most tourist destinations learn a thing or two from Asheville, North Carolina. This mid-size city in the Appalachian Mountains has lots going for it, not the least of which is the stunning scenery. On the urban end, the city’s energized and funky downtown core offers up a nice mix of used bookstores, speciality shops and independently-owned bars and restaurants. And most of it is dog friendly too. Rigby was welcomed into one store after another – especially the Three Dog Bakery where the sign on the door informed customers, Owners on Leash Welcome.

The locals like to joke about liberal-leaning Asheville being “the loophole in the Bible Belt.” There’s lots to see and do, including music, although we focused our time in the city on food, walking, soaking in the architecture and enjoying the work of local artisans. Our highlights? Read on . . .

Art Deco: Downtown is a mix of beautifully restored heritage buildings – with the nation’s largest collection of Art Deco architecture outside of Miami.

Southern eats: Even the funky-style eateries support the culture and heritage of the Southern mountains. We ate a great meal at Early Girl Eatery with its all-day breakfast and Southern standards on the menu (biscuits and gravy, fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits and a North Carolina specialty, grilled pimento cheese sandwich).

Asheville Bee Charmer: Think all things bee-related and you get the idea. The new Bee Charmer has two locations, one in the heart of town and the other in the up-and-coming arts district of West Asheville. Owner Jillian Kelly is 100 per cent committed to connecting with ethical beekeepers around the world. The shop’s warmly- glowinghoney tasting bar is a blast and a way to try before you buy while learning a little about the intricacies of bees and honey production. If it’s about bees, Jillian knows it all.

Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar: We love most bookstores but we really, really loved Battery Park on Page Avenue (right in the centre of town). A visit is like slipping into a good friend’s sumptuously-decorated living room – couches and chairs, artwork on the walls, thick Persian rugs, table lamps – with the addition of thousands of (mainly) used books filling rows and rows of tall shelves. Music softly plays in the background (“we’re a conversational bar”) and well-behaved dogs are welcome. Owner Thomas Wright quips that he is “selling buggy whips” but we were instantly hooked. Oh yeah, there’s a well-appointed bar that serves champagne and wine. So comfortable, it was hard to leave.

Song of the Wood: A short drive outside Asheville is the stunning home and workshop of hammered dulcimer maker, Jerry Read Smith. Jerry is a skilled artisan and gracious host who loves to talk music, craft and woodworking to anyone with an appreciation for fine workmanship. He showed us his latest commission – number 950 in a long career than spans three decades. “Every single aspect of it makes a difference. A mahogany bridge will be different than a rosewood bridge,” he says. “The more you play it, the better it stays in tune.” For those who don’t have a clue what a hammered dulcimer is, take a look and listen at his excellent website (tip: it’s a percussion string instrument with about 100 strings in five octaves). He describes the unique sound best when he says: “Every note rings as long as it wants to. I think of it as music set free.”

Biltmore Estate: This magnificent piece of architecture – at 250 rooms it is America’s largest house – is a peek into how the .001 per cent live. The estate built by George Vanderbilt in 1895 stretches across 8,000 acres, getting in and out involves parking and shuttle rides and once you are in the estate home you will be agog at the antiques, furnishings, architecture and lifestyle. It’s an Asheville must-see.

Georgia’s rich music history: Athens and Augusta

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Cool things come out of university towns. The critical mass of students questing for identity and meaning, the energy of artists looking to push their own – and your – boundaries, the enabling atmosphere of a major learning institution in an era of political and cultural ferment – this combination is likely to give rise to innovations some of which will proceed to transform far beyond the municipal boundaries of their city of origin. So it is with Athens, site of the University of Georgia at Athens (UGA) and home to at least two (so far) institutions of the 20^th century’s music scene: The B-52s and R.E.M.

Athens seems like a cool place to live. It’s certainly a cool place to visit. The city seems to grow out of the university grounds – which are lovely, spacious and extravagant. It’s a big city on a human scale. Lots of funky coffee shops, restaurants and bistros, bars featuring live music, a couple of cool bookstores, comic stores and used vinyl and CD outlets (including the famous WUXTRY – Georgia’s oldest independently-owned record store – where the members of R.E.M. would congregate). These co-exist on pleasantly shaded streets with upper-end shoe, clothing and sunglasses shops making for a pleasant walking experience. We did a tour with Paul Butchart, a local historian who gives Walking Music Tours of Athens’ rich musical history. Like everywhere else, live music venues opened and closed and relocated and went under at a furious pace – but out of this at least two major institutions attained escape velocity and transformed a corner of popular music.

I did make a point, some years ago, of doing some serious listening to Michael Stipe, et al., – who emerged from various university courses at UGA to form R.E.M. These guys produced album after album of intelligent rock music. From their punk roots playing the dives and student bars in Athens, they grabbed a significant share of critical and popular appeal and rode it to its natural conclusion. When the band realized they had attained all there was to attain in pop stardom, they wound it up. What they left behind is a catalogue of excellent, insightful, danceable and thoughtful rock and roll music. Whatever the various members do next, they can be proud of R.E.M.’s legacy of music and politics.

Augusta became the home of The Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown. Here’s a guy with a legacy to astound. Is there another figure from the 20^th century who lived long enough to put his stamp on so many different styles of music? His legacy touches rock, blues, R&B, rap, hip-hop and, of course, soul.

Not bad for a former shoeshine boy from the streets of Augusta. His life size statue stands on the centre of the boulevard on downtown Broad Street.

Of course James Brown – they call him “Mr. Brown” in Augusta – showed promise very early. From there it was just a matter of turning talent into opportunity, but if Brown had anything other than talent it was vision: a crystalline conviction of what his sound and stage deportment was all about.

You can divine some of this at the Augusta Museum of History where they have curated a James Brown exhibit that takes you from his early youth to the final performance of his unnaturally long career. A few tidbits:

95% of his stage suits and costumes were handmade.
He often played 300 shows a year.
He was the originator of “starting on the one.”
He was a self-taught musician with a love for gospel music.
He had perfect pitch.
He was a highly religious man.
He had a full hair salon in his home.
The dance moves he created circa 1968 were later copied by Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake.

There’s lots more to see in Augusta too. This was – before the Civil War – a prosperous economic crossroads through which cotton and various other commodities passed en route to the ports of Savannah and Charleston. In the course of its economic development, wealthy families injected their fortunes into some pretty impressive – even by today’s standards – real estate and architecture. Well worth seeing. As is the lovely Riverwalk that features a perfect little amphitheatre looking over the river.

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EATING & SLEEPING IN ATHENS: We stopped for lunch on the dog-friendly patio at Big City Bread Cafe for a delicious Turkey Burger with a side order of Bleu Cheese Fries (yes, house cut fries topped with blue cheese and served with garlic aioli and scallions).

We bypassed the campgrounds and stayed overnight at the dog-friendly, LEED Gold Certified Hotel Indigo, a short walk to the downtown Athens area. The service was great and the beds even better!

LOCAL LEGENDS FROM AUGUSTA:

Ty Cobb retired in Augusta
Bobby James brought Masters level golf to Augusta
James Brown, Oliver Hardy, Butterfly McQueen, Laurence Fishburne and Brenda Lee are all from Augusta.

WATCH THE THEATRE: The film Get On Up (2014) is about the life of Mr. James Brown.

Check this one off the bucket list: Cumberland Island National Seashore

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It’s been a few years since we heard about Cumberland Island National Seashore. Really heard about it – from an outdoorsy friend who has seen her share of wild places around the world and knows about these things. She raved about it and that immediately put this National Park Service site on our must-do list. Luckily, it fit in perfectly with this trip’s theme of exploring what is unique about life along the Atlantic coastline.

Cumberland Island sits on the very southern tip of Georgia – cross the St. Mary’s River and you are into Florida. It’s the largest barrier island along the Atlantic coastline, and definitely one with the best-preserved wilderness. That’s because Congress stepped in and designated the north part of the long, narrow island as Cumberland Island Wilderness Area, with all its protections and legislations. As Park Ranger Maggie Tyler told us, “It’s supposed to be an area where man is only a visitor.”

