South Carolina - Day 6 - to Columbia

Newberry/I-26/Sumter NF KOA, Kinards

Thursday, 11 May 2023

For the second night in a row, I woke up at 1:50 AM and never was able to get back to sleep.  I knew this might make highway driving today a little tricky, but without knowing what night I would be able to sleep there was no point in delaying the drive.

today's highway route

today's route through Columbia

Google said the drive into town would take just under an hour, which meant I'd have a 2-hour+ round trip on the highway.  Add to that the number of errands I wanted to run and the sights I wanted to see - well, I left the campground before 7:30.

A reporter on NPR was describing a trek he'd taken with a guide through snow in the Rockies, and said it "looks like the rebel base on the planet Hoth."  What I found interesting was that he never explained where the reference came from, just assuming anyone listening would be familiar with Star Wars.

The drive was a little boring but quite pretty, with thick extensive mixed woods on both sides of the highway.

Columbia is lucky to have some interesting murals.  One of the best known is the Tunnel Mural, and I was there early enough in the day to find a parking place on the street nearby.  This was my first sight of it.

It was incredibly realistic, and I'm not sure how to convey how disorienting it was to see it.

A closer view.

I wondered whether anyone had actually driven into it - you know, at night, if they'd been drinking.

There were several others within walking distance, so Dext and I went looking for them.  We only found one, called Main Street Mural.

But while we were walking around, I found a few other things of interest.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out what these things were.
My best guess was that this was a smoking section and
those silver things were for depositing cigarettes.
Then I saw the plaque (below).

They're sort of bongo drums, for passers-by to play.

I couldn't figure out which building the first side of the sign (left) referred to, not knowing what a barrel roof looks like.

The second side of the sign (right) is further explained in the sign below.

text enlarged below

In the larger sign, the protester's sign mentions "the blood of Lennie Glover."  He was a theology student at nearby Benedict College, a Black school, and was one of those who sat at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro.  While he sat there, a white person stabbed him.  Fortunately, he survived, though apparently the stabber wasn't caught.  The sit-ins at Columbia drug store lunch counters followed those in Greensboro.

Simon Bouie (mentioned in the sign) was one of those arrested and convicted during the sit-ins.  His case, Bouie v. City of Columbia (mentioned on the historical marker), was one of several Civil Rights protests that arrived before the US Supreme Court.  In each case, the Court overturned the convictions, citing the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Though the students were disappointed that none of these protests resulted in the desegregation of Columbia, they still made a difference: not long after the Supreme Court rulings, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Not far from these sights was the First Baptist Church, designated a historical building for more reasons than its age.

First Baptist Church
I couldn't fit any more of the church's front into the frame than this. 
You can see the plaque (above) next to the front door.

I hadn't been able to find either the Soda City Market or the accompanying mural, which Google said I'd walked right by, but I guess I didn't know what to look for.  So I went back to the RV and walked around the block to find the World's Largest First Hydrant.  And it just wasn't there.  This is what I was looking for.

But all I could find was some roughed-up pavement in the spot I thought it should be.  Later I finally found online that the fire hydrant had been removed, though I never figured out why.  You can see the size based on the building behind it.  Too bad.

The South Carolina State House was only a few blocks farther on, but I was tired of walking and drove us over there.  Sadly, I wasn't able to get my own photo of it because of all the greenery around it, which you can see in this photo I found online.

South Carolina State House
built 1875

As I headed out of downtown to run some errands, I came upon a large, attractive building labeled "Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center."

fitness center

I still can't understand that name.  Strom Thurmond was a governor of South Carolina and then elected to the US Senate, where he spent the best part of 50 years.  He was still in office for his 100th birthday, though there were questions about his mental capacity by then and he didn't live much longer.  But he was known nationally as a staunch segregationist, which he characterized as supporting states' rights.  Because he served so long, he was quite powerful, and civil rights legislation was passed in the teeth of his opposition.  So okay, he was a very long-time public servant for the white portion of South Carolina, but to me that just isn't enough to justify naming such a prominent building in the state's capital for him.  But South Carolina apparently thinks it is.

