U is for Underground Railroad

September's block is Underground Railroad. Only five more blocks to go after this in our Alphabetical Block of the Month series.

The theory that particular quilt patterns guided slaves on their journey on the Underground Railroad has been debunked. As charming as the idea is, it apparently was a fiction invented to gull a credulous historian and more rigorous research has shown that it simply isn't true. Nevertheless, I can imagine a traveler on the Underground Railroad being told something like, "Look for the fence with the blue and white quilt on it. The people who live there will give your a meal and a safe place to spend the night." It is pleasant to imagine that a quilt that gave physical warmth and comfort to family members gave spiritual and psychological comfort to people fleeing slavery.

The block we now call Underground Railroad has been known by several names. It's part of a block family I call "Road" or "Ladder" blocks. It's a nine-patch with a chain running through it, and there are a number of variations on this block. Jacob's Ladder and Contrary Wife are other blocks in this family that are part of our BOM series.

You can find the pattern for Underground Railroad here.

T is for Tile Puzzle

August's BOM is Tile Puzzle. This block is a bit fussy because the pieces are small. But accurate cutting, careful stitching and good pressing will yield a great block. 

You can find the pattern here.

S is for Spools

The Spools block is our July block. It's not difficult, but the small Spools units will reward your patience. If each spool is pieced carefully, the full block will go together easily and its size will be accurate.

As we hit the home stretch on our 26-month Block of the Month series, the Spools block -- along with the up-coming X and Z blocks -- are designed to help us use up small pieces of fabric we've used in other blocks along the way. This isn't simply thrifty; it will also help pull our final projects together. 

You can find the pattern for the Spools block here.

Enjoy!

R is for Rail Fence

The June block is our old friend, Rail Fence. It's not complicated, but the small pieces ask for precise cutting and piecing. 

You can find the pattern here. 

Q is for Quartered Star

Quartered Star is an easy-peasy block, a variation on our old friend, Friendship Star.

This photo is very odd. The background fabric is a light, bright green. And, believe it or not, the striped fabric is yellow and white! Gremlins must have invaded my camera!

The pattern is here.

P is for Pennsylvania

Here is our April block of the month, Pennsylvania. 

This is an easy block, but, like all quilt blocks, it will reward your careful cutting, stitching and pressing. 

You may view the pattern for the block here.

O is for Octagon and Twist

Here is the March Block of the Month, Octagon and Twist. 

This block would look great in a larger quilt. The blocks "link" together to form an interesting lattice pattern. 

The "Twist" unit uses the partial seam method we used in the E block. The "Octagon" patches are large enough to fussy-cut a motif in your fabric if you like. This block is interesting and fun, but not difficult.

We'll see if Yahoo! will let me upload the file to the group site. Otherwise, you can get the pattern here.

N is for New York Star

Here is the February Block of the Month, N is for New York Star. 

I'm sure the original designer, many decades ago, intended this block to be red, white and blue. Wouldn't a red, white and blue version make a good Quilt of Valor block? 

But I'm using brights for my BOMs, so you see my interpretation of the block in the photo here. 

For those who want to download the pattern from the Yahoo! Group, my apologies. But I have been unable to access Yahoo! Groups for the last several days. I'll keep on trying. 
Click here to download the New York Star block pattern.

M is for Monkey Wrench

I have been presenting an Alphabetical Block of the Month for my on-line Yahoo Group, A Pocket Full of Mysteries. Yahoo recently made a number of changes to their Groups set-up, and numerous members are having trouble accessing the patterns there. 

So I'm going to try an experiment and post the "M" Block -- Monkey Wrench -- here. If this turns out to be easier for participants to use, I'll continue to post the rest of the blocks here. The earlier blocks will remain available on the group for current members. I'll make the earlier blocks available for sale on Craftsy or Etsy, and I'll announce that here when they're up and available.

Click here for the pattern for the Monkey Wrench block

2013 Approaches

The Dashing Bachelor, my Christmas 2013 Mystery Quilt.

Yes, 2013 approaches. It's on the way and won't be stopped. Also, I need some new approaches to life, to work, to people for 2013, and I've been thinking about that subject a good deal.
 
I'm in Southern California right now, visiting my sister and brother-in-law for the Christmas and New Year's holidays. This trip, this break is giving me time to do some reading and thinking about how to approach 2013 with renewed vigor, purpose and gratitude. And, yes, even those of us who don't work outside the home need an occasional break!
 
There's been an on-going discussion on one of my quilt lists about choosing a word for 2013 -- a sort of guiding principle for the year. I like this idea. It's sort of like when we set goals for the year when I was working. As the year progresses those goals would inform how we spent time,  money and effort.
 
So my word for 2013 will be Mindfuless. What am I doing? How am I spending my time, money, talent and effort? Am I supporting my goals? Am I growing, or treading water, or sliding backwards?

A year is a precious resource, at my time of life more precious with the passing days. Will I use my year fruitfully? Stay tuned as I figure it out!

Time Passages

[Note: This is the first in a projected occasional series of posts about my family history.]

I've always thought one of the most formative aspects of my childhood as well as one of the more interesting things about me was my parents' age. You see, my parents were older than the parents of my peers. 

Today it's not unusual for a woman to have her first child at age 33. It's not even unusual for a man to have a child a couple months before his 50th birthday, especially a child by a second marriage. But in 1955 that was a little late for people to start a family. 


