After Thanksgiving, I was making a 15 hour drive from Fulton, New York to Charleston, South Carolina, which I split up into a few days. Luckily for me, my brother, Ben, lives in West Virginia, and I stopped at his house for a night. I hung out with him and his girlfriend Brittney. We ate Chinese food and did face masks while we watched movies.
The rest of the drive down went smoothly. I stayed in Walmart parking lots, picked up a nice hitchhiker, and went to a lot of dog parks. The animals slept the whole way down, with Thomas and Maggie taking turns sleeping in my lap.
I was meeting my friend Mitchell so he could help me fix a check engine light on my bus. We met in a Walmart parking lot outside of Charleston, and each left our buses in the lot, taking his motorcycle into town to explore. We parked on a side street right next to the water downtown, which seemed like a magical place with all the shops, Christmas decorations, and huge, fancy houses. A horse drawn carriage even went by. We stood there looking out at the water for a bit, and to my delight, three dolphins jumped in the distance.
We walked down to a little sandy beach area, and played in the soft sand. It was a warm day, in the 50’s, which was a nice change from the freezing northern weather. With a light hoodie, it was perfect.
We walked around the park, which was filled with all sorts of statues and sculptures. I love when they have plaques where I can read about the history of the place. My favorite was of a sculpture of a huge sundial.
We wandered through the streets, heading toward the main strip that housed all the shops. We passed by one fancy place called Shops at Charleston Place, and it even had a doorman. We looked out of place in our baggy, sandy clothes, but he held the door for us anyway. It was like stepping into a new world full of fancy, well dressed people who were drinking wine. The weird looks we got made me laugh as we walked amongst these people. It was full of expensive stores like Gucci. In the very center was a huge chandelier above a miniature Christmas village with little toy trains.
After watching the trains for a bit, we made our way back outdoors. We stumbled upon a huge park with a giant lit-up Christmas tree in the middle. There was no actual tree, but instead, strings of multi-colored holiday lights placed into the shape of a tree. The best part was you could walk through it.
I went inside, looked up, and began twirling. The lights turned into a beautiful kaleidoscope above me, and I couldn’t help but laugh joyously as I spun.
We continued down the road until we heard Christmas carols. We followed the songs, which brought us to a huge Christmas tree, and four people dressed in old timey clothes were singing in front of it. I was happy to hear the music because with the warm weather, it didn’t feel like Christmas was coming at all. It was a nice little reminder.
As we walked along, we came across the carriage that the horses were pulling through the streets earlier. Since it was too expensive to ride, I climbed up into the now horseless carriage and just pretended I was going for a ride.
The night had the perfect finish when we stumbled upon a large fountain. There were signs saying that wading in the fountain was allowed. I took off my shoes and walked through the cold water, a nice, relaxing way to end our exploration.
While I was there, I got a call from my Uncle David, who along with my Aunt Marcia, were driving to Florida. As they were getting close to Georgia, they stopped for gas, and a girl at the gas station came up to him with a gas can and asked if they could help her out with gas. As my Uncle David was putting gas into her can, he half jokingly asked “ do you by any chance know Teagan?” She instantly responded “Teagan Davis? I was just talking to her on the phone last night!” It just happened to be my friend May, a fellow traveler I had met on my travels. What a small world it really is.
One day we took a trip to Folly Beach, which is on Folly Island south of Charleston. The ocean wasn’t warm enough to swim in, but the air was warm enough to wear a tank top, which I loved.
We walked down the long stretch of beach with my dogs, Maggie and Sophie. Luckily we wore sandals because they both loved running through the shallow parts of water where the ocean connected to the beach. We were able to sit and enjoy the beautiful orange sunset while Sophie happily dug holes in the sand.
One night as we were relaxing outside the buses at a park, a guy rode up on a golf cart. He introduced himself as Trey. He hung out chatting for a while, fascinated with our lifestyles, wanting to someday do it himself. He left for a bit and brought back snacks for us, and a little plant terrarium for me. Afterwards he took us around on his golf cart for a bit, showing us different parts of town that we had not yet seen.
One warm day I set out to sell my art on the main strip with all the stores. I had wire wrapped crystals, different types of jewelry, paintings, and magnets that I had made from my drawings. I had hoped I could use this as a way to make money on the road, and set up a little blanket on the sidewalk displaying my art. I only sold a few things. Most of the people there seemed to be snooty and didn’t want much to do with a girl selling her art on the streets. But I took it as a win that I sold anything at all.
Then it came time to fix my bus; the diesel particulate filter was bad. When I bought the bus, it was a problem, but Mitchell had promised he could fix it so I bought it anyways. The task took longer than planned with many obstacles such as the wrong parts and seized bolts. We had to use torches and an air hammer to remove the bolts. But finally, after much stress and work, it was finished. Instead of replacing the part completely, we ended up using a power washer to clean out the inside of the filter before reinstalling it.
During the process I had Mitchell show me how to change my own oil, which would save me a lot of money on the road. I hope to learn more and more about how to fix my bus as I go.
Just like that, it was time for me to head back to New York for Christmas with the family. I stopped at my brother Ben’s on the way up again. Sophie was thrilled to see him; he’s one of her favorite people. When I left his place, I drove through fog, snow, rain and sleet, but I made it home safely.
Thanks for reading!
If you would like you help me along on my travels,
my PayPal is:
my cash app is:
$TeaganDavis47
My Vemo is:
@TeaganDavis47
If you would like to subscribe to my blog there is a section where you can on my homepage. You can unsubscribe anytime and will only get emails when I post a new blog.
Comments