I passed the campus of the University of South Carolina - attractive campus.

Somehow my personal information got onto a list saying I was a diabetic, and now I'm getting constant phone calls from people wanting to help me out with my diabetes, and my internet displays include several ads with really ugly photos that I'm not able to get rid of, also about dealing with diabetes.  I know there are a lot of people with my name, but I'm ready to strangle the person who decided that I - me - this particular person - should be targeted with information I wouldn't want even if I were diabetic.  Grrr.

I managed to find a PetSmart, very near a liquor store where I not only found a bottle of wine but also got a lesson in South Carolina's liquor laws.  The store consisted of 2 separate stores, separated by a wall-to-wall window but no communicating door.  One side was for beer and wine, the other for beverages of a higher alcohol content.  The clerk, when I asked, said this arrangement is required by law.  If you want both kinds of alcohol, you have to exit one store and enter the other - though they don't make you pay for the items separately, which seemed odd.

From there I got lost a couple of times but finally found an off-leash dog park in a pretty residential neighborhood.  The park was down in a deep bowl, and we had to park on a fairly steep hill alongside.  The walk to get there required some serious uphill leg-stretching, which Dext dislikes even more than I do.  But it was a nice park and we met some nice people and dogs.

From there we managed to get to the state museum.  Columbia relies a lot on one-way streets for its traffic management, and that makes navigating the city difficult for a stranger, but as I say we managed.  And I found a parking spot under a tree, so leaving the kids wasn't too worrisome.

South Carolina State Museum
Originally the Columbia Mills building.

This building dates back to 1893 or so and is thought to be the first textile building in the US to be powered with electricity.  The mill operated until 1981, and the state bought the building, which was put on the National Historic Register.  They're still remodeling it for the museum's use, but most of the work seemed completed.

My one complaint was that the entrance, which you can sort of see this side of the school buses, involved several flights of steep stairs.  By the time I'd toiled my way to the top, I was pretty winded and having trouble.  This asthma, coupled with my extra weight, is sometimes making things harder on me than I'd prefer.  In fact, a guard taking a break near the entrance ran ahead of me and punched the automatic door to help me in.  Guess I looked pitiful.  But I managed to make it

This building includes a planetarium and observatory, as well as the usual exhibits on state history, science and art.  This is clearly a place where you could spend at least a day (assuming you have the energy for all 3 floors), but I didn't have that kind of time (or energy).  I decided to stick to state history for this trip, and I was especially interested in their take on slavery and the causes of the Civil War.

Here are a few of the pre-war exhibits.

In SC, "upcountry" means the northwestern
area of mountains, forests and rivers.

And the Revolutionary War began:

Fort Moultrie was built of palmetto logs, those being the most plentiful in the region.  Palmetto is a spongy tree and, unlike something sturdier like oak, it didn't split during the British bombardment.  Instead, the cannon balls tended to bounce off or embed themselves in the logs, and this was credited for the surprising American victory that day.

Two illustrations of the realities of early war:

I had no idea these armies fought at such close range -
see description below.

Gen. Nathaniel Greene's army -
see description of painting below

Americans won the Revolutionary War and South Carolinians created a complex society:

The cotton gin was created in 1793, with Eli Whitney claiming it would obviate the need for slave labor.  Instead:

text enlarged below

text enlarged below

And then there was this peculiar custom among South Carolinian gentry of dueling:

In 1832, South Carolina passed the Act of Nullification, which would allow the state to ignore any law Congress passed that SC deemed unconstitutional or damaging to its interests.  The US president disagreed:

text enlarged below right

Then came the so-called compromises:

The Missouri Compromise

The Compromise of 1850 and the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

Meanwhile, Black people remained the majority population in the Southern states.

more text below

More text below sounds uncannily familiar to today's news.

