South Carolina

From Kentucky we bee-lined it back to the Atlantic coast. It was fun staying at an RV Resort called Pirateland at Myrtle Beach. The rain showers we experienced there kept us out of the ocean waters, but the pools were fun for the kids. Allan and I enjoyed strolling along the beach, watching the surfers, water birds, shore fishermen, and waves.

Our travels took us southward to a city called Georgetown, where we toured the Rice Museum. Interestingly enough, the Georgetown area used to be the world’s largest exporter of rice, with about 40,000 acres under cultivation. The success of the rice production was due to tidal irrigation; flood gates were opened during high tide, when the fresh water from the local rivers backed up and entered the diked rice paddies. For we Alberta farmers, this type of agriculture was very interesting

From Georgetown, we went to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina. We crossed over the Cooper River on the beautiful new Arthur J. Ravenel , Jr. Bridge, which opened in 2005. It is now a ‘landmark’ of the city. Of course, after the numerous Civil War sites that we toured over the past couple of months, we felt it necessary to visit Fort Sumter in Charleston. Actually Fort Sumter is on an island in the Charleston Harbor, and is famous for being the location of the first shots fired in the Civil War. The fort itself was very interesting, but so was the 35-minute boat ride out to the island. We saw lots of sailboats and dolphins plying through the water.