Hilton Head (2)

We took a boat from Hilton Head to Daufuskie Island, the island south of Hilton Head, accessible only by boat. Of course the rich people put in a golf course and high-end houses on one side of the island. They have their own ferry that goes back and forth from Daufuskie Island to Hilton Head Island hourly. It makes life livable since all they do is get on the ferry to a parking lot on Hilton Head where they keep their car. And they get around Daufuskie Island on a golf cart.

In the 1800’s the island was filled with Gullah people — the black people sold from many different tribes in southwest Africa. Coming over on the boat and working together, they eventually formed a language they all could understand, called Gulla. Many still speak it today. From Africa, they brought their rice farming skills and rice was the island’s top food production, along with oysters. Once they overfished the waters the landowners left, and the island is pretty much a tourist stop.

The slaves were kept in the bottom of the boat during the trip from Africa. And there were many thousands of them. South Carolina received and sold more slaves than any other of our states. Almost half died during the trip to the U.S. — either from starvation, disease or when they allowed the slaves up on deck to get something other than putrid, germ-filled air, they jumped overboard to their deaths, rather than be enslaved. Sad, sad, sad.

This is my artsy picture. The bridge from the mainland South Carolina to Hilton Head Island, seen through the railing of the boat I was on. Hilton Head was just an uninhabited island, only accessible by boat, until the 1980’s. Now it’s an upscale, beautiful, populated residential and tourist area.

I booked this tour and thought it included a ferry ride to Daufuskie Island. Wrong. It was a small speed boat. And when the captain gave the signal, we all had to hold on, hold our hats and yell YEE-HAW!!! My worst nightmare, bumping along full speed in a boat with wind whipping at my eyelashes, trying to remove them!! Ha! It took awhile, but I finally figured it out!! Just turn around and face backwards. DUH!! It was a beautiful view also.

This house sold for $1 at some point, but had to be removed from the property. So someone just moved it by barge, (in pieces, I’m sure), to this island.

We got around on two golf carts. They let one person in our tour group drive the second one and she did a fine job!! This reminds me of Camp Winona in the middle of my state, where the Girl Scouts used to, and probably still do, camp. Most the roads are dirt. The locals didn’t want the government to pave them because they would just break down eventually and be worse than the dirt. That is NOT forward thinking.

This building is called The Little White School. I don’t think it was because of the color of the building — they taught only white kids here. Eventually there were no white kids and it got used for other things.

This church was very interesting. The sign said Baptist Church. But since it’s the only church left on the island, it has become non-denominational. Notice the BABY GRAND piano. All that stuff had to be brought over on a boat or barge!

This building is a replacement, but it would have been the church the black people used for their services. ….Quite the difference from the white peoples’!

This was a little shop with two artisans who make clothing, purses and jewelry from the indigo plant which produces a beautiful blue color. On the third picture you can see the indigo plant. It takes a huge number of indigo leaves to produce just one little cube of indigo dye. But it seems to be a labor of love for them. We felt so bad no one was buying anything, so Joy bought The Water was Wide book and Jane and I bought $30 necklaces decorated in blue. The woman’s hand were blue from the dye and she had 5 gallon buckets in which she dyed the clothes. It is hard work!!

Here’s the necklace that I’ll never wear. It’s an oyster shell.

More of the way people live on the island.

The red sign said HOT CHICKEN and the blue sign said COLD BEER. These people know what’s important in life!!

There was another artisan who made art out of metal. It was a open shed with all this artwork on the walls. Ane you paid for stuff on your honor!! I really, really wanted a mermaid — one with red hair — and THIS trip I didn’t have to fit it into my suitcase for an airplane ride. But is was $495. Turns out I lost my 1/2 carat diamond earring which I hadn’t taken out of my ears since 2002. A quick inquiry at my local pawn shop/jewelry store said it would run $350 to $500. ….so there’s my mermaid money.

This foreboding cloud was a hint of things to come. After our Daufuskie Island tour, we decided to hit the beach on our last day in Hilton Head. Joy and I are “don’t get into the water” girls, so we decided to walk the beach, with the wind behind us. We were 20 minutes into it when Joy turned around to see a black, black sky behind us. Of course, that is EXACTLY where we had to be. So we started walking — a lot faster than we did going the other direction. At one point a woman was sitting in her foldable beach chair with an umbrella down the tube in the back of the chair. The wind was so strong, it flipped backwards and she just couldn’t get control of it. We helped her out and kept moving fast. At one point a gust of wind almost blew me off my feet. It’s scary when you are out on this wide, wide beach (much wider than Daytona Beach) and there is just nowhere to go and nothing to do but keep moving until you leave the beach. We finally got to the car when it really started to pour. You know it must have been bad if I failed to take pictures!!

This is the Myrtle the Turtle statue laying eggs. How cute.

This is a cinematic photo Google makes for me (without my asking, I might add). You have to click it like you would a video. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s pretty cool. We are smiling so large because we just dodged the giant storm.

On Friday, we had a delicious breakfast on our way out of town. We waved a fond farewell to Jane, as we drove south and she drove north. We had some rain on the way home, but we always seemed be driving out of it and into blue skies ahead. I unpacked on Saturday; and packed again for my 6 AM flight the next day to Houston, TX.

As always, feel free to leave a comment — I’m the only one who sees it. (Of course that doesn’t include the smartphone spies who constantly watch and listen to me and then push me to buy their stuff on my phone and laptop — even before I know I want them!!!

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