Unintentional Vacation
Part 3
On Sunday, I had a full day planned. This was also going to be my last day going unsupervised in Charleston, as Elyse would be arriving that evening. I got up, got my breakfast, and I spoke with the housekeepers to make sure that they were making the room up. After all, Elyse was coming, and I wanted Elyse to see a fresh room, rather than one that I had been living in for two days.
Leaving the hotel, after a stop to gas up the 4Runner at a nearby Spinx store, I headed back towards downtown. The way that I figured, all of the drunks from the night before would be home sleeping off their hangovers, and so the place would be pretty sedate. And that is exactly what I got. The place wasn’t a ghost town on a Sunday by any means, but I had a good time overall. I started by parking on Reid Street next to the old Morris Sokol Furniture building and flew my drone, and then I went for a walk.
Unsurprisingly, the first thing that I photographed with the drone was the sign on the side of the old Morris Sokol Furniture building. That sign is clearly vintage, and once lit up in neon, though much of the tubing appears to have been removed or otherwise fallen away over the years.
Overhead view of King Street near the intersection with Reid Street.
View above King Street, facing south.
Overhead view of the old Morris Sokol Furniture building and the street in front of it.
Ascending up to the full permissible altitude of just under 400 feet, I got some overview shots of the city.
Clouds over downtown Charleston.
Eastern terminus of Interstate 26. The I-26 designation ends at a traffic signal at Coming Street, and then the road continues as Septima P. Clark Parkway.
Football stadium at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston. This was the extent of my exploration of The Citadel, but I would love to explore it in more detail on a future visit.
Architectural detail on the former Bluestein’s building.
Switching to a regular camera, the first thing that I captured was the old Morris Sokol Furniture building’s side sign.
One thing that I tried to do again this time was to get a clear shot of a palmetto tree. I was unsuccessful at this in April (this is the best that I could do then), but I mostly chalk that up to time constraints and unfamiliarity with the area. This time, I did better, and was able to get a few clear shots of some palmettos.
Vintage “Meddin Bros.” signage on what is now an arts space on Woolfe Street.
Modern Woolfe Street Playhouse signage on the former Meddin Bros. building.
Traffic signal at the intersection of King and Cannon Streets.
CARTA bus 3000, a New Flyer MD30 (MiDi) running route 211, which is the Meeting/King DASH route.
Charleston Fire Department engine E103 travels southbound down King Street.
Benny Ravello’s, the Charleston branch of the Virginia-based Benny’s pizza chain. Elyse and I are most familiar with Benny Stivale’s, which is in Waynesboro, Virginia.
The old Morris Sokol Furniture building. I don’t know why this building is such a draw to me, but I just can’t get enough of it.
I also played with the panoramic function on my phone and got this shot of the former Morris Sokol Furniture building.
E103 continues its southbound journey, traveling past the Morris Sokol Furniture building.
I was taking a panoramic shot of the Morris Sokol Furniture building when the fire engine came through, and the phone locked onto that instead of the background, and created a very interesting looking result.
My rented steed, the Toyota 4Runner.
Finishing up here, I repositioned myself further south, and repeated the process. Mom called me while I was photographing, so we chatted for a time while I continued to photograph.
Marquee for the American Theater, near the intersection of King and Ann Streets.
Flag flying over the American Theater.
What appears to be a real bicycle outfitted with neon at the top of the sign on the facade of 460 King Street. The bicycle is apparently a remnant from the building’s previous use as Robinson’s Bicycle Shop, and it’s really great that it’s still up there. Equally amazing is that this bicycle has outlived other subsequent businesses that have occupied the building and used the sign.
Sign for Chase Furniture. This sign was difficult to photograph because the sunlit side of the sign also had a palmetto blocking the shot that I wanted to get, while the shadowed side was clear. I wasn’t particularly satisfied with any of the shots that I got of it, and was secretly wishing that I could cut down that tree or otherwise move it out of the way.
When I switched to using the drone, before I got a chance to fly, Woomy wanted to take it for a quick spin, himself. I don’t know why he bothered, though, because the first thing that he said after he got the drone up in the air was, “I don’t like that!”
The American Theater facade, viewed from a little bit higher up.
The flag atop the American Theater, viewed closer to eye level.
The bicycle, viewed from closer up.
After I finished at King and Ann Streets, I flew the drone over by the port to see what I could see, doing a quick loop around the area.
Coming back in for a landing, over the intersection of King and Vanderhorst Streets.
Then I headed much further south, towards the southern tip of Charleston, in order to photograph the Battery. I had come close to this on the April trip, but I never got the opportunity to photograph it at that time, opting instead to concentrate on other things. As far as conventional photography goes, the Battery itself isn’t that exciting, since it’s more of a raised walking platform to see and photograph other things, since most of the views of the Battery itself are only able to be seen from the water. That said, if you throw the drone up in the air, that’s how you photograph the Battery, getting those low shots in places that are impractical to shoot conventionally. However, I started out shooting conventionally while standing on the Battery before I sent the drone up.
A group of people going dinghy sailing on the river. I researched these vessels later, and found out that these are ILCA-specific single-handed racing dinghies.
A snowy egret wanders around on the rocks immediately below my location.
A group of guys goes out on a powerboat.
