Could Charleston be our new home?

It was on to Charleston and the KOA in Mount Pleasant. Coming to Charleston was like coming home. We found our old notes from our trip in 1994 and started to re-discover our favorite spots. We ate at The Wreck on Shem’s Creek – the best fried shrimp in the world.

We spent the day exploring Charleston – driving the streets and looking at the spectacular houses and neighborhoods. We stopped for lunch at Poogan’s Porch on Queen Street and I had their fried chicken salad – it was wonderful. We knew that this city was a possible “home base” for us so we met with a realtor in the morning and got an introduction to the neighborhoods, the market and got some listing sheets to give us the chance to drive around and get a bit more comfortable with the city. We looked at South of Broad, Harleston Village, Wraggsboro and Ansonboro. We grabbed lunch at Cru Café (another re-run for us) and it was wonderful to sit outside in 70 degree weather in November.

Thanksgiving Day- November 28th- We had the option of doing the traditional turkey dinner at one of the local restaurants, but opted instead to go to one of the two Indian restaurants in the city- Nirlep (which means ‘peace’ in Hindi). It was spicy hot and the perfect way to spend the holiday.

The day after Thanksgiving and it was time for some serious house hunting – we started with the $1.3M house on Pitt Street. It was simply stunning – double piazza, high ceilings, perfectly decorated with two “dependencies” in the back bringing in about $2000 in rental per month. They had incorporated the ruins of the old stable into a beautiful garden complete with potting shed. But, it was a bit too much house for us- and the price tag was just a bit too high. We went to a series of other houses, primarily in Harleston Village and they ranged from charming to over-priced. But, the house on Wentworth, however, got our attention. It was built in 1810 and moved to its’ current location (= new foundation). It had a grand piazza, 3 car garage, spectacular garden, 12 foot ceilings and was stunningly decorated (the current owner was an interior designer). They had a tragic story- they lost their oldest son in a car crash and the womans’s health went down hill. So, they were moving to be close to their other son in Tennessee. We loved the house – it had “oomph”.

We headed out to Bowen’s Island for dinner to talk about the house and whether we really wanted to get a house at this stage. We had many glasses of wine and a full dinner of shrimp and oysters and talked with the “chef”, Henry.

The next day, we drove through Sullivans Island and Isle of Palms, had a great lunch at the Banana Cabana. The beach communities here are done very tastefully. The housing stock was mixed, with huge houses on one side of the street and 60’s style housing on the other. But, the prices were well over $1M-and it’s still a beach community.

December 1st and the weather is beautiful- sunny, crisp days – sweater weather. We had a quiet Sunday morning- reading the paper and having a big breakfast. We had a few more houses to look at/drive by. Lina, the realtor, has ignored our $$ limit and had us looking at houses from well over our budget. We tried to do a modeling of the cost/benefit of the house on Wentworth- but still need some information to fill in the blanks. At lunch, Poogans Porch, we talked about a lifestyle where we would be always available to rent out the house. It might be a possibility- a justification to getting this beautiful house. But there was still that nagging doubt that we just weren’t ready for a house commitment yet.

We met with Lina at 10:00 and spent about an hour at the Wentworth house. Hoping that our second impression would find fault with the house, we found that we were still bowled over by the beauty of this place. It was truly “Debbie’s Dream House”. We took a look at a few other properties but nothing could compare to this house.

Myrtle Beach

Off to Myrtle Beach. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and the 85 miles went by quickly.
We made a stop at Camping World. It was filled with people over 55, mostly couples, wandering the aisles picking up “stuff”. Meanwhile, 50’s and 60’s music played in the background.
We opted not to go to one of the 5 or 6 huge “family campgrounds” in Myrtle Beach and headed to Huntington Beach State Park. The park was the only piece of property not completely overrun by ticky-tacky hotels, restaurants and shopping centers. It was beautiful- wooded campsites with trails directly to the ocean – all for only $19/night.

