After spending a few days in the strip-mall beach towns of North Carolina, the now healthy Julian, and myself were heading into The South. We entered South Carolina with the distant hope of staying at an old plantation, taking in the turbulent history of the south and eating some of their famous BBQ, and gumbo.What we found far exceeded either of our expectations.
We stayed at Mansfield Plantation Inn, a rice plantation dating back to 1718. Paying $200.00 for our luxurious lodging had given us the keys to this once prosperous plantation, it's thousands of acres were ours to explore for the day. The next morning we had our first 'grits' breakfast (a southern breakfast too heavy for me to eat at dinner) in the formal dining room, once again the hefty price of the room had afforded us access into this elite world. This turned out to be the
plantation where many scenes of 'The Patriot' had been filmed.
We spent the next day visiting Middleton Place, a rice plantation that was for the most part burnt to the ground during the civil war. The grounds here, had been meticulously maintained; they had originally been a 30-year slave labored project of the Plantation's matriarch. We caught our first glimpse of an alligator here, sunning itself on the edge of the perfectly trimmed grass, two worlds somehow managing to coexist.
We spent some time in Charleston and Savannah simply... charmed. We took ourselves on historical walking tours and managed to see an open home, taking in the opulence their histories had afforded them. The streets were full of wealth; breathtaking homes, luxury cars, tea and coffee shops, and boutiques galore. Leaving town, I was surprised to see the the wealth ended abruptly, and The South's history of segregation still existed with clear physical boundaries.