Then after I finished with the conventional shots, I put the drone up in the air.
The Battery, viewed from the air.
Coming back down to ground level after getting aerial shots of the Battery.
The Battery, photographed from eye level, over the water.
After this, I spotted a ship off in the distance, and I decided that I wanted to check it out. The conditions were perfect. Clear day, clear line of sight to the target, and the target was apparently not moving. So after a battery change, I took off. I underestimated the distance, as I expected that it would be about as far out as the Ever Forward was in 2022, i.e. about two miles away. Turned out that it was about three and a half miles away, but the drone made it.
The Sheng Ji Hai, a Chinese-flagged bulk carrier, moored just offshore near Charleston.
Helicopter landing area located amidships. While helicopters are not able to land on the ship, personnel are able to be winched to and from the ship at this location.
Getting back from three and a half miles away made me a bit nervous. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time out at the ship, i.e. quickly get the shots that you want and then get out, because I knew that I had to fly all the way back, and the whole trip back was over water. In other words, if anything goes wrong, that drone is going in the drink, and it’s taking the entire day’s worth of aerial work down with it. That happened to me last year in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and I’d be damned if that was going to happen again this year. The flyback is something where you really just have to wait for it. I tried to speed it up a little bit by moving the control sticks, but the remote responded by flashing a message telling me not to do that, i.e. all that I’m going to accomplish by trying to move the sticks like that is to drain the battery more quickly. In other words, the drone was telling me, “Calm down. I’ve got this.” The drone ultimately returned safely with plenty of battery to spare (good planning on my part, I suppose), which meant that I could stop the automated return and do some other photography before landing.
Various boats out and about as my drone flies back.
Flying back towards the Battery.
A powerboat makes its way down the river.
The Battery upon the drone’s return to land. If you look closely, you can see me standing next to some plastic bumpers.
The southeast corner of the Battery.
Some of the houses near the Battery. I love the architecture in downtown Charleston. It’s charming in an old-south kind of way.
Landing on the Battery after a successful flight.
I then started making my way north, as it was starting to get close to the time when I needed to pick Elyse up from the airport. I had lots of time to do this, taking a conservative stance on time just in case. On the way up East Bay Street, I found a United States Custom House, similar in style to the one that I’ve photographed before in Norfolk. So I stopped and took a few minutes to photograph that.
Then it was time to eat. I ended up finding the downtown location of East Bay Deli, where I got something to eat. I enjoy exploring around their menu, and got something from them that I had not had before. Like my other times going there, the food was great.
After I finished eating, I took the drone up for another flight in the back of the parking lot of the shopping center that East Bay Deli was in order to get photos of the port and the Ravenel Bridge.
Whirlybirds away, right from the shopping center parking lot.
The view from above the launch point, at operational altitude.
Checking out the Cape Edmont, a Cape E-class roll-on/roll-off built in 1971.
The South Carolina Aquarium, viewed from over the water.
The Ravenel Bridge in the late afternoon sun.
Then I turned the drone around and began my return flight.
After that, I made a beeline to the airport, because there was no more time for fooling around. Elyse would be waiting for me, and I did not want to have her waiting a long time because I was photographing everything. In other words, playtime was over. Time to scoop. Fortunately, the ride was uneventful, with no major traffic on the way over. Elyse hadn’t been waiting for long, and then we were on our way. My time being unsupervised had come to an end, and now Elyse would be in charge.
Leaving the airport, we first went to a TJ Maxx, where Elyse was trying to acquire a replacement for an article of clothing that she had forgotten at home. We then went to the memorial for the Charleston 9. That was a memorial to nine firefighters who lost their lives battling a major fire on that site.
The Charleston 9 memorial.
Finishing at the memorial, we went over to Whole Foods, where Elyse got something to eat. We then headed back towards North Charleston, with an eye towards returning to the hotel. On the way, we dipped into a Walmart so that Elyse could get that article of clothing.
Interestingly, Elyse also spent a lot of time looking at Little Trees air fresheners, with an eye towards using them on the bus. I found that a little odd, since the bus didn’t smell bad by any means, plus that little tiny air freshener wouldn’t do much for a 35-foot transit bus.
While we were shopping, we also got the sense that this was a higher theft store. It wasn’t so much the store itself, in that we didn’t see much product locked up and requiring assistance to retrieve, but it came out when we got to the front end. I’ve seen Walmart stores where the majority of the registers are self checkout, arranged in a big corral with a single entrance. This store had mostly staffed registers, and they were fed via a single line. They had two self checkout machines at the far end of the front end, but access to those was limited to Walmart+ members. That was annoying, but we got through it.
On the way out, we noticed the police car out front. That’s all well and good, especially considering that this store felt like the kind of store that would decide it was necessary to have a cop parked out front. However, note that the police car is parked in such a way so as to block the center fire exit. That’s not good when public safety creates a safety hazard all their own.
We then headed over to General Diesel. Elyse wanted to see the bus, so we did. This was mostly just a quick look-see, since I had transferred all of the supplies to the bus the morning before. Elyse transferred a few things of her own to the bus, and that was that.
And that was our night. We got back to the hotel just before 11 PM, and it was time to unwind and get ready for the next day, which was to be our last in Charleston, when we would finally bring our bus home.