Back to Gaffney

If you're traveling along I-85 between Spartanburg, SC and Charlotte, NC and you come across this giant peach, you've arrived in Gaffney, SC. We've yet to pass by these parts during peach season, but anytime we're in the neighborhood, we take time to stop. You see, this "peachy" town is the home of Freightliner Custom Chassis, where Bullwinkle's chassis was born.


Not too far from the factory sits FCCC's only factory-owned service center. It is, in our humble opinion, the best place for chassis service in the country. They work exclusively on motorhomes, school busses and small delivery trucks. But, it's mostly motorhomes, especially this time of year. Unlike every other Freightliner service center we've visited, this place welcomes motorhomes. And, they definitely know what they're doing. We're calling this next leg of our travels the Spring Moose Maintenance Tour. We're making Gaffney our first stop with Bullwinkle's annual chassis maintenance check-up.


We'll be in northern Iowa (on the third - and hopefully final - stop on our maintenance tour) before the first appointment here becomes available, so we decided to take our chances as a "work-in". We arrived at the service center Tuesday afternoon and checked in with Pat, the friendliest customer service person in the world. She invited us to set up camp in one of the dozen or so sites in their lot. From our corner spot, we watched the parade of motorhomes moving in and out of the service bays. This place is very busy this time of year!


We made the most of our waiting time to enjoy the pleasant early Spring weather. We did a bit of geocaching, explored downtown Gaffney and appreciated the beautiful dogwoods in bloom.


Yesterday afternoon, Pat made us an offer. If we could have the moose ready to roll in 15 minutes, they could work us in. We had no idea we could get this moose ready to move so quickly! Before we knew it, Bullwinkle was in a bay ready for his "spa" treatment, and we were sitting in the comforts of the waiting room, cats and all. A few hours later, the moose was released and we were free to roam about the country. Given the late hour, we decided to spend another night at Camp Freightliner.


This morning, we took in the plant tour. No pictures were allowed inside, so you'll just have to trust us when we say this it was very interesting. We got an up close and personal look at how all of Bullwinkle's essential parts come together. And, the factory was humming today. According to our guide, business is definitely looking up!


With our business complete in Gaffney, we decided to head for the hills. We made the short drive to North Carolina and are all settled in to our quiet spot in beautiful Waynesville.

Beaufort

With a bit of stormy weather between Hilton Head and Gaffney, it didn't take much to convince us to extend our stay another night. We made use of our "extra" time by daytripping to nearby Beaufort. A highlight of this Low Country gem is a tour of the southern plantation homes in its historic district. Today, many visitors took advantage of the horse-drawn carriage tours to take in the sights.

Visitors are discouraged from driving through these historic neighborhoods. The three-centuries-old streets are narrow. The ancient live oaks make touring in any high-profile vehicle impossible, and dangerous. We opted to take our time on this beautiful spring day and explore the neighborhoods on foot. We picked up a walking tour map at the Visitor's Center and spent a couple of hours making our way around this charming town.

Several of the most lavish homes are situated right on the water. Imagine the sweet teas and mint juleps that have been enjoyed on the sprawling lawn and wrap around porch of this fine historic home.

This collection of historic homes is largely privately owned. The folks who buy these pieces of history must get used to the foot and carriage traffic through their very special neighborhood. Strolling down this sidewalk we got a real sense of old-time Beaufort.

Other homes are not quite as approachable. Many of these majestic beauties are guarded by lovely iron and brick gates.

If you're a fan of the movie "The Big Chill", this place should look familiar. The Edgar Fripp House, aka Tidalhom, was the set for Harold and Sarah Cooper's home where they reunited with college friends. The handsome antebellum home was also cast in the movie The Great Santini.

When it comes to majesty, here it's a toss up as to which has more, the stunning house or the striking live oak dripping in Spanish moss. It's all gorgeous.

Blooming azaleas provided a colorful frame for this lovely home.

Of course, there's more to historic Beaufort than beautiful old homes. Our walking tour included a most informative stop at St. Helena's Episcopal Church. This very proud religious community is celebrating its tricentennial this year.

After all that walking, we enjoyed a tasty lunch near Waterfront Park. This expansive park features walkways, benches, a bandstand and a playground, and plenty of room to roam and enjoy the views of the Beaufort River. This is just the kind of place you could stay awhile. But, we really do have to get moving. Vowing to return and spend more time when we pass this way again, we made our way back to Hilton Head Island.

Tomorrow's forecast looks like smooth sailing to Gaffney. Our fingers are crossed that our stay there will be short.

Hilton Head Island Revisited

Our trip to Hilton Head began with a fuel stop north of St. Marys. If you're traveling in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, The Peach State will save you a few bucks when you fill your tank. We hadn't filled Bullwinkle's 100-gallon tank since the middle of January. This stop was an eye-popper. And, this was just one swipe of a credit card. Flying J limits transactions to $150. We put three credit cards to work at this stop.

By the time we arrived here in Hilton Head, the cost of fuel was a distant memory. Island views like this make the price of diesel worth every penny.

We have returned to Hilton Head RV Resort, where we stayed in Fall 2009. It was a treat tucking Bullwinkle into this palmetto shaded spot for a few days of rest, relaxation, reconnecting with family and basketball.

With our beloved Jayhawks in the NCAA Tournament's "Sweet Sixteen", we incorporated basketball into our schedule, as we did in Bonifay. Friday night we cheered the Jayhawks on to a close victory against NC State. So, it was on to the "Elite Eight".

This evening we watched Kansas defeat North Carolina to move on to the Final Four next weekend. We watched the game with Paul's Uncle Lyman, who is a big Tarheel fan. But, as a Kansas native, he really couldn't lose. We very much enjoyed the time we've spent together the last few days.

We also enjoyed a wonderful visit with Paul's Cousin Nona, who was quite busy with special events at work this week. We so appreciate her sharing some of her very rare time off with us.


Nona's husband Mike was also hard at work this week, so this afternoon before the game we stopped by Hampton Lake, the beautiful community in nearby Bluffton where he was hosting several open houses. Mike invited us to poke around the neighborhood, and we happily obliged. This model was one of our favorites.

One of the things we love about Hampton Lake is that the community is designed around the lake. Nearly every home features a water view. Many homes also featured spacious "Carolina rooms".

We decided we like Carolina rooms! Our favorite featured plenty of space for fireside outdoor dining. Wherever we live, someday we'd love to have a house with a taste of Carolina like this.

Between basketball, family and house hunting, we made time to see a few sites we missed on our previous visit. The Honey Horn Plantation has a history dating back some 300 years. The 68-acre property is now part of the Coastal Discovery Museum, which highlights the heritage and history of the Low Country.

Rockers on the porch of the main house make it easy to imagine life on Hilton Head Island during a quieter time.

Behind the house, a 1200-square-foot butterfly enclosure is home to some 13 species of native butterflies. Our visit was a bit early for prime butterfly spotting, but we were lucky to see a few early arrivals.

Honey Horn also features three boardwalks that extend over the salt marsh. At low tide, the boardwalks provide a great venue for watching crabs and other creatures in the mud. During a sudden downpour, as we experienced, the boardwalk became a place for Paul to race the rain. One moment it was dry (but quite humid). The next it was a deluge! Thankfully, the storm was short lived, and there was a sturdy shelter at the end of the boardwalk.

Despite the sudden downpour, we especially enjoyed our stroll around Honey Horn. Truth is, I'm a sucker for the flowering dogwoods and majestic moss-draped live oak trees of the low country. And, Honey Horn treated us to plenty of both. This photo doesn't do either justice. But, trust us, they were lovely.

As our Jayhawks are moving on to New Orleans, it's time for us to move on from this charming island. We're hoping to get Bullwinkle in for some annual maintenance at the place where his chassis was built. Then, we're planning to watch the Final Four from somewhere in North Carolina. (And, yes, we're finding some poetic justice in that.) Rock chalk!

Gaffney

If you're looking for something to see in Gaffney, this giant peach is probably it. "Peachoid" is a 150-foot tall water tower that holds one million gallons of water and welcomes motorists along I-85 to South Carolina. This upstate landmark was built in 1981 to promote the fact that South Carolina produces almost as many, as many, or more (depending on who you ask) peaches than that "other" state. Upon learning that we were headed this way, our friend Margie told us, "Just look for the giant peach." Now we know what she meant!

Just around the corner from the giant peach is the Freightliner Custom Chassis Training and Service Center. With a service appointment scheduled for last Thursday, we arrived in the heat of Wednesday afternoon and were assigned to our spot: lucky number 13. It wasn't much, but it was free. (If you don't include the cost of the service to come!)

During Bullwinkle's stay in the Freightliner hospital, our tech spotted a leak in the oil pan gasket. Because our engine is under warranty, we had to make an early morning trip on Friday to complete the work at Cummins in Spartanburg, some 20 miles away. Here's Bullwinkle getting reading for his early morning ride to Spartanburg. That's the moon up there in the sky!

With the gasket replaced and oil change complete, we traveled back to Gaffney and checked into the KOA. After spending a couple of days in service center waiting rooms, we were ready to kick back and relax for the weekend before we headed to chassis school.

That's right, we went back to school! Monday and Tuesday we attended "Camp Freightliner", a two-day class designed for owners of motorhomes with a Freightliner chassis. That's Mike, our instructor, pointing out something vitally important on a demo chassis. It is fascinating to see the "innards" of our moose. Everything is so much easier to see, reach and understand without a motorhome sitting on top.

After two days of learning about everything from alternators to zerks, we have a much better idea of what goes on behind the scenes when we turn the key and run down the road. Let's see, up front there are a couple of air tanks. Behind that is the fuel tank. The batteries are behind that. And, way back there in the back is a big ol' Cummins engine, an air cleaner and a radiator. Miles and miles (That might be a bit of an exaggeration,) of wires and lines get strung through after the chassis arrives at the motorhome factory. We learned lots!

With our chassis and engine service work complete, Bullwinkle is ready to run trouble-free for the next year. With our new-found knowledge, we have a good idea of how to help make that so. Yep. After our week in Gaffney, everything is just peachy!

Charleston, SC

We crossed the Cooper River and found our way to the Charleston Visitors Center. There we learned that the town highlights were within walking distance. So, we kept the Jeep parked and strolled down Meeting Street, aka "Museum Mile" to take in the sights.

Charleston is nicknamed "The Holy City" for a couple of reasons. First, and most obvious, is the preponderance of churches on the city skyline. The second, is the Charleston was one of the first cities in the original 13 colonies to provide religious tolerance to the French Huguenot Church and one of the first colonial city to allows Jews to worship without restriction. Today there are churches everywhere you look in downtown Charleston. This is Citadel Square Baptist Church.

A quick turn in the opposite direction from that one, we saw another. This is St. Matthew's Lutheran Church.

This is Trinity United Methodist Church. Imagine how striking it would be against a blue sky! But, with today's overcast it was not meant to be.

We just couldn't walk far without seeing a church. Here's another: Circular Congregational Church.

The Four Corners of the Law is a local term for the corner of Meeting and Broad Streets in Charleston. St. Michael's Episcopal Church stands on one corner. A Federal Courthouse and Post Office are on another. The two corners across Broad Street are occupied by the Charleston County Courthouse and Charleston City Hall.

This charming building houses Engines 2 and 3 of the Charleston Fire Department. I can't imagine backing a fire engine into one of those little cubbyholes! If you look closely, you'll see a Dalmatian resting on a red cushion between the two bays. The CFD has a sense of humor!

The majority of our self-directed walking tour was spent admiring Charleston homes. They are magnificent!

Oh look! Another church. This is First Scots Presbyterian Church.

Stately old homes framed by grand live oaks dripped in Spanish moss. Lovely.

The Historic Charleston Foundation maintains museums in two of Charleston's grand jewels. This is the Nathaniel Russell House, a Federal style townhouse that was constructed circa 1808.

Many of the homes in downtown Charleston are historic landmarks that are still used as private residences.

I just couldn't stop taking pictures of these beauties.

Our "postcard from Charleston".

When we reached the end of Meeting Street we circled around the battery and strolled up East Battery to see more of these antebellum homes.

Each house has its own distinct character. They are simply gorgeous.

Can you just imagine spending an afternoon on one of these stunning porches?

If your interested in having your very own porch in Charleston, we spotted several for sale. This sign says this place has "Grand Proportions". We think that might translate to "grand price tag".

We've seen lots of ironwork around the South. In downtown Charleston many of the homes feature iron gates.

Behind the gates you may find magnificent side gardens like this one. This is a private residence that had its gate open with a sign welcoming passersby to enjoy the view from the street.

This is the side garden at the Nathaniel Russell House.

With all that walkin' and gawkin', we were thirsty. This was the first course of our lunch at the Southend Brewery and Smokehouse. (No, we didn't eat the crayons!)

One of Charleston's most photographed streets is a stretch of East Bay Street known as "Rainbow Row". These are just a few of the vibrant old row houses in this district, which represent the first style of Charleston homes and were portrayed in the story of Porgy and Bess.

Whatd'ya know? There's another church. St. Philips is located on very aptly named Church Street.

Just outside St. Philips, we spotted this car that reminded us that Halloween is just around the corner.

With our day of sightseeing behind us, we settled in for our last night in Mt. Pleasant. Our gray and cloudy day ended with a dramatic sunset over the little pond here at our KOA. Tomorrow we leave the Lowcountry and head for the hills of Asheville, NC.