Cumberland Island is not somewhere you just stumble onto. You’ve got to really want to go there and a visit requires some planning. For starters there is a cap of 300 people per day. Second, the way on and off the island is by passenger ferry service only. Third, there are no commercial services on island (except for bike rentals at the ferry dock) and to get around you either bike the main road (no bikes on the trails) or hike. Visitors need to take food, water and whatever else they need for their time on island.

It’s the serenity and wilderness that draw people to Cumberland Island. The beaches and sand dunes are pristine. One-third of the state’s sea turtle nesting grounds are on the beaches of Cumberland Island. The mature maritime forest of live oaks, tall saw palmettos, myrtle and holly create a thick church-like canopy. There is a long, dirt roadway called the Grand Road that runs north-south – it is protected on the National Register of Historic Places and “has not changed in centuries.” Add in the island’s saltwater marshlands – the perfect stopover for migrating birds travelling along the Atlantic Flyway – and what you have is an intact, stable barrier island environment. These days, this is a rare thing.

It may be protected from the impact of human development now, but this was not always the case. At the turn of the 19^th century, wealthy families from the north came to the island to escape the harsh winters. Over time, 90 per cent of the island was purchased by the Carnegie family (whose fortune was in steel and railroads) and they built mansions that showcased the elite lifestyles of the Gilded Age. Two of these homes remain – one is in ruins and the other, Plum Orchard, is a popular tour stop for visitors who want to roam the partially-furnished rooms to see how the one per cent lived at their winter escapes.

In the mid-20^th century the homes and the land were passed to the National Park Service and under its stewardship the island is returning to its natural state of wilderness.

Cumberland Island lived up to its hype. It is a place of beauty, of solitude and of purity. If this is the type of shoreline experience you are jonesing to find, you need look no further.

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Looking to camp? It is possible to stay on the island but you must make a reservation and bring all of your supplies. The sites are beautiful but have no water, electricity and there are pit toilets. We stayed just a few miles away from the village of St. Mary’s at the lovely Crooked River State Park. The sites were well spaces and heavily wooded and there were some nice walking trails with great views over the river. It was also very dog friendly.

Gracious Savannah

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Savannah is a city for walking.

It’s the southernmost of a trio of towns and cities that embody the grace and architecture of the Old South: Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah. They are all beautiful and inclusive today but they have histories rooted in the plantation-era days of enormous wealth concentrated in the hands of very few, built on the backs of tens of thousands of slaves brought in from West Africa. We kept this in mind as we looked in awe at the stately mansions that were once the home of plantation owners and cotton brokers and strolled along the historic riverfront.

We actually started our tour with a ride into the heart of the downtown National Historic Landmark district on the hop-on/hop-off Old Savannah Tours trolley (it was dog-friendly, so Rigby hopped onboard too). We got off at Chippewa Square – the green square where Ton Hanks sat on a bus stop bench in the movie Forrest Gump. Savannah was designed on a system of grids – the whole city is a very orderly crosshatch of streets punctuated by large green public squares. Streets and squares are lined by a cathedral of trees: enormous live oaks, hanging with Spanish moss.

When General Sherman arrived in Savannah he was so taken with the city that he sent a telegram to President Lincoln handing the city to the president as a Christmas present. Savannah was spared Sherman’s March to the Sea.

We were fascinated by the infusion of Gullah culture (the Gullah people of the Lowcountry trace their rich heritage to the African slaves brought in from the Angola region of West Africa). In the vernacular of the Gullah, the word haints means ghosts. Look on the ceiling of many front porches (from small cottages to large mansions) and you’ll find it has been painted blue. The Gullah people believe the colour blue keeps the haints
away.

We walked and walked along cobbled streets made from the stones and bricks that were packed as ballast into the holds of ships that crossed the Atlantic as part of The Triangular Trade (goods from Europe to West Africa; West African slaves to the New World; plantation goods such as sugar and cotton from ports like Savannah to Europe). Savannah emerged as the major port in the state of Georgia.