Since it was Friday night, we decided to go out for dinner. We stopped at Pawley’s Island Tavern and Restaurant- expecting a cheap dive. We got the dive part, but the cheap wasn’t part of it. It obviously catered to the northern transplants with $5 wine and $4 beers. But, the fish was fresh and wonderful.

Pawley’s Island claims to be “arrogantly shabby”. It was a mix of old and new style houses. The houses on the island itself weren’t anything to write home about, but they had both an oceanside and an inlet side with slips on the inlet side.

Georgtown was adorable- another Mayberry RFD town. The main street ended at the steel mill and the waterfront had a view of the paper mill. The housing was a mix of 1800’s and 1930’s architecture with only one street (2nd street) with any real charm.

We decided to look at one of the gated communities and get some sense of price and atmosphere. We stopped at “deBordieu”. It was awful- manicured grounds with a serious security system. They wouldn’t even let us drive through the community. Prices ranged from $600K and way up. We decided that even if resale would be good as babyboomers retire, we couldn’t live in a community like this.

We grabbed a pulled pork sandwich at Hog Heaven restaurant before heading north. We drove through Murrell’s Inlet which was basically one long row of seafood restaurants. Garden City was a mobile home park – streets lined with mobile home “communities”.

Myrtle Beach was the worst of Florida beach front. They even had mobile homes on stilts.
Note- The honky-tonk ocean development starts in NJ and goes all the way to Florida. The only exceptions are state parks and gated communities.

We drove through one of the family RV parks and were promptly horrified. It wasn’t hard to imagine what it would be like in the summer with every one of their 1400+ sites filled. In addition to the RV sites, they also had a trailer park where they added permanent additions onto their mobile homes.

We stopped to take a photo of the classic southern restaurant- SBB Burnout Saloon (the “Suck, Bang, Blow” – “Thaaatts Right”….

Exploring North Carolina

We had an appointment with the RV dealer in Wilmington for Tuesday at 7:30 am, so we stopped by to introduce ourselves and “build rapport”. Our first impression was one of extremely friendly and helpful people. It continued over our stay in Wilmington. Everywhere we went, we found people willing to go out of their way to help – and we found people who actually knew something about the area.

On Tuesday, we arrived at the dealership at 7:30 and they actually had us in on time and had the problem diagnosed within an hour. It meant ordering a part for the hydraulic line and rescheduling the work. The service we got was phenomenal. Becky, the parts guru, called Winnebago. When they couldn’t get the part immediately, she called the manufacturer who could ship it but would charge overnight shipping. So, she called Winnebago and got them to pick up the shipping. We scheduled the service for Thursday .

We spent the afternoon driving around downtown Wilmington. Even in the pouring rain, we could tell that it was our kind of housing and neighborhood. The historic district is the largest in NC and one of the largest in the country. The houses were typical Southern style- front porches on the sidewalks with brick. The streets were alternately paved with brick. Evidently there is an ongoing battle with the city who keeps trying to repave the streets with concrete – and the people in the neighborhood come out at night and clear off the concrete from their brick streets.

The next day, we took a look at properties on the Intracoastal Waterway. On the waterfront, the homes were beautiful- graceful split staircase entries going up one floor (to allow for hurricane flow-through on the ground level) and multilevels with decks overlooking the waterway. We called for a price check with a realtor- lots for $700-900, homes from $1.4M.

The Minnie Winnie was ready that afternoon. While we waited for them to finish up, we took a tour of the Class A and Diesel Pushers on the lot. What a selection- everything from $100-$450K. The high end coaches were gorgeous- 3 TV’s (plasma and flat screens), side by side refrig/freezer, convection microwave, granite countertops, marble baths, washer/dryer. You could easily imagine living full-time in one of these. The sales guy told us that you can count on about 20% discount off list - and then about 10% depreciation the first year.

They fixed the slider and the shower in about an hour and we were off. I finished shopping while John continued the march on “Humpty Dumpty”. We stopped for dinner at the local fish restaurant (owned by a guy from Boston) – fried catfish, hush puppies, baked potato, and cole slaw (and unlimited glasses of coke and iced tea).

