Goose Creek South Carolina

Posted on by Thor

I took a road trip to Goose Creek, South Carolina for my sister Shirley’s 80th birthday celebration. I drove on a day when I did not have an online class. I did the drive straight through in about 7 hours. I probably could have done the drive in 6 hours, but Google maps changed the route and sent me up I-95 for one more exit. I believe several roads were washed out so that might have been the reason. I may never know. After diving north for an extra 30 miles, I was directed to a side road and took that all the way back. That road did have some issue since it narrowed down to one lane and I had to wait for 15 minutes or so for the traffic to drive by before I could proceed.

I am staying in a Coleman Camper. It is pretty cozy. I found it via AirB&B. It is set up to accommodate two adults and two kids, but I am using it on my own. It is set up with WiFi but in opening this post to write, I noticed the internet is super slow. I need to teach a virtual course this afternoon via Zoom and I am hoping the connection speed does not put a kink in that plan.

My brother Don and his wife are going to stop by before class. He wants to drive south to Charleston for sight seeing. I am not sure if I have time for that before class. We will see.

 

South Carolina

Posted on by Thor

We took an extended weekend road trip to South Carolina to visit one of my sisters who lives there. As soon as my virtual 3pm class ended on Friday, we were out the door and into the already packed car. I brought along my laptop and iPad since I would be teaching from the Air B&B in South Carolina. Pan drove straight through and we were settled in before midnight. Torrential rain and fog made the last leg of the trip an adventure.

The Air B&B unfortunately was downwind of a paper mill which gave off an acrid stench. Indoors the small was less overwhelming. The place was pet friendly, so Donkey and Sprout were along for the ride. The living room had the largest TV I have ever seen on top pf a home made crate made from two by fours and plywood. We never once turned it on.

The next day Pam and out house guest explored Charleston, South Carolina while I taught virtually all day. For most students this was their last class, so they finished up paintings and drawing that had been in the works for some time. With the animation student I executed a walk which is a more complex assignment and I was pleased that he caught every nuance of what I was explaining through my sketches.

After my classes were over, I was picked up and we went to downtown Charleston for some ice cream and a ghost tour. The ice cream parlor was packed and we were the only people wearing masks. The streets as well were jam packed with people from wedding parties and pub crawls. As the evening wore on, belligerent drunks became the norm. I was almost attacked as a “Biden lover” for daring to wear a mask.

The painting above was done on our last day in Charleston. Before we left, we went on a Geo-cache outing. Geo-caches are tiny canisters hidden at geo-coordinates. Apparently inside are little trinkets and a note pad. I helped search for the first one at a busy interaction but we never found it. After that I decided to settle in under a tree and just sketch the park entrance to a development. It was getting hot and sketching seemed preferable to the search.

Time was limited so I sketched quickly. They found about three Geo-caches while I worked on this. Charleston is a gorgeous city to sketch with all it’s historic architecture but we were in and out for this quick weekend trip. My sister has sketches I had done on a previous Charleston trip hug in her living room. They were decent sketches and they made me yearn to do more. It is probably better to sketch in the fall and or winter when it isn’t over 90 degrees every day.

My visit with my sister was amazing. We discussed family history and she has so much research which verifies and expands on the research I have been doing. I am certain we only scratched the surface, but we are in contact all the time via Facebook and messenger. The important thing is we can now view my research on line so she can see info I might have that she hasn’t seen yet. I was going to contact a church in NYC to try and locate some baptism and marriage records for a family. The churches web site said that it cost $50 for them to try and find a record. I knew there would be records found so I was considering the option. It turns out my sister had done all this research years ago, she had a folder full of the exact records I was hoping to find. I counted 23 records. Multiply that by $50 each, and she had $1,150 worth of records which they gave away back in the day. Figuring out the branches with thousands of names became a bit overwhelming, but now we can narrow conversations down to one question at a time.

The Yorktown

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The Yorktown aircraft carrier is harbored in Charleston, South Carolina. It is one of the ships that can be explore at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum (40 Patriots Point Rd, Mt Pleasant, SC 29464). One thing that is difficult to convey in just one sketch is just how huge this ship is. The upper deck must have been several football fields in length.