All that walking deserves a little indulgence. And that’s how we finished our day in Savannah – with lunch and ice cream at the famous Leopold’s Ice Cream. Leopold’s has been around for almost 100 years and has developed quite a following (it regularly makes the list of best ice cream shops in the world). The patio out from was dog friendly and they even brought Rigby her own tiny cone in a cup. Now, that’s Southern hospitality!

Savannah in the artistic community:

The bus stop/park bench scenes in Forrest Gump were filmed at Chippewa Square.
In Something To Talk About, Julia Roberts peers into a downtown restaurant and sees her philandering husband at dinner with another woman.
Savannah resident Johnny Mercer wrote Moon River while at his downtown home.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was completely filmed in Savannah.
The Civil War film, Glory, was filmed in and around the city.

South Carolina’s beautiful Lowcountry

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Spoiler alert: There is nothing we didn’t like about the Lowcountry just outside Beaufort called the Sea Islands, a collection of small islands huddled together, separated by tidal creeks and connected by short bridges.

The definite highlight was our stay at beautiful Hunting Island State Park – we loved it so much that we extended our visit for an additional five days. We’d set our alarm to a pre-sunrise hour, walk five minutes to the beach and be there for the sunrise over the Atlantic. In the distance there were shrimp boats (no doubt harvesting our dinner that evening). Rigby was fascinated by the small fiddler crabs scuttling along the sand (South Carolina beaches are on-leash dog friendly). The beach is long and luxurious, anchored by a lighthouse at one end and a sweeping curve of sand at the far reach. The early morning sun cast a warm glow on the palmetto palms that line the back of the dunes. It set up each day perfectly.

In addition to the natural beauty of the Lowcountry, this region is steeped in history.

There is a long tradition of shrimping. We’d stop at Gay Fish Co. (just at the bridge from St. Helena Island to Hunting Island) to buy the freshest shrimp we’d ever tasted. Half-a-dozen shrimp boats were tied to the rickety docks. Inside, the woman weighing our daily ration told us their docks stood in for the Alabama coastline in the filming of the shrimping scenes in the hit movie, Forrest Gump. On the wall there’s a framed photo of Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise playing out a scene from the movie.

We visited the Penn Center Historic District, preserving the Gullah community on St. Helena Island. The Gullah people – the descendants of enslaved Africans – are known for their unique culture and traditions imported from West Africa (including the weaving of beautiful sweetgrass baskets). Before bridges were built, these islands were isolated and the culture was protected and thrived. Gullah culture is all over the Sea Islands, but the Center is the only spot where the buildings remain intact and protected as a National Historic Site. When the program at the site opened it was the first school in the nation to provide formal education for freed African slaves; a path to liberation. Over time, the focus shifted to civil rights and social justice issues. Now, the Center is a part of the National Park Service’s Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, preserving this unique culture, traditions and heritage.

One of our favourite meals was at the modest Gullah Grub Restaurant. Our lunch started with squares of rich cornbread, still warm from the oven, and glasses of “swamp water” (a mix of sweet tea and lemonade, called an Arnold Palmer on the mainland). Traditional Gullah dishes are based on whatever is seasonally available – rice, tomatoes, okra, fish. We ate local: a starter of she-crab soup, barbecue ribs and fried chicken with a side of collards doused with vinegar for some extra tang.

We’ll be back . . . again and again and again.

Beaufort . . . is amazing

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It’s not hard to see why the beautiful South Carolina town of Beaufort is a mecca for film shoots.

This is a lovely little – and rather prosperous – 300-year-old city sparkling with real estate that makes natural settings for Hollywood films. The Big Chill was shot here. The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini and Forrest Gump were also shot in and around Beaufort. The town has a stunning natural setting looking out over the Port Royal Sound, enframed by small islands that conjure up a history rich in Antebellum and post-war prosperity and peace.

Named Best Small Southern Town by Southern Living, a Top 25 Small City Arts Destination by American Style, and a Top 50 Adventure Town by National Geographic Adventure, this second-oldest city in South Carolina, chartered in 1711, is a collection of well-cared for boutiques and small enterprises along a couple of nicely manicured downtown streets that converge onto the beautifully planned and executed Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park – almost worth visiting on its own. beaufortblog2

But the real value resides in walking the residential side streets and drinking in the luxurious architecture and laneways lined by Spanish-moss draped live oaks – some of which are so old and large that thick branches actually bend to the ground in places. It’s a fascinating sight.

