May 07, 2007
Traveling Mercies
Southern Hospitality, Rocking Chairs to while the time away at the Charleston Airport Charleston South Carolina
Written at Fairfield Ocean Ridge Edisto Beach South Carolina
April 29,2007
Well, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being perfect and 1 being stuck on a NorthWorst grounded flight 23 hours on board the accurssed aircraft, our flights from XNA Northwest Arkansas to Charleston SC, by way of Chicago O'Hare...,it was the O'Hare experience that kept it from being flawless....a good solid 9. I am waiting for the day that someone sues the city of Chicago for failure to even begine to adhere to the Americans with Disabilities Act. We must have trooped up 10 flights of steep stairs and taaken the shuttle bus that was so crowded, that sardines would have been right at home. I endured the usual stares that a fat woman gets on Public Transportation. We arrived at the appointed gate only to find that the gate was chanaged while wewere on the tram... Yeah. So it was back to the tram back up and down the 10 flights of stairs... no elevators, back to nearly where we started. Mayor Dailey, no hear this you have been warned... Get yourself down to the airport and think about what it would be like to be a disabled person in your airport...It was nothing short of shocking...
However the rest of the day was as good as it gets. I flew alone on my row both legs allowing me to not feel like I am getting into another poor humans space. I weighed in 3 lbs less than I had the week before, proof that the new hours keep me from snacking in the evenings and really on the Nutrasystem track. I will be sucessful in getting the weight off and keeping it off. My goal is to be able to fly and not feel like I should be paying for an additional ticket.
Charleston is lovely. We landed and began looking for a place to eat and drove around the port area and found a lunch place. Our drive to Edisto...we found out it is pronounced ED-is-STOW,was an easy hour of moss draped oak forests that break out into sweeping vistas of salt marshes, bordered by old growth forest. Birds, deer and Alligators, (know locally as "lizardmen", as that is what the indians called them) abound. Laid back to the point of making the Big Island look like a jumping hot spot, Woody and I are in heaven.
We had read horror stories on the web about this resort AFTER we booked so we had some concerns. However the tri level villa was decent and clean, if shabby. Our complaint about these is that there is no bathroom on the first floor. But Woody is managing nicely and the stairs are good for me to climb. We arent doing a lot of cooking and I am off of NS, but going to make good choices on food, so if the kitchen has a working coffee maker we are good to go.
We had a good night and spent the day today at the beach and driving around the area. We knew that Sunday a lot of places are closed, so we stuck to driving and loved the views. We drove as far as Beaufort, near Parris Island Marine Corps Training Center, and drove back. The base will sometimes have tours, but we are code orange so no one not essential was getting on. Just as well.
Tomorrow its a tour of Old Charleston, and the Magnolia Plantation will try to get some good pics
Labels: Traveling
