Jan. 16, 2014: Tonight, we are in St. Helena Island, SC, in a campground by the name of "Tuck in the Wood." It is about 165 miles south of Huntington Beach.

B and I were having such a good time in Huntington Beach that we forgot what day we had to leave. We thought it was on Friday, but it was actually Thursday, Jan. 16. Last night as I was making an entry in a travel log that I keep, I suddenly realized that we had to leave our site in the morning. 

We had a couple of things planned for today, but since some of it involved eating seafood, it was no problem to postpone it to a different day or to a different place.

We left the campground at 10:00; on the side of the road, as we approached the causeway, a brown pelican stood, as if to say goodbye.
On the way here, we made a stop in North Charleston at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center where the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley is on display. The only problem was that it is only on display Saturdays and Sundays. 
Finding this location proved the value of OnStar. Without it, there was little chance of finding the building where it is kept on the Old Charleston Naval Base.

We returned to US-17 toward Beaufort, SC. The road passes through flat pine forests, swamps, past long deserted businesses, and over some wide waterways on some fairly high bridges--B's favorite thing. The road in some places, just outside Charleston, was lined with empty stalls that advertised the sale of sweetgrass basket. We imagine during the summer that these stalls are stocked and open. Today we only saw one stall with baskets being offered. We are not sure how they get people to stop since there was no parking area at the side of the busy two-lane highway.

We crossed onto the island of St. Helena and stopped at the first non-fast food franchise place to eat that we came to.  It was about 2:30. It was called Blue Dog Cafe, in the town of Frogmore. The signs outside also offered locally made crafts and furniture. The eating section was at the back of the shop.

B and I both had low country gumbo; shrimp, andouille sausage, okra, tomato, peppers, and other stuff, over rice. Very spicy and very good. With our bellies full, we browsed the shop. B talked to the couple who own the shop to find out how to cook okra without it being slimy. She got the info she needed. The man had been a pilot of Braniff Airlines and he used to operate Manchester Air in NH. His wife's parents lived in Portsmouth, NH and her sister lives in Keene. It has been amazing how many people we've talked to that have connections to NH.