June 28 = Day 2

Synopsis:  451 miles driven; 7 hours on the road; Mount Pleasant, SC to Richmond, VA; Visited Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie and "South of the Border"

We got up this morning and had a hot breakfast at the hotel. We then drove back into Charleston to visit the Fort Sumter Visitor's Center. Fort Sumter is a national park so we could get in free with out national pass (a great deal if your going on a family vacation). BUT...Fort Sumter is an island and the National Park Service does not provide transportation to the island. The ferry to the island would have run us about $100 so we decided (before we got here) not to take the tour (which also would have taken about 3 hours out of our schedule). The visitor's center was very informative and Jariah and Jedi (the North and South fighting again) were able to become Junior Rangers.

From the visitor center, we drove over to Sullivan Island to visit Fort Moultrie (also a National Park). Fort Moultrie is the primary battery that the Confederate forces used to attack Fort Sumter and it is far closer to Fort Sumter than the Fort Sumter Visitor Center is. Again, Jariah and Jedi were able to become Junior Rangers (a program at every National Park - with a different badge at every park). God's blessing to us today - it is South Carolina Day and so they had some special events at the Fort including a live musket drill and firing (later that day, after we left, they were going to fire some of the cannons). The kids loved it and so did mom and dad.

We got onto the road for another long drive (about 7 hours). We stopped at the tourist trap "South of the Border" but how couldn't you after seeing the 52 billboards we passed on the way there. We took some pictures of people in crazy hats and then made lunch (still had sandwich supplies in the cooler) and then got back on the road. Our bad point of the day (trip so far) was Jedi getting sick and throwing up in the van. He's fine and we got it mainly contained in mom's prepared for an emergency bags.

Got to our hotel in Richmond (after driving through another pouring rain storm) and ate at a little Chinese restaurant around the corner - no customers at 6:30 pm when we got there and they seemed to appreciate a party of 7. Now comes the nightly routine, clean out the van, get ready for bed, write postcards, update blog, etc.

Hotel Deal of the Day: 1 night at a La Quinta Inn for $0 by using Makenzie's frequent flyer miles (11,901) from Delta.