Despite what I would consider pretty good planning…occasionally these best laid plans may need adapting. We’ve had to adapt a few bits on our itinerary over the past 10 days be it because places are shut or we wanted to see other places instead, so it should probably not have been a surprise when I saw that Fort Sumter shut at 5pm….our arrival time was 6pm. Pretty standard really 😂

The drive to Charleston, South Carolina was again, beautiful. The highway meandering through the luscious green trees. It was a 5 hour drive so we stopped a couple of times at the designated rest areas. Nathan has a taste for Gatorade over here so I thought I’d try it. Now these bottles are quite “chubby”. They have a big opening and a chunky base. I was drinking it was my mouth over the rim as I didn’t want to stain my top lip! I kept getting told to “put my lip in” which felt totally unnatural and ended up with about 10 minutes of raucous laughter as I was trying to drink this drink without spilling it, looking like a numpty or staining my top lip 😂. 

I was looking for hotels/motels for us to stay in with laundry service so we could do our 2 bags of laundry. I found one, an Econolodge, which also had a swimming pool! Ok, admittedly it was about 4ft by 4ft and completely in the shade, but still. 

We parked out front whilst I went to check us in. I found out we had been out in a smoking double room but Richard, the great bearded manager behind the desk “upgraded” us to a non-smoking king room for free! Woop! Best bit was we could park right outside! Whilst I was checking us in he took a call from a room near where they were jetwashing to say that they had a flood coming through their room! Luckily we got moved as we were originally their next door neighbour! We got settled and then as I was coming out the bathroom (excuse the detail) after flushing the chain, the water poured and poured and poured out all over the bathroom floor! It must have been about an inch deep and completely flooded the bathroom floor which was quite an achievement as the bathroom was quite large! On the phone to Richard I go asking for a mop and bucket. He sent two maintenance men round with lots of towels to soak it up 😂😂😂 whoops!

So what was on the agenda this evening? Our first trip to a laundromat! How exciting 😊. We googled which laundromats had the best reviews and decided to go with Nancy’s laundromat approximately 1.5 miles from the hotel. A standard few missed turnings and pulling over because Nathan didn’t believe we were going in the right direction despite me using google maps, we eventually got there and headed on in with our washing. 

We were greeted by a lady who we can only assume was Nancy and clearly because we had such gormless looks on our faces she asked if she could help. Yes! Tell us how to use these machines! She explained and yet we still stood there looking bewildered! We picked a machine and loaded it all in (yes, darks, colours, whites you name it it went in!) ah..we were missing a vital component…detergent! Luckily Nancy came to the rescue again and supplied us with some for just $1.75!

We put it on a warm wash, chucked in the detergent, put in 11 quarters and we were off. 


How many ways are there to entertain yourself in a laundromat? Well none really. There was a pool table and some sort of PAC-man looking machine, but we opted to go back to the hotel for 20 minutes as Nathan needed to visit the bathroom. Luckily the toilet seemed to be ok this time. As we pulled into the hotel we were greeted by two police cars and a dude in a pink t-shirt being arrested! Go round to our room and there’s another police car! It looked like they were looking for something but we couldn’t be sure. 

Back to the laundromat we went just as the washing was coming to an end. Next job. To dry it. Again we chucked it all in and out it on for 12 minutes which cost $1! It wasn’t quite dry so we put it back in for another we then neatly folded and sorted it on the folding table.  

#NAILEDIT!!! Clearly didn’t need half the clothes we brought with us as we’ve pretty much stayed in the same clothes just alternating! 😂 

We packed up our belongings, thanked Nancy for her assistance and made our way back to the hotel for a shower and an evening of last man standing! The police were still there…

Note to self:- don’t buy a sharing bag of crisps because you won’t get a look in 😔

After a relatively tumultuous nights sleep which resulted in missing breakfast, we stopped at an IHOP before heading to Charleston. Their menu is huge and caters for breakfast, lunch and dinner! 

As you can see it looks pretty damn good! Sooooo tasty and soooooo filling! Definitely need to be walking that off today! It was pretty pricey in there too for 2 breakfasts and 2 apple juices as it came to $26. 

We drove the short 14 miles to Charleston and parked by what is known as Rainbow Row. It’s is a row of 13 different coloured Georgian houses which is the largest row of Georgian houses in the US. We had our first experience of using a parking meter and was so far the easiest and cheapest car park so far! $1 per hour which helped as got rid of some of the rattling shrapnel in the cup holders! The Georgian houses were all different colours with a row of trees in front of them. It reminded us of Copenhagen last year! We wandered round the town for a while, stumbling across a park….past some incredible looking houses…..that were all being cleaned or painted, before heading back to the car. Charleston was another very beautiful place full of history, especially as Fort Sumter is where the first shots of the Civil War in 1861 were fired. On our way out of Charleston we stopped at Patriots Place to see the huge USS Yorktown😍😍

And that brings us to about now…cruising along highway/freeway/interstate 20 on our way to Atlanta, Georgia. Not much chance of catching the sun through the windscreen today as the weather is cloudy but at a warm 81F….

Until later ❤️