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The Angel Tree Back in early "COVID Days", my wife and I had planned on celebrating our 47th wedding anniversary by flying to Spain and walking the Camino de Santiago together, sometime in May of 2021. Well, May 2021 arrived and COVID is still here, so we had to make different plans. My wife decided she would love to spend some time in Charleston, South Carolina, so we started making plans. Originally we had planned on spending the 18th thru the the 20th of May there, but the start of my Golden Seniors summer bowling league was the 20th, and my wife didn't like the idea of rushing home on the 20th, so we changed the dates to the 17th thru the 19th. I made a reservation at the Charleston Grand Hotel, then noticed how many bad reviews they had for location and cleanliness, so I cancelled those reservations and made new ones at the Red Roof Inn Plus in Mt. Pleasant, just North of Charleston.
We left home around 8am, figuring to make it to Charleston by about 11am. The South Carolina DOT had different plans and decided to do roadwork on a long stretch of I-26. It took about an hour
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"The" Bridge extra just to do that part. My daughter Serena had brought over a gift bag and a very large pot of flowers for us to drop off at her in-laws place in Charleston, so we decided to drop them off first. Being after noon by this point, we decided to eat lunch, at a nearby Zaxby's. I thought I'd ordered the boneless wings, but ended up with their original wings, which were a bit tough, with little meat. My wife had already decided on a couple of tours/places she wanted to visit, so we went to the Joint Air Base to see if their MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) had any discounted tickets. We ended up getting tickets to the Ft. Sumter tour, the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, and a carriage ride.
After leaving the base, my wife wanted to visit the Angel Tree before heading to the motel, so we plugged the location into her phone and away we went. The Angel Tree is a very famous 400-year old oak tree, located South of Charleston. You have to take a rather rough dirt and gravel road to get there, but it is more than worth it. This tree
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View from our motel, The Red Roof Inn + is humongous, with many branches stretching waaaay out, reaching the ground, and continuing from there. Very impressive!
By the time we left the Angel Tree, it was after 3pm, so we headed to our lodging across "the" bridge to Mt. Pleasant. I say "the" bridge, because that is how my wife referred to it. It is a rather unusual and neat looking bridge, I will admit. By the end of the day, my wife had taken dozens of photos of it from various angles and locations, and even at night. Our room at Red Roof Inn was pretty decent, with a king size bed, TV, shower, etc., but it didn't have a coffee maker or even a microwave, and they don't serve breakfast. They do have a swimming pool, and WiFi, so it wasn't so bad. The only real criticism I can make is that the door key card is very particular or tricky, taking numerous tries before working.
After stowing our gear, we took a walk to the bridge (remember "the" bridge?) and walked to the peak of it and back down, with my wife taking numerous photos along the way. When we returned to the room,
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"The" bridge during our walk it was getting close to dinner time. I brought my $50 Red Lobster gift card that I'd gotten for my birthday in April, but decided I was too tired and blah to enjoy it tonight, so we'll go their for dinner tomorrow. Instead, I drove up the road a ways to buy drinks in Aldi's, then stopped at Wendy's on the way back. After dinner, my wife wanted to take some more photos of the bridge at night, so we eventually found a good location to park near the foot of the bridge.
Tomorrow, we plan on doing all three tours, along with Red Lobster for dinner.
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Doc Smith
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“The Bridge”
Really great photo of the bridge at night.