It’s slightly less than 7 hours from Birmingham to
Charleston but you lose an hour going east.
I “worked” a full day on Thursday, stayed home that night then hit the
road early on Friday. The route was I-20
to Augusta then I decided to take the back roads and skirt past Columbia via US-278. The distance was shorter, but it may have
taken slightly longer due to occasional small towns. I still enjoyed it as the scenery was very
nice. As planned, I arrived in town by
late afternoon to find a cloudless sky with temps in the low 90s.
My walking tour included the Historic District through King,
Market and Meeting Street. I stopped at
the Marion Park then went down to the harbor just before sunset. Dinner was a high priced but tasty burger at
a fairly high-end restaurant bar. You’ll
find that just about every street is lined with palmetto trees with several historic
churches and cathedrals. There is some
Spanish moss but not nearly as much as in Savannah. The next morning, I went for a junk run at
the harbor to Battery Park and its military monuments.
After getting cleaned up, it was just a 15-minute drive to Folly
Beach. I normally prefer Isle of Palms
but heard about parking restrictions plus rumor has it that the surf is usually
better at Folly. If anything, the surf
may have been a little too rough. The
waves broke too deep, and those rides were bumpy too. However, if you stayed a little closer to the
shore, you could still catch some long and epic rides all the way to the sand. If you prefer white sand and clear water,
stick to the Gulf Coast. For more
consistent surf and longer rides on the board, go with the Atlantic coast. Since I gain an hour on the way back, it may
be possible to do this on an overnight trip in the future. Nah, I’d probably need 2 days.
At any rate, I had to cut this session a little shorter than
I would have liked in order to make it to Savannah at a decent hour. It was a surprisingly boring 2.5 hour drive
south on US-17. Not much there in terms
of scenery but I made it before dinner time.
This time, I splurged a bit with a Holiday Inn hotel on Bay St. just
above the river. My evening consisted of
a full tour of River Street, where I took advantage of the open alcohol
rule. I was up early the next morning
for walk through the historic district from Bay St down Lincoln to Forsyth Park
then Bush Street back up. I was treated
to beautiful live oak trees and yes, plenty of palms as well. The question as to which is my favorite of
the 2 cities remains unanswered.
Again, I had to leave a little earlier than I wanted in
order to steal a few more hours on the coast.
This time, the destination was Tybee Island. Georgia’s beaches are not as nice as Florida
or South Carolina but still worth a stop and usually a bit less crowded
too. Despite the approaching Tropical
Storm, the waves were a little calmer here today. Still, I caught many awesome rides all the
way to the sand. From there, it was a
manageable 6.5 hours back home. When I
left around 3:30, there was no sign of a coming storm. It was still mostly sunny with relatively
calm winds. I’m sure that I’ll do this
trip again someday with more time in each city.
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