The Tour, 2002, Part 8

March 19, 2002

Well, we certainly are lazy, after a very slow morning, we finally got away, and went to the library for a while, the email is horrible here, they have blocks on most of the computers and won’t let you use the others for email.  I end up very frustrated with the entire situation, I cannot access AOL at all, but we cheat when Man is on one of the “research” computers and finally get to AOL, nothing important, except for one email from my cousin, Robin, planning a visit in Durham.

We make a short trip to Sandy Dam Church Cemetery to look over the burials of Remley and Grant families.  I suspect that Rebecca Grant might be Rachael, but sadly I will discover, this is not so, so the search for Rachael continues.

We go back to the trailer and just do, well, NOT much! The weather is fabulous, warm, not humid, slight breeze, perfect.  We sit outside for a long time, just enjoying.

March 20, 2002

Warm, well, close to hot.  Clear skies, great weather.  We decide to go to Charleston for the day.  It is “shorts” weather.  And “hat” weather.  We do the Slave Market, lunch at Tommy Condon’s, where we ate last year, walked around, semi-lost (no map in hand, just doing this on memory and sense of direction) and do more market, and then stop so that Man can had have a bowl of “She-Crab Soup”, reportedly only made in the Charleston area.  I had the best root beer float I have had in years.  We purchase some Charleston Green paint for my Charleston bench and find some raw peanuts for Karen.  They are dried, and they told us you have to soak them, then boil them, hope you will be able to use them Karen.  On the way back to the trailer we stop and get a “Bessinger’s” pork sandwich to go, for our dinner.  Not sure, but I think we might have gone to Charleston to indulge in FOOD! I did purchase a doll, a little “mamie, black doll”.  

Back in Walterboro, Paul Mears, married to Margaret Remley, and family researcher stops by for a visit.  Much to my surprise, he brings along a folder of Remley data.  Thanks Paul, we fully enjoyed our short visit.  Paul tells me something about the Remley family reunion, and the gossip (horror story), about the gal who was supposed to publish a Remley family book.  Seems she took the deposit money, did not publish and disappeared.  She is the same gal that I spoke with on the phone (years ago), who was so rude to me.  No wonder!    Paul also tells us about his brother-in-law, Ted, who works as a manager on a plantation SE of Walterboro.  He will try to arrange a visit for us.

March 21, 2002

Ted Remley shows up at our door about 7:30 A.M.  We have a nice visit and get to know each other.  He has had a very interesting life, lived hard.  He has also been blessed with special friends, and now works for Mr. O’Brien, owner of Pulte Homes (yes, that one), managing the 1,000 acre Plantation that Mr. O’Brien purchased last year, for a cool 5 million.  Ted takes us on a fabulous tour of the place, houses (2 of them, only one which will survive the upcoming building of stables, dog runs, barns, storage sheds and a 4,000 square foot home).  Ted showed us the old and still used dikes used to flood the rice fields, a 250 year old barn, which will be fixed up with parts from other 250 year old barns.  He explained how they will plant certain crops to attract birds, deer, etc. for hunting.  This plantation will become a “hunters delight”, with planned hunts, including the linen covered tables with fresh brewed coffee and tea sandwiches.  We had a very interesting tour, and cannot thank Ted enough for his hospitality!  A day long remembered, and hopefully I got a “taste” of what my third great-grandfather, Jefferson Grant, experienced as an overseer at a plantation.  Jefferson’s daughter, Mariah, married into the Remley clan.

Back to the trailer, lunch, back to Walterboro, email and a little more research, back to the trailer, dinner, and planning the next couple of stops on the Tour of 2002.  Finding campgrounds around Raleigh North Carolina turns out to be difficult.  We can see our breath when we take the dogs out for their last potty break of the day.  Discover the hot water heater has a leak, have to keep our eyes on that.

March 22, 2002

BRRR!  Cool this morning, and they say that tonight it will get down to about 20 degrees.  Man gets some propane, showers, and in a while we will go do some laundry.

Later - - - - -

Well, life is full of interesting “stuff”.  The laundry place we found used cash cards, like I use all the time at the libraries.  Put in a dollar, get the card with a dollar’s worth of use on it.  Well, this card takes $2.00 to purchase and gives you NO money to spend.  I was shocked and ticked!  But the machines were all nice.  We did the laundry.  Then we went to the library to do email at the library, where I got a computer that had no blocks on it, but was so slow I could not believe it, it took 5 minutes to just sign on to AOL, and process one piece of email.  Man, it was frustrating.  Then we did a short grocery hit and back to the trailer, where I did my usual, hung damp and wet clothes everywhere!

We were going to leave tomorrow AM, but after a study of the possible campgrounds in North Carolina, near Raleigh, well, we decide to spend one more night here, the plan is, we will save a couple of bucks in camping fees, and I will work all day tomorrow on computer input and organizing my thoughts for the research in the library and archives there.  Besides, we know the campground we are going to will be very noisy, as it is very near I 95.  It is quiet here Walterboro, so we save money and have peace and quiet.

March 23, 2002

What do they say about best laid plans???  Yep, that would be it, I wake with a headache, making work difficult and slow.  Man takes me out to a buffet lunch place and we stuff ourselves with good southern cookin and afterwards I feel much better.  Back at the trailer, I start putting stuff away for the move tomorrow and do more computer work.