The story of how my parents met and fell in love and so forth is a story for another post. But mom and dad had independent lives before they met, and they got a rather late start in the business of raising a family.

Dad plowed fields with horses. He remembered when tractors and cars first appeared in rural Nebraska. He remembered the horrors of the influenza epidemic of 1918 And in settling down late he was following a family tradition. Both his father and grandfather had also married and had their families later than usual. Paul was born in 1870. And Dad's grandfather George was born in 1826. 


Think about it. You may know, or have known, one of your great grandparents. John Quincy Adams was president of the United States when George Hanson was born. 

Dad's mother Linna's brothers and father served in the Civil War. And her daughter Pauline's husband John served in World War I.


On my mother's side, I reach back into history due to her large, close extended family. We were close to her aunts and uncles. Her father Bob and several of her uncles served in WWI as well. And my mother's three oldest brothers served in WWII.


So the stories told around our family tale were of a different time. We heard stories of several generations of a family of immigrants living together. Of young married women with children of their own shocked to realize their mother was pregnant. Of young men going to travel in Turkey or fight in Europe when it took weeks to get to those places. Of the Great Depression. Of a mother newly arrived in the US, suddenly widowed, raising her children on her own. Of people moving and visiting and staying in touch. Of people falling out of touch and sometimes reconnecting years later. 


The stories I heard gave me an appreciation of family and taught me that -- sometimes shortly and sometimes over the course of decades -- things generally work out. Bitter feuds can be mended; sad estrangements can end. Decisions that seem foolish today turn out OK. And family endures.


Today, my family is greatly reduced. My only close relative is my sister Linna whom I don't see as often as I'd like. But she and I have shared memory and history that bind us more tightly than bands of steel. We are estranged from our brother Paul but maybe someday we'll see him again. 


I have extended family. They are scattered and I don't see them often. But the funny thing is this. Family still endures. In moving to South Carolina I'm now closer to a couple cousins here in the Eastern US, so maybe our paths will cross again.

Cat Tales

Most of the fathers I've known are pretty tough cookies when it comes to buying gifts. They don't have a long list of wants, and the usual ties/coffee mugs/tools are just so much clutter for many dads. 

The father in my life right now is Frank's father, also Frank Young. He's a really fine man and a great guy, and he's been so very good to me over the last few months. I've usually been able to find good presents for him in the past, and I wanted something special for him for Father's Day. I was chatting with my mother-in-law, Melinda, and she came up with a great idea. 

They'd been thinking about getting a second cat for awhile. Melinda and Frank are both cat people. Their cat, Monty, is a pedigreed Siamese. He acts -- and is treated -- like the lord of the manor. I've said several times my ambition in life is to be reincarnated as one of Frank's cats. 

Now, Frank is about the biggest Dean Martin fan on earth, so Melinda came up with a brilliant idea: "We'd" get a tuxedo kitten for Frank, and we'd call him Dino. She was the brains behind this idea. The execution was now up to me. 

Well, finding Dino was quite an adventure. We call him the 400 mile cat, because that's about how far I drove in my quest for him. I searched a couple on-line databases for tuxedo kittens and the cats I found ran the gamut of adoptability. 

Melinda and I figured that this would be a good time of year to find a kitten. Well, yes and no. The shelters and rescues I first contacted were so strict in their adoption policies that getting a Top Secret clearance would have been easier than adopting one of their cats. And I know what I'm talking about because I've observed the Top Secret clearance application process. 

One woman wanted to do a home visit which would have involved a 120 mile round-trip drive for her. And the cat is question -- while a tuxedo -- was over a year old, and has a rare heart murmur. Adopting him involved agreeing to take him to Charleston annually to have an ultrasound so some vet could study his condition. Um, no thanks. Why doesn't the vet adopt him, or at least help place him somewhere near Charleston?

One rescue had picked out "my kitten" before I visited them, and already had plans for his cage as soon as they could get me out the door. Again, their idea of a kitten and mine were a bit different, since this cat was clearly fully-grown and was so shy even the foster dad couldn't hold him.

Finally, I found a listing in a County shelter a mere 40 miles from me. They're open from 3:00 pm until 6:00 pm only, so there was no way to contact them by phone. I drove to the shelter and, guess what? He wasn't there. Oh, he was still available, but they were fostering him an additional 50 miles farther away. Nevertheless, he still sounded promising, so a couple days later I set out again to see him. By now it was the Friday before Father's Day and time was running out. This kitten was the last chance I had. 

Luckily he turned out to be Dino. He was, oddly, being fostered at a dog kennel. He was racing around like a mad thing every time a dog barked, but who could blame him. And clearly he had no fear of the dogs, so I thought he'd stand up to Monty. So, I delivered him and he is just what Melinda and Frank wanted. He's super cute, about 8 weeks old, and a bundle of kitten energy. He's got great tuxedo markings, and the tip of his long tail is white. As I expected, he shows no fear around Monty, and he's already making himself at home.

Of course, I'm on Monty's list forever for bringing this interloper into his domain. And Monty WILL have his revenge. Turns out Melinda and Frank are going away for a week in July and guess where Monty and Dino will be staying . . . I figure it will be like Vacation Bible School. We'll do crafts -- building birdhouses springs to mind -- make s'