We took a short drive from Beaufort to Parris Island, home to the east coast boot camp for the United States and the only boot Marine camp for women. We were headed to the museum, an expertly curated history of the Marines and a comprehensive overview of the history of Santa Elena, the Spanish colony that founded the island community back in the mid-1500s.

The town opens its doors for dog owners. We had lunch on the patio at Panini’s on the Waterfront and were introduced to an Arnold Palmer, a typical Southern drink made of half sweet tea and half lemonade (our new favourite). A bowl of water appeared tableside for Rigby. The restaurant also has a special menu for dogs. We kept to our shrimp-every-day creed and had delicious Shrimp Cheese Steak sandwiches piled high with local shrimp (did we mention the “Alabama” shrimp boat scenes from Forrest Gump were filmed just a few miles away?).

If anything, Beaufort is made for walking. We fantasized about renting a house here for the Canadian winter months, a place where we could write, where we could be assured of some sunshine, where the roadways were not choking with traffic (or slick with ice) and where the general level of prosperity ensured that we could feel safe and intellectually stimulated. In short, we loved it.

In fact, we stretched our stay in this area by several days, just to take in the Gullah history, lovely beaches and campground on the Sea Islands near Beaufort. More on that next time.

Charleston – a city of grace

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Charleston, South Carolina, evokes the very best of the South. It is a stunningly beautiful city – it was once the richest city in the United States (by a factor of eight) with the fourth largest population. It shows.

The city was a gift to several British lords from King Charles II; it grew to be the largest slave port in the Americas and one of only three walled cities on the continent (the others are St. Augustine and Quebec City). And this extraordinary wealth is still on display along street after street of vaulting mansions, the largest of which is 24,000 square feet of floor space and includes three Louis Tiffany chandeliers. The rich and the uber rich – slave traders, cotton brokers, ship owners, bankers, rice or indigo magnates – used this perfect port city as their summertime retreat from their inland operations where malaria and yellow fever wiped out thousands of people.

Like the wealthy class of every era, they travelled extensively across Europe bringing back with them the architectural styles and fashions of the very rich across Greece, Italy, France and Spain. And they combined these early modern and classic styles with adaptations from the Bahamas where living quarters were designed to maximize every breeze, dissipate the summer heat and capture the winter warmth.

We rode through the city in the back of a mule driven wagon with Matthew who works for the Palmetto Carriage Company. It’s a dog-friendly, one-hour carriage ride during which Matthew riffs on the many interesting historical aspects of this city’s neighbourhoods. The city only permits 20 carriages on the streets at any one time, so every different carriage driver has to queue at the bingo machine and await their route assignment. This lottery system turns out to be fair for everyone, limits the number of carriages slowing down ordinary traffic and gives Matthew his first opportunity to amuse and inform us of the idiosyncrasies of his work as a historic guide.

So many interesting things to note. For example, many buildings feature what look like large bolts in their façade and exterior walls. These, Matthew tells us, were products of a massive 7.3 magnitude event that provoked home owners to pass massive steel rods through their houses to pull them upright and into alignment again after the earth’s rumblings. “No one knew they had earthquakes here until a whopper hit in August 1886.”

Being a port city, Charlestown has known more floods than it can count and being so close to the sea many parts of are actually several feet below sea level. The cobblestones – over which we rattle under the energy of our mules, Hit and Run – arrived to Charleston in the holds of ships as ballast for trans-Atlantic voyages. The Old Exchange and Customs building – a symbol of Britain’s oppressive imperial control over the colony – was the last building erected by the British in the Americas before the American Revolution. Over the years it has served multiple roles, including as dungeon during the era of piracy and the Civil War.

