Tuesday, December 17th

Hello from Georgetown, South Carolina. Decided to see what a small coastal town had to offer. We had a pleasant surprise. A lot of history, more learning for the kids I tend to say.  Found out Georgetown is the third oldest city in South Carolina. Toured a rice museum. What? Yes rice. Back in the 1800's this little town exported more rice than any place in the world. Thanks to the slaves from Africa. They turned this swamp land into valuable rice paddys using the 5 fresh water rivers for irrigation. They had quite the operation, during the Civil War, South Carolina was the richest state next to Massachusetts because of the rice.  The rice was called "Carolina Gold" since it was so profitable. That's why this state was an important player in the war. Around 1911, the rice production ceased. Other states began producing rice using machinery. The soils were too soft to support equipment to farm. A couple other things we learned today about this little town is that the first African American was elected to Congress in 1869. His name was Joseph Rainey and he served for 9 years. He was even a Republican. Another significant person was Tom Lynch Jr.  He was the son of the Hopsewee Plantation owner that signed the Declaration of Independence instead of his father, because he had become critically ill. Man that's enough school for one day, I'm worn out from using this old brain. What am I doing learning the stuff, let's go to the beach. So off we went to Huntington beach on Pawsleys Island. Nicest beach so far. Water still isn't warm enough, but starting to get close. Guess we need to keep going south.    ^ Jeff