And off we go, at 6:45 AM we hit the road, headed for Charleston, SC for an evening with Max, our grandson. Both houses buttoned up, we will not be sleeping in our own beds for a month. A new bed every night and many of you know what a challenge that is for me. But onward we go, complaints in my back pocket. And if the bed is too hard, there is always a way to deal with that…a lot of wine and maybe something to help me relax a bit more.

Lindsay is attending a wedding in Charleston this weekend and we will be taking care of Max, since children are not invited. Scott was not able to be here, due to a pressing business matter in Boston. We are delighted to help Lindsay, and hey, what a wonderful opportunity to see Max. We have not seen him since Christmas.

So, the route took us up the familiar I-95 corridor most of the way. Nothing interesting to report there. About 70 miles out of Charleston, we turned onto Rt. 17 which brought us NE to the city. It was an unremarkable drive at first. We drove through about 40 miles of construction. It didn't slow us down much, but it had us weaving back and forth from the left side to the right, one-way over to two-way and back to one-way traffic, past piles of Carolina red dirt. It was an unhurried drive through lazy towns in the middle of nowhere. Edisto consisted of a post office, 2 single wides, a handful of small houses and a couple of gas stations. At least that is what we saw from the highway. At times the trees were so thick and tall and so close to the road, we lost satellite reception on the radio.

By the time we hit Ravenel we knew the sea was near by the names of the restaurants and businesses along the way. Then we saw the tidal marshes and finally the marina, home to many very nice boats. We crossed the river and into the historic district and drove around for a while to get a flavor of the city. I expected high rises and modern buildings. But that was not the case. We saw a lot of old buildings surrounding an upscale shopping district near Lindsay’s hotel on narrow King St. where cars, pedicabs and horse drawn tour wagons co-exist. I don’t think I would want to live here, but it was interesting to visit. Then back to our hotel to wait for the arrival of our guest of honor.

The evening with Max was a hoot. He played with Beamer like they were old friends. He got a meal and a bath and he finally fell asleep at 8:30. Lots of fun. Made for a good night’s sleep. Mine.