Patriots Point Development Authority was established in the 1970s to
develop the naval and maritime museum on Charleston Harbor with the
World War II aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown as its centerpiece. It’s
also home to a fleet of National Historic
Landmark ships, the Cold War Memorial and the only Vietnam Experience
Exhibit in the U.S., the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and the
agency’s official Medal of Honor Museum. Patriots Point strives to preserve the living history of our nation’s
bravest men and women while telling their stories in honorable,
educational and engaging ways.

We explored the inner bowls of the ship winding up metal staircases and narrow passageways.  It felt liberating to get out on the huge open each, so I  took some time to settle in and sketch.

Every section of the ship has been converted into a museum to showcase the history of the Yorktown and ships like her. Initially to have been named Bonhomme Richard, it was renamed Yorktown while under construction to commemorate USS Yorktown (CV-5), lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Yorktown (CV-10) was commissioned in April 1943, and participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.

Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, it was modernized and
recommissioned in February 1953 as an attack carrier, and served
with distinction during the Korean War. It was later modernized with a
canted deck and eventually became an antisubmarine carrier and
served for many years in the Pacific, including duty in the Vietnam War, in which it earned five battle stars. Late in its career, it served as a recovery ship for the Apollo 8 space mission, and was used in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! which recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Solar Eclipse

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Getting to witness a complete solar eclipse is rare. When I found out a solar eclipse was coming, I researched where the path of totality was as it passed across the country. The narrow band crossed over Charleston, South Carolina. I have a sister who lives in Charleston so I gave her a call. Then I researched the best places to witness the eclipse and I found out about Joe Riley Stadium the home of the River Dogs. The stadium opened early before the game so that fans could watch the eclipse.

Pam and I found solar glasses well over a month before. We drove up to South Carolina with John Naughton and his nephew. The road trip itself was fun with a few short stops along the way, including an amazing restaurant in Savannah Georgia. My sister agreed to join us on game day to watch the eclipse. It felt good to share such a rare event with family.

I expected huge crowds approaching the stadium but parking and getting in proved effortless. Once seated, we got a few hot dogs and waited. Announcers kept track of the eclipse progress sharing video on the jumbo-tron screen. A drone hovered over the field watching the crowd and the players lounged on top of their dugout to watch as well. Hundreds of people watched the sky with their solar glasses. Some kids had built their own solar pinhole devices which projected the eclipse on a white card for viewing. The last time I witnessed a solar eclipse I was maybe 10 years old and made a similar pinhole viewer. A group of students also launched a weather balloon high above the field. Rumors circulated that Actor Bill Murray was in the crowd. A face painter was busy painting solar eclipse themes faces.

It took quite some time for the sun to completely block out the sun. When it did the stadium grew quiet. Even the birds stopped chirping. It was a reflective moment. This crowd seemed small compared to the grand scale of the universe. Gaps between leaves in the trees acted as pin hole viewers projecting crescent shaped images all over the pavement. Just as the day had grown pitch black, it slowly illuminated again. Once the sun was out, the game got under way and went on right until sunset. The sunset was glorious and golden behind the bleachers.

Naval Shipyard

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Terry wanted to go for a walk so my sister Shirley drove us to the Naval Shipyard in Charleston. The Shipyard was in operation from 1901 to 1996. A developer by the name of Noisette had a vision to develop the former shipyard into a hip urban neighborhood with luxury condos and a trendy shopping district. Money to finance this Dubai dream ran out. The one thing that was built was the riverfront park which honors Navy veterans through the years. One feature I really like is a black concrete rivulet which runs in a gentle arch from a main fountain. I was drawn to this statue of a couple re-united after war. It reminds me of a famous V-Day photo taken in Times Square.

This park was going to be the home base for a fireworks display on July 4th. There were several dozen construction site mobile lighting units waiting to be set up. Shirley joined Terry on the walk and I worked quickly. I read one plaque that said that this Naval Shipyard was a major manufacturing site for naval mines. When Terry finished her walk, it was time to go.

Charleston S.C. Fountain

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Terry and I drove to Charleston, South Carolina for the July 4th weekend. The city was jam packed full of tourists probably because there was a Carnival Cruise ship docked on the riverfront. We sat on a park bench and watched the ship pull out while hundreds of people on the dock waved. Terry suggested I sketch the fountain while she strolled around and looked at the riverfront architecture. This fountain was constantly filled with screaming children. It was like having 20 fire hydrants turned on all of them pointing towards a central platform.