With tempers flaring and dissention fanning resentment into more fuel, here came the match for the fire:

Results of the presidential election of 1860:

My photo cut off the electoral count, which produced a surprisingly different view from the popular vote:

     Abraham Lincoln        180 (more than half the electoral votes)

     John C. Breckinridge   72 (he carried all Southern states, + MD, DE)

     Stephen A. Douglas    12 (he carried only Missouri)

     John Bell                    39 (he carried only KY, TN, VA and WV)

And then secession came:

see map below

A daring escape:

the ship's pilot, Robert Smalls

The realities of war:

Blacks have always been the natural ally of
poor whites - something MLK tackled with his
Poor People's Campaign - but groups like the
KKK used violence to stop it.

The US reneged on yet another promise to
yet another oppressed group. 

South Carolina had 2 governors at once.

Post-Reconstruction's lack of success led to assuaging bruised egos with the Lost Cause mythology:

Of course the museum has several floors of other items of interest - art and settlers' tools and science (don't forget that observatory) - as I mentioned in the beginning.  But I was pooped, so I left and took Dext for a walk.

On the grounds we came across this display for Doolittle's Raiders.

This surprised me because I'd never heard of a connection between them and South Carolina, but I looked it up and found there is indeed a connection.  Here's an interesting account of that event.   https://www.scpublicradio.org/doolittle-raid-begun-in-sc

South Carolina calls itself The Palmetto State, because of the sponginess of the tree's logs protecting Fort Moultrie from the British way back in 1776.  So I've been curious which of the palms I've seen is the palmetto and figured this was at last my chance to know for sure:

a closer view

The palmetto palm - the bark looks more like
an elephant's hide than tree bark.

We walked around the grounds until we came across the children's museum and this wonderful sculpture in front.

see detail enlarged below

Shows pure joy -
at navigating the world of knowledge.

We stopped at a grocery store and headed out of town.

We passed an old building labeled "Palmetto Compress & Warehouse Co.," and I couldn't help but wonder what a compress was in this context.  Online I learned that this building, now on the historic register, was built in 1917 as a facility for compressing cotton bales.  So simple, once you know.

And I passed a business labeled "Gold Teeth Specialists," which was once again not a business I'd ever heard of.  But this time when I looked it up, all I got was a list of dentists in Columbia who implant gold teeth for clients.  I didn't know there was any reason for it to be a specialty, though apparently somebody thinks so.

A sign at a business said: "What do you get when you plant kisses?  Tulips."

On the way back north, road construction on I-26 blocked off both shoulders, leaving very narrow lanes that I had trouble navigating.  It put semis, which were going faster than the speed limit, close enough to the RV that, along with a rough road surface and strong crosswind, made it scary for me.  I was glad when we finally got past that area.

We passed lots of homesteads/plantations all over both today and everywhere in the state.

I'd decided to stop at Newberry at a BBQ place that was supposed to be good.  Newberry turned out to be a small town that looked almost like it belonged in an updated old western movie, and not many folks were out and about so I had no trouble finding a parking place.

At the BBQ place, I had a discussion with the young women (2 of them) at the front desk about whether their collard greens were good, which one of them assured me they were, so I ordered them, along with baked beans and ribs.  I suppose I should have checked what they brought me but it didn't occur to me - yet here's what I saw when I got back to our campsite:

Yep.  That's cole slaw, not collard greens.  I was really peeved - so peeved that I called the place back and complained, saying I was too far away to want to drive back but I thought they should know they've got one really unhappy customer and to be more careful when people order.

Then it turned out they didn't give me any containers of sauce, which the young women had assured me they would, and then I discovered the ribs were dry - they tasted like they'd been overcooked too many hours earlier.  So much for a chance to sample South Carolina barbecue.  What a waste of money.  And what a shame to end what had been a pleasant day like this.