Day 3 pretty cool but also a smoker

As I was finishing up yesterdays blog at midnight, I realized that I forgotten to check the ferry schedule from Charleston to Fort Sumter.  I brought up the webpage from the National Park Service and figured out that we had to there by 9am for a 9:30am departure. Otherwise we would be extremely late arriving in Gainesville Fl. The second departure time was at noon. So I left Lori a note in the bathroom, knowing that she would awake much sooner than me and then set my alarm for 6am. To my surprise, Miss Early Bird wasn’t all the early and she only beat me out of bed by 5 minutes.

We dressed, ate, and packed and were on the road by 8am and it was only about a 30 minute ride to docks. As we waited to board, we roamed around the small museum and walked around the docks to see the sights. The weather was warm but breezy but not so breezy that it made the water rough. The cost per person was $12 and the boat ride to the Fort was about 20 minutes. The only complaint that I had is that you only had 1 hour to tour the Fort and you had to leave. If I wasn’t on a schedule, I would have requested to be left behind and rode the 2pm boat back. Course then I would arrived 9pm or later in Gainesville instead of 6:15.

Fort Sumter, if you’re interested in history at all, is worth the trip. The facts, the strategies, the reason for building, the reasons for takeover, all were very fascinating. Should I disclose them here, or make you make the trip? If you do not want to know, stop reading and close this page.

Fort Sumter was suppose to be a 5 year project started in 1829 to defend Charleston from sea attacks because of what the British did during the war of 1812. There was no island to build on; just a sandbar and they had granite stone shipped in from New England to create a foundation.  The walls were built with solid brick 5 feet thick and 55 feet above sea level. A lot of things changed from 1829 to 1861, mainly that South Carolina was now part of a new country. The North Country built the fort, but South Carolina wanted it. They tried to negioate a peaceful transfer, but on December 26th, 1860 when Major Anderson moved his Northern troops in the middle of the night into the Fort, the people and government of Charleston were a little upset when they saw the Stars and Stripes flying over the Fort first thing in the morning.  Needless to say by April 1861 things completely fell apart and the Civil War began.

The Fort when it was almost complete, it was never finished before war, was a sight to see. It was impossible for a ship to pass without being destroyed and the Fort was so well built, that you could fend off almost all attacks. By 1863, the Northern forces had new Rifle cannons that would reach 3 to 5 miles and had them setup on shores out of harm’s way and then laid siege on the fort.  The Northern forces fired over 44,000 rounds totaling over 7 million pound a shells but never defeated the Southern troops. The Fort itself was almost totally destroyed except for the lower levels. Once the Southern Troops could no longer get critical supplies to defend the Fort and the City of Charleston, they abandoned the Fort and left it and the city, to fall to the enemy.

All pictures today are on the Fort and the surrounding area. Charleston is a city I will put on my list of cities that I will have to come to for a week or more to see all the history that is there. More Forts, old churches from the 1700’s, buildings that also date way back and then you have things like the USS Yorktown an aircraft carrier docked in harbor waiting to be seen. The Yorktown, if I remember correctly, was almost sunk during the battle of Midway in World War 2. She was also a much decorated ship with many accomplishments.

After all the tourist stuff was done, Lori and I pointed south and headed for our long haul to Gainesville. It was hot, hot, and hot and I was wishing for a rain shower just to cool off. We crossed into Florida at 4:30pm and arrived in Gainesville around 6:15pm. Neither one of us felt much like a big dinner because of the heat, so we each got a salad, drank lots of water, and I had some Macadamia Cookies. I bought Lori one, but she didn’t want it and I wasn’t going to let that cookie suffer, so I ate it.

Tomorrow and next two nights, we will be staying here in Gainesville to see some sites here. We are in the home city of the Florida Gators, so I guess I should not wear my Virginia Tech stuff out an about town.  Enjoy the photos and I will enjoy my rest tonight.

Today’s mileage = 321
Total for the trip = 947

Day 4 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging