March to the Sea - On to Charleston!

A tourist group explores Charleston by carriage. Note the absence of face masks. Later I would see a group of Asian tourists sightseeing in a similar manner, all of whom were wearing protective coverings. As Omicron cases explode, it was unsettling to see so many going about without any masks while we were traveling. 

Being in language training as I am doesn't provide for much time off (other than for doctor visits and surgeries, of course). Basically, there are only two periods when students can opt to use some of their accumulated annual leave. The first is around Thanksgiving (and during which we stayed a couple of nights in Wilmington, Delaware); and the other is the period between Christmas and New Year's. Regular classes are put on hiatus during these times, and students can opt to use the break to either participate in review lessons, or to take some vacation time. Being a conscientious student who has unfortunately had to miss some lessons and who therefore needs to consolidate what he has learned during the past four months, I chose to tell Mandarin to piss off while I had some fun. 

Which is why on the day following Christmas my family and I were on the road heading further south than we'd ever done so before. Except that it took a while to get anywhere on that Boxing Day. After initially being diverted off the freeway by Google Maps in order to get around an apparently nasty traffic accident, we found ourselves stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic at three different points along the way. The first two were on Interstate 95 outside Fredericksburg and Richmond, respectively. After clearing the latter snarl, we left the freeway at Petersburg to visit the Petersburg National Battlefield. I had hoped to do a driving tour of the battlefield where Union troops planted explosives underneath a Confederate breastwork, which resulted in the Battle of the Crater, but because it was getting late in the day, we made do with the visiting the small museum covering the opening attacks on Petersburg, the beginning of the longest siege on American soil: 

 

We also had a look round the remains of a Confederate battery which was quickly overrun by Union troops:

My daughter peers into the maw of the "Dictator", a massive 13-inch mortar that launched 218 rounds of explosive shells at Confederate defenses in Petersburg during a three-month period in the summer of 1864. According to the explanatory signboard, the Dictator was "militarily ineffective":

Taking a walk in the woods on a path circling the battery. The southern U.S. has been going through an unusual warm spell at the end of the year. Temperatures ranged in the upper 60's to the low 80's Fahrenheit during the day while we were there, and in the evenings a windbreaker was enough to stay comfortable:

Back on the road, and crossing over from Virginia into North Carolina, we encountered a third traffic jam of the day, this one leading into Rocky Mount, NC. It was here that we would spend the night, though it took a bit of an effort to secure a room. The first place where we enquired, the Courtyard by Marriott, was full. The Residence Inn next door had just one vacant room remaining, which we quickly snapped up.  The clerk had been apologetic, saying it was a studio with a single bed, and that Amber would have to sleep on a sofa hideaway, but the room turned out to be larger than some of the apartments where I lived in Tokyo, and the sofa was more than comfortable for our daughter! 

Shu-E noted there was a Cracker Barrel near the hotel, but my initial reaction (based on the chain's past controversies with LGBT and minority groups)  alarmed the girls at first. Seeing as the only other places close by were steakhouses, I convinced them to go. We checked out the kitschy Old Country Store while waiting for a table. My daughter was confused by all the Christian paraphernalia for sale. Welcome to the Bible Belt!:

 

Next to craft beer, I'm a fan of old-timey craft sodas:

When it came to eat, all three of us were pleasantly surprised. Eschewing the fried chicken and its 1690 calories, Amber and I both had the lemon trout, while my wife ordered the catfish. My vascular surgeon would've approved:

We were back on the road the following day, and not much happened during that time. I-95 is a particularly dull stretch of road in North Carolina, and despite all the billboards leading up to it, we decided to give South of the Border a pass.  In fact, the only places where we stopped were at a CVS and an Arby's somewhere in the North Carolina countryside (at the former, the clerk greeted an old couple by name, and asked the woman in front of us how her baby was doing); and at the Ice Cream Bar in Santee, South Carolina, where the fudge was too good to pass up:

It was close to 1630 hours when we finally arrived at our destination in Charleston, South Carolina, but the 1837 Bed and Breakfast was well worth the long drive. Our room was on the third floor of the 1798 Main House:

Our comfortable room came with a queen canopy rice bed for the wife and me, plus a smaller bed for our daughter, and an en suite bathroom:

After taking afternoon tea in the downstairs parlor, we set off on foot in search of dinner, passing by the 1760's Saint Michael Church, where George Washington sat in one of its pews in 1791:

We ended up at the Blind Tiger Pub, where I risked clogging my arteries with a fried chicken sandwich (what my vascular surgeon doesn't know won't hurt me), while taking advantage of the closeness of our B&B by enjoying their Coast Hop Art IPA (pictured) and a Revelry Lefty Loosey IPA. "Cheers" I say...:

 

To be continued...