May 13-16, 2014 Georgetown, SC

Since we arrived early in the day on Tuesday, squared away the boat and headed into town for lunch. Georgetown is a small town on a short river off of the Wacamaw River. There is a steel mill, paper mill and a large tourist business. We ate at Thomas Café, where the locals eat and "everybody knows your name". We were the only "strangers" in the place. Ger had his "Shrimp and Grits" again and Judie had her best burger of the trip. Here is a little info on the city and clock tower.

 

 

After lunch we headed to the "Rice Museum". We never realized the amount of rice grown in this part of the South. In 1850, 40% of the Worlds rice was shipped from Georgetown! There were 150 plantations on the River going north and close to 500 in the county. It all went away with the end of slavery after the war, but did much for Georgetown prior to that. The water management technology came mostly from the slaves who raised rice in their native Angola, Africa. Machine Milling was added by the local folks. Could not take photo's except for these of the recovered boat used to hall rice and supplies to and from the plantations.


Note small model inside salvaged boat.

We then headed to the Maritime Museum for more history lessons. Ship-building was also a local business as there was much Cyprus, Oak and Old Pine in the area, and Georgetown was a popular Atlantic port as the water runs deep from bank to bank in the river.

The ship Henrietta being loaded.

Lumber strapped to the deck during shipment

Next it was our typical carriage tour - this time pilled by a Jeep. Georgetown houses are not as large as Savannah, nor as fancy as Charleston, but represent the smaller towns in SC.

The house below was built for VP Aaron Burr's daughter.

Indigo was a big crop before rice. Most of the product was shipped to England to dye military uniforms - thus we have "Navy Blue". There is still and Indigo Society that meets in this building and is a service organization to Georgetown.

Next day, Wednesday, Ger sent some Fed-X packages to AZ Dept. of Motor Vehicles and to the Honda dealer in Daytona trying to wrap up the on-going saga of buying a car out of state and while traveling. Then a bicycle run to the hardware and grocery stores. After lunch at The Old Fish Store (She crab soup was great) we toured the County Museum (again no pictures) and furthered our knowledge of rice, boats, and people. This is really a fascinating little community and if any of you get close - it is worth at least a day of exploring.

 

We decided to spend another day here - weather was turning bad and no need to cruise in thunderstorms. Judie did some laundry, Ger hit the grocery store, we cleaned house a little, and hit Wild Fish for lunch and a few cocktails. Received over 2" of rain and it continued well into the evening.