We decided to spend one more day in Wilmingon. It was beginning to feel like home. We drove out to Wrightsville Beach. It was very tasteful (for beach property) – not at all honky-tonk. The houses along the Intracoastal were lovely and they had a number of good restaurants right on the water. We stopped for a quick lunch and a waterview before taking the trolley tour of historic Wilmington. After the tour, we drove around picking up realtor sheets. The price range looked good- historic homes still available under $300K. We stopped at one, built in 1930. They were asking $299 and it was small but lovely. It had a beautiful backyard with a 2 car garage and potting shed, original hardwood flooring, 10’ ceilings. It would need some work in the kitchen, but otherwise was in move-in condition. Two guys were looking at the property and probably made an offer on it. We had a nice talk with them and the realtor –getting the local input on the town, real estate, etc. We made one last stop at the Chamber of Commerce and got a relocation package. Then, we headed home through Wilmington traffic – it was pretty bad.
Note: Come back here in the summer – humidity can be dramatic.

The next day, it was time to leave Wilmington. We had a sunny day for our drive to New Bern. It was only 85 miles from Wilmington and we arrived at the Neuse River Campground to find another “Mount Doo-doo”. Most of the campsites were filled wth full time trailer folk. We parked on Squirrel Alley, right next to Bee Hive Trail and I took Mija for a walk to the river (trying to avoid the muck and standing water left over from the rain).

We took a drive to downtown New Bern to grab some lunch and check out the town. Trying to find anything open on a Monday afternoon was tough. The downtown area was deserted. We stopped at a restaurant claiming to be the home of Pepsi Cola.

The historic district of New Bern was absolutely charming- a mix of colonial and Victorian architecture. It had an Annapolis feel. Once again, there was a beautiful waterfront with virtually no restaurants or bars taking advantage of the views.

November 19th --We got up at 5:30 am to see the Leonid meteor shower. The next viewing won’t be until 2098.
That day we drove north of New Bern to a small town, Washington. It was a cute town with very inexpensive real estate. It reminded us of Havre de Grace – using their waterfront for a parking lot. The downtown was filled with empty storefronts. You definitely got a feeling of a depressed economy.
From Washington, we drove to the coast to the town of Oriental. It had gotten tremendous press in the guidebooks for it’s historic sailing charm. We completely missed any charm. We found the one restaurant in town that was open- Mis Sal’s Kitchen. It was like eating in an old age home- complete with a room full of senior citizens eating from a huge buffet (featuring ham, yams, cole slaw..)

From there, we took the ferry from Minnesott Beach to Cherry Branch and drove down to the Beaufort (BOU-fort, not BU-fort). Beaufort was a cute little resort town- only a few streets of restaurants and shops and a few streets of historic houses. Evidently the summer is packed with tourists. In November, there was no one on the streets.

We drove back through Morehead City and Havelock (a military town). The countryside is ticky-tacky –dotted with mobile home parks and gated golf communities. We had seen a young girl living in a trailer with her very large mother at Neuse River Campground. As we watched her going to and from school, we commented on how difficult it must be to live like that and deal with peer pressure at school. Driving around NC, we realized that living in a trailer park doesn’t have a stigma- it’s a way of life.

A few comments about North Carolina:
Coastal NC (except Wilmington) – you have to drive forever to get anywhere.
There are churches everywhere – Baptist, Pentecostal, and a host of denominations that we’d never heard of before.
Black and whites do not mix – not in the restaurants, stores, or bars. The blacks do not make eye contact with whites.
Life is country, cars, Christ, fuhball, fishin and firearms.
Bookstores (except Bible book stores) and computer stores are virtually non-existent. Auto parts stores and car dealerships are everywhere.
The Coastal plain is either swamp or scrub pine.
NYC has Ralph Kramden, Mpls has Mary Tyler Moore, NC has Andy Griffith. (They’re even building a statue to him in Raleigh)

We drove back to Morehead City for lunch at the “Sanitary” Restaurant. It was, again, senior citizens on parade. We’re not sure how much more fried food we can stand- lunch was fried fish, french fries, fried onion rings, fried hush puppies and unlimited ice tea or coke.
The Atlantic beachfront was nothing short of the best of honky-tonk Florida. The only quasi-quality place was Emerald Isle.

