OK, so I scraped quite a few items off my complaints plate last week, from the massive traffic jam covering the last 50 or so miles of Lady Jane and my journey onto Hilton Head to the issues I had with the VRBO rental and a few other negatives. However, they can be filed under “inconveniences,” not “crises.” So, it’s time for some positivity this week.
There are indeed many pleasures in the Port Royal Sound area near Broad River on the north side of the island, where Lady Jane and I found fewer tourists than in the Sea Pines-Harbour Town portion of the island we’ve often visited in the past. When you travel, don’t you really want fewer folks like you around you?
I guess were you to list the most important must-haves for a successful vacation, it would be the weather. For our final 2021 vacationing week, each day was filled with deep blue skies and constant sun with temperatures ranging from 75 to 80 degrees.
As the head chef whenever our lodging includes a kitchen, I was pleased the condo had all I needed to prep our meals when we were dining out. Additionally, the condo was literally five minutes from the beach.
The beach walks were, of course, wonderful for a couple of people far more used to seeing waves of corn and soybeans during our walks and bike excursions in Mercer County on the Franklin Township Greenway Trail rather than the frothy undulations of the Atlantic.
The beach had a far more rugged look with rocks exposed at low tide than we’ve seen on earlier trips walking Coligny Beach on the southern end of the island. Also, during one long walk, we were accompanied by not only far fewer people, which was the norm on this end of HH, but also three playful bottlenose dolphins that continually crested the water, often as close as 20 feet offshore.
We devoted one day to bike riding and gave our business to a place I highly recommend if you’re staying in the Port Royal Sound region, Bike Doctor, on Beach City Road. For $20 a bike, Jane and I had our rides for pretty much the entire day, certainly good value considering what travelers often receive for their vacation dollars.
If you’re in the minority when it comes to Ohioans who’ve vacationed in Hilton Head, I will tell you that you’d be hard pressed to find a better place to cycle than Hilton Head. There are more than 100 miles of protected asphalt trails in addition to hard-packed beaches that are biking friendly.
The paths were far less crowded than our previous trip to Hilton Head when we rented in Sea Pines to the far south, which really reduced our apprehensions for the dreaded septuagenarian spills.
During our biking, we discovered some very interesting Civil War history. When we saw a sign off the path on Beach City Road for Fort Howell, we stopped, locked the bikes and strolled through the former site of an earthworks fort built by U.S. troops over a four-month period in 1864 and learned so much at each information station. It was a beautifully serene area teeming with live oak branches festooned with plenty of Spanish moss.
The construction of the fort was the result of the combined efforts of two regiments — one white and one African-American — for the common cause of protecting the nearby village of Mitchelville, just east of the fort from Confederate attacks. Mitchelville was established and inhabited by emancipated slaves, called Freedmen, many of whom were freed after the Union victory in the Battle of Port Royal Sound.
Really, at a time where there seems to be no shortage of issues involving race, this was such a nice piece of history for us. Not only did we tour the Fort Howell site but also Freedom Park down the road, where we both learned so much from the informational placards and also saw such great views of the expansive sea marshes that dominate this portion of Hilton Head. The wetlands are home to abundant wildlife, especially the egret and the osprey. A long boardwalk and pavilion greatly aids the views.
As we’ve done in the past, Jane and I took our side trips. We spent full days in two of the South’s prettiest damsels, Charleston and Savannah. The historic houses on Charleston’s Meeting Street and some fine Southern cuisine at Poogan’s Porch on Queen Street come highly recommended.
In Savannah, for a great historic view of many of the historic city’s 22 squares with their eye-arresting greenswards, Jane and I did the all-day hop on-hop off experience of the Old Town Trolley. It really is the most effective way to see the city and hear her history. Plenty of strolling and peeking in the many shops and pubs on River Street, which runs along the Savannah River, is also recommended.
Once you feel safe enough to get out on the road, I hope the last couple weeks have given you some ideas.
Please join me next week for a final mention of my trip, not for descriptive purposes but only as a means to remind you of just how very small this very big world can sometimes be.
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