The Civil War left its mark in other ways too. Large parts of the city – particularly those within range of ship borne cannons– were reduced to burned out rubble before being re-built post-war. We stroll along the Battery, the point where Southerners in their finest clothes gathered with drinks of Planters Punch to watch the opening salvos of Confederate cannons on Fort Sumter – clearly visible from the old neighbourhood – that inaugurated the American Civil War on April 12, 1861. They thought this glorious little war could not last more than a few weeks, months at the most. No one foresaw four devastating years of war that pitted families and neighbours against each other.

Every seat on our wagon is taken. The ride is fascinating. Matthew is interesting and congenial. Even Rigby enjoyed it. She napped underneath our feet for the entire hour.

On the edge of town we stayed at the very dog-positive James Island County Park Campground with an enormous off leash area that included a dog beach and special events like Yappy Hour.

A stretch called Down East

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Tearing ourselves away from the beauty of Ocracoke was no small task. It did, however, involve one of our favourite activities of this coastline trip: a ferry ride.

It’s a two-hour ($15 USD) ferry ride across the waters of the Pamlico Sound to Cedar Island on the mainland of North Carolina. The area is better known to locals as Down East – a collection of 13 different maritime communities holding dear to the traditions of the seafaring life. Their past is a colourful history of whaling, fishing, hunting, quilting and the craft of decoy carving.

It’s the decoys that drew us to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center (right next to the ferry that crosses to the uninhabited shores of Cape Lookout National Seashore). Craig tried his hand at chopping away at a piece of juniper (a wood called white cedar in the north) under the tutelage of an amused Walter “Brother” Gaskill, one of the country’s best decoy carvers.

Brother instructed Craig to just chop away anything that “doesn’t look like a duck.” Afterwards Brother pulls out cutting knives and files to try to repair the damage, all the while smiling as he tells us – in a thick Down East brogue – about a local group of carvers who work with the museum to revive the art of carving decoys.

The second level of the museum – a building designed to resemble a cross between a large hunting lodge and a coastal life saving station – is like rummaging through your grandmother’s attic. Displays for each Down East community are filled with duck decoys, handmade quilts, black and white photos and household items.

From the top level there is a viewing platform with a great view of the Cape Lookout lighthouse, the only light station in North Carolina that stays lit night and day.

We found more maritime history (and, of course, more on Blackbeard) in the beautiful village of Beaufort (population: 4,000) at the North Carolina Maritime Museum. The region’s proud history of life saving stations, fishing, boatbuilding and piracy (okay, maybe proud is not the right word on that last one) is explained in detail.

But it was on two wheels that we really discovered the beauty of Beaufort (and it is very beautiful). We pedalled beach bikes from Hungry Town Bike Tours, a local bike tour company run by Betsy and David Cartier, two transplants from the northeast.

David gave us a snapshot of Beaufort: “OPALs. Older people, active lifestyle.”

Think a garden club with 160 active members. Wide, quiet streets that are perfect for biking or walking. Gorgeous homes that range from cottages to mansions. A stone’s throw across the harbour is the Rachel Carson Reserve and the historic Fort Macon, a well-preserved Civil War era fort. There are no chain stores in sight.

David has a theory on this. “Beaufort has stayed isolated, so it’s kept its charm. These houses were built by shipbuilders, so they can withstand the storms. You’ll see a lot of homes with two porches – one up and one down – it’s a West Indian style imported by the sailors.”

Indeed, Beaufort is made for those with a curiosity about history, food and culture and enough zip to pedal around town (easy pedalling along a very flat landscape and very light traffic on the side streets).

And about that “food” part … After pedalling and sightseeing all day we were primed for finding another seafood meal and, as it turns out, we ate dockside at the Front Street Grill at Stillwater, enjoying meals that were among the best of our trip to date.

The amazing Shrimp & Grits were made with stone ground cheese grits (flavoured with heavy cream and a sharp Vermont cheddar), sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and tasso (a gravy made from a base of ham drippings). Craig opted for the same-day catch of yellowfin tuna (cooked rare) in soft wheat tortillas and served with sides of black beans, rice and fried plantains. The restaurant has indoor seating, outdoor seating on the deck (dog-friendly) and a great view of the sunset.

It was a perfect way to end a perfect day!

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Category Archives: Pet travel

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A stretch called Down East