Staying at "Mount Doo- Doo" in Raleigh

Time to head to North Carolina. First stop- Raleigh. It gave us a chance to see an inland NC city and get to an RV dealer. It was another day of driving in the rain. It seems like every travel day is a stormy day. John stopped at every truck stop to try to get air in the tires. The tire valves that Winnebago supplied just wouldn’t work.

We arrived in Raleigh and headed to College RV. The dealership was filled with “good old boys”. They got us set up in their back lot/campground with some vague promises for “fitting us into the schedule” in the next few days.

We drove the RV back to the “campground” and discovered a whole new breed of “trailer trash”. We’d always thought of “trailer trash” as those folks living in mobile homes permanently affixed to the ground. These folks had travel trailers permanently hooked to their sites. For $270/month, they got a water, electric and sewer hookup. They wrapped their pipes for winter freezes, had used tire planter boxes (a lot with plastic plants) and some even had container gardens (growing vegetables). Most of them had barking dogs on leashes (and none of them cleaned up after the dogs). After a few days, we renamed the park, “Mount Doo-Doo”. We spent a lot of time cleaning dog shit off our shoes.

While waiting for the RV service, we explored Raleigh. It has an Atlanta feeling – shopping malls everywhere and huge roads to handle the tremendous traffic volume. The driving style is reminiscent of Nascar. Speeding is prevalent and they typically speed up and ride your bumper. They hate to be passed and speed up whenever you attempt to pass them. They also ride in your blind spot. It’s a very irritating driving style, not to mention being dangerous.

We spent most of the day shopping (seems like we do a lot of shopping in this new lifestyle). There’s always something that needs to be fixed, groceries that need to be replenished, etc). Fortunately, Raleigh was awash in Target, Home Depot, Kmart, WallMart…

We finally got to tour Raleigh's beautiful historic district, Oakwood. The neighborhood had a wonderful feel – quiet, tree lined streets with lots of houses with southern front porches. The houses were a mix of Craftsman and Victorian styles. North Carolina not only marks the beginning of the “south” in terms of attitude (Maryland and Virginia are more transitional states), but the housing also has the southern tradition of high ceilings (to deal with the heat).

We headed back to the RV to see if they’d been able to fit us into the schedule. Finally, at 4:30, they came to get the vehicle. They got it into the shop and got the tire valve extenders installed (and did a diagnosis of the slider problem). After the frustration of dealing with the dealer, we tried to find a restaurant for dinner. We settled on a Mexican dump across the street.

We headed to the coast in the morning. It was going to be a long day of driving, but we got an early start and it was fascinating to see the change in topography from Piedmont to Coastal Plain. We drove to Edenton (a town that most retirement books recommend). It was charming. The downtown was another Mayberry RFD main street. The housing was Summit-esque – large houses on beautifully manicured lawns. The waterfront housing was Big Chill-esque and the waterfront was truly spectacular. We searched for a restaurant with a water view- with no luck.

We had lunch at a little lunch spot and got the low-down from the locals. The real estate prices are rising- largely due to the influx of northerners and lots of homes are on the market with people trying to take advantage of the market prices. Hurricanes don’t appear to be a problem – no problems with tidal surges. They’re 1/5 hours from Norfolk (where most people go for serious shopping) and 1.5 hours to the beach. Although it was a beautiful town with wonderful housing and a great waterfront, it definitely felt as if it would close in on you in time.

We drove from there through Elizabeth City and onto the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks beach towns weren’t as honky-tonk as Delaware, but still beachy. We stopped at Kitty Hawk.

