South Carolina Connings

South Carolina

Ohh boy. South Carlonia was buckets of fun. Me and Nick got into some mischief, the early stages of becoming dignified con-men, really. Okay, so it started like this: We start driving south from VA with noplace in mind. We're hungover, terribly unwell rested, and ready to seek adventure. We realized that there wasn't much between Staunton and South Carolina so we pulled off in Charlotte, NC, and grabbed some beers at The Flying Saucer. Here's my advice to you: do that. Place is dope. Tons of high quality draught beers, reasonable prices, and pretty much everything to do in a bar ever (pool, darts, chess, checkers, sports, food, beer...). If you become a member there, they keep track of all of the beers you try. Should you be one of less than 1000 people so far to try over 200 different beers, they give you a gold plate with your name, number person you are to accomplish this feat, and a little quote from you. Then they hang it on the wall, hence the name “The flying saucer.” We had a few drinks, sat around and sobered up for a few hours, grabbed food, and continued southbound. That's literally all we did in NC. That's why it doesn't get it's own blog post! Ha! Honestly though, we were in the area surrounding UNC, and it seemed pretty bland.

Anyways, we headed south through South Carolina for some time, and decided to start figuring out a sleeping situation. We went to Andrew Jackson National Park, hoping to camp. It was closed. (Bullshit. Andrew Jackson would have let us in! Poorly titled park. I don't care what history has to do with it, for shame.)

So, in a pinch, we called 411 and asked if there were any campgrounds that were open and nearby. The guy told us that Ridge view park was open. So to Ridge view park we went. It wasn't nearly as close as the guy said (5 vs 35 miles... Thanks, info dude). We passed several campsite signs on our way, but decided to trust this guy. Turns out that was dumb. It didn't look like anyone had camped at this “campground” in decades. It was a “campground” behind and AM PM that was closed at 11 pm. What the hell AM PM? I thought you guys were open 24 hours, I thought that was your THING. Oh well, you're supposed to register to camp at the closed AM PM, for the campsite that barely exists. It was eerie, there was one car present at the alleged campsite. It had an AC in the back window. It had a CRT TV, 32” (maybe bigger) on the hood. Whoever was there, they weren't leaving for awhile. I don't know. A lot about that place screamed bloody murder. We were in the sticks of SC, at a faux-campsite behind a gas station. I made the executive decision to, instead, investigate one of many parks we had passed in between our two failed attempts at somewhere to sleep.

So a little north we went. We went looking for the Waterlee campsite. It, too, was in the middle of nowhere, but that's okay. We were struggling to find the actual campsite entrance within the Park, but when we did... oh boy. Jackpot.

We went through an open gate that says “Gate closed 10 pm – 6 am” at about 2 am. We drove around the mostly empty campgrounds. There were a few RVs, not many tenters. We pulled up to one of the spots, effectively poaching a campsite for free as our arrival was anything but legitimate (and thus we did not pay). We set our alarms for 5 am, so we could get up and leave through the “closed gate” and not have to pay.

This campsite was beautiful. It was right on a lake, very quite, very cool. I would totally go back to legitimately camp sometime. But anyways, we left, scott-free, and began an amazing day of con-men shit in South Carolina. We drove south towards Charleston. We saw a sign for lodging off an exit – Hampton Inn. You guys know what Hampton Inn's have every morning? Both my father and Nick's step-mother told us before we left: continental breakfast. We decided on rolling in like we run the place, taking some free breakfast, and getting back on the road. We were prepared to do exactly that, until one of the women running the continental breakfast asked us outright - “Ya'll want breakfast?” “Hah, yeah!” no sleuthing necessary :coolface:. We loaded up on food, and set south for Charleston again.

Finally, we get to Charleston at about 9:30 a.m. What a city. Incredible, blown away. I walked into a hotel to snag some free wifi and figure out what the hell was going on. I rendezvoused with Nick once the deal had been discovered. We walked around looking for two places people had told us to go. Neither were open. But right near failed attempt #1 was a brewery called South End Brewery and Smokehouse. Awesome. But closed until 11:30, so we meandered.

Charleston is right on the water, there's no beach though. It's really pretty, lots of expensive estates by the water that were totally breathtaking. Uptown from there you get to college-kids-ville. There's a main road that's full of your typical city clothing stores, and a bunch of little odd places that are totally worth walking into, mainly because everyone is so damn nice there. Some woman literally yelled to Nick and I from her store, out to the street, to get us in for free fudge. Awesome, and delicious.

We walked through the college area, I think, it must have been. High volume of very attractive women. And found ourselves over by Market street. Market street is awesome. It's like 3 – 5 blocks of people in the area's craftworks. For sale. Handwoven baskets are big here, but there are all sorts of trinkets and knick knacks for anyone. It was really cool, gave me a sense of community for the area, reminded me of Burlington in that way.

After meandering, we went back to the South End Brewery Smokehouse and had a few drinks. Excellent beers, and really good pulled pork sandwich.

Once we felt we had seen the city of Charleston, we decided to head to Hilton Head island, South Carolina, to do more conning.

My family vacations here every year, so I'm familiar with the area. We parked at the Westin, because there's no gate guy there. We walked right through the hotel like we were guests, and out onto the pool area. We went onto the beach, where Nick stayed. I went over to the Barony Beach club and took a nap under the sun. They literally have beds out in the “lay in the sun” areas there now. That was new to me, and quite a delight. Wasn't expecting a nap on a queen sized bed that afternoon, especially not out in the sun.

After my nap, I went for a dip in the hot tub. I relaxed for a bit, and then decided to cool off by swimming in the pool. After my swim, I decided to go into the Barony beach club and use their showers. Once cleaned, I headed back to find Nick. He was back over at the Westin, lounging in the sun. We decided to get on our way to Savannah, but before we did, we filled up 3 large gatorade bottles with Limeade the Westin had made for their guests and put in the lobby. Filled up on that shit. Delicious.

After our day of 5-star living for $0, we went to McDonalds to use free Wifi and figure out what to do next. I found out that Hilton Head Island, SC, had a brewery. I asked Nick how he felt about it, and a man who had previously been puking in the bathroom walked by and suggested we don't go there; that their beers are shitty. We asked him if he knew of any Breweries in the Savannah area. He told us to go to Moon River brewery, and that's exactly what we did. More on that next post! Georgia!

See you on the road.