So, I’ve been in Port Royal, SC about 10 days and things have not gone as smoothly as I would have liked. Still, it has been an interesting experience, and this area has a lot of interesting recreational and historical opportunities that I hope to explore over the next few weeks.
I arrived after an uneventful trip from my home in Ohio on a Thursday afternoon. I met my VRBO host Debbie at the property and unpacked my car. The rental is a separate building that was probably once a two-car garage. It is nicely appointed with a large kitchen, eating area and living room in an open space at the front door. There is also a nice size bedroom and full bath with a washer and dryer in a separate closet.
I will be here for five weeks, so having laundry facilities is a great convenience.
The first night I arrived, I decided to treat myself to dinner at the Fish Camp restaurant. I ordered sea food pasta, and it was excellent. The restaurant was packed, and I had to sit at the bar to eat, but the service was great. After eating the large salad, the pasta dish was so large I had plenty left over for next evening’s dinner.
After a good night’s sleep, I went to a Food Lion store the next day to stock up on groceries and snacks. While driving to the store, I took a wrong turn and ended up the main gate for the Marine base at Parris Island. After I stored the groceries, I drove around town to get acquainted with things.
Port Royal has a population of about 14,000 and it is situated on a peninsula between Beaufort, SC and Parris Island. It is a primarily residential community, where people are allowed to drive golf carts about town. Paris Street, the main street through the middle of town, has a unique speed limit of 22 miles per hour. The speed limit on side streets is 15.
On Friday, I began to have a headache, runny nose and coughing. I looked at the hood of my dark blue Honda CRV and noticed flecks of yellow powder—tree pollen. That pretty much shot the weekend as I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. I did watch some hoops on Saturday after Brian helped me set up Dish Anywhere on my computer. I still didn’t use the large TV much because it is Roku and not regular cable or satellite.
Sunday was the day the time shifted to Daylight time, and it was cool and rainy and dark in the morning, so I slept in until almost 9:30. I downloaded the Akron Beacon Journal and spent the rest of the morning reading that and some online news sites. That afternoon, I drove up to Beaufort. The main street is lined with shops, art galleries and restaurants and it was very crowded. The weather was not conducive to going to the beach, so the tourists went shopping instead.
I went back to the house and decided to do some reading. Pam gave me a book before I left called “The Other Einstein” the book is a well-researched historical novel about Mileva Maric of Serbia, who became Einstein’s first wife. According to this book, she was an excellent student and met Albert when both were in graduate school. She was also majoring in physics at Zurich and the story goes that she was intellectually his equal and that her insights contributed to Einstein’s theories.
The rest of last week was spent finishing the Einstein book, watching conference tournaments and getting some rest. I attempted to pair my MacBook with the TCL Roku TV, but I was unable to get it to connect. Finally, I went to a local Walmart and bought a USB-C to HDMI cable, and I will be able to watch March Madness on a larger screen.
In addition to my pollen woes, I discovered that the local beach on the Beaufort River is closed until late April for improved parking and access. I did find another park nearby on the river called Fort Frederick. It has ruins of the fort that was constructed of seashell concrete and a nice, large shelter. I hope to go there to write to get a change of scenery.
That’s all for now, but there will be more later.