With another day in Raleigh, we took a trolley tour of historic Raleigh and went through the downtown area and Oakwood district. The downtown was virtually empty – void of life- on a Saturday afternoon. The only activity was around the City Market park (mostly blacks sitting around in the park and white people shopping in the cute little stores). The South is so segregated to this day. Whites and blacks live in completely separate areas, eat in separate restaurants and appear to have very little interaction.

We drove through several other areas of Raleigh proper. Cameron had a Cleveland Heights feel to it- housing built in the 1930’s. We also got some shopping done (shoes and rain gear for John). Cary, a suburb just outside Raleigh, was shopping central with every store known to man. We also found an ethnic enclave there –with a Korean restaurant and Indian grocery store. Dinner was take-out Korean (the woman in the restaurant couldn’t believe that we knew anything about Korean food- half of their menu was Chinese food and we ordered “off the menu”)

Dan and Joanne were in Winston Salem visiting their daughter, Meredith, so we decided to meet them for brunch. Another rainy day and horrifying NC drivers. We did find two truck stops along the way- a Petro and Flying J. We got a truck stop directory and marveled at the ammenities in these stops. Brunch was fun. Joanne kept us entertained – just by being Joanne. She told us that the first time she had ever been out of New Jersey was on a date with Dan. Her dad, a carpenter, thought a big outing was to take the family and drive Route 80 to see the progress. For a big treat, they’d stop by Dairy Queen on the way back for a cone. Jennifer, their daughter, suggested she write a book, “Life beyond Route 80”.

After brunch, we took a drive around Winston Salem. The West End was touted as their “historic district”. It was a Cleveland Heights-esque area and the downtown area was sterile (and dead –although it was a Sunday afternoon). The downtown looked and felt a bit like Rochester, NY.

On the way home, we stopped in Chapel Hill (home of the NC Tar-heels). It was definitely a college town (the campus looked a bit like the UofM campus without the beautiful old buildings and without the large city attached for life outside campus. We did find a NY Times and headed back to Mount Doo-doo.

Carry me back to old Virginia.....

Another rainy day- time to head out to Williamsburg, VA. We finally made it to the Jamestown Beach Campgrounds and set up camp. The campsite was viturally empty and immaculate.

We decided to take a look at several of the historic towns around Williamsburg. Smithfield was a gorgeous little town with some spectacular Victorians (and a ham packing plant). As with most of these small towns, they are very segregated. This town reminded us of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry. We had lunch at a bakery where they made their own bread (I had the Piggly Wiggly sandwich made with local salt cured ham).

From there, we headed to Portsmouth. The town itself was lifeless, but it had a beautiful section called “Olde Town”- with homes that reminded us of Dorcester. But they had done nothing with their beautiful waterfront- filled with high rise hotels and condos and no restaurants/bars.

Note- The driving style in Virginia is very Bostonesque- they all seem to be in a go-fast contest and the traffic density was similar to Boston.

We took some time to do errands. I had a two hour stint at the local laundromat- 4 washers full. They allow smoking so I’m not sure how clean our clothes smell. Meanwhile, John was working on the slider problem (the big "thunk" it made when it was retracted) and found it to be a leak in the hydraulic line. It seems to be a problem a day on the Minnie Winnie.

We’d heard that Richmond had the largest collection of Victorian homes in the country- so we headed off to find out. The reports were right. We drove through am area called Church Hill – it was reminiscent of a 1995 Charlestown. A collection of streets with beautifully renovated houses with mostly white residents surrounded by a black neighborhood with teens on the street corner. We drove to the Fan District which had the most amazing collection of Victorians ever. Monument Avenue was a Back Bay look-alike. Huge mansions going on for blocks. Several of the side streets were quite charming- a bit less imposing, but much more of a neighborhood feel. The streets were gas lit- with brick sidewalks.

Then, we tried to find a place to eat on the riverfront. There was absolutely nothing overlooking this beautiful river. Our conclusion was that we could find our perfect house, but never be happy in a city who so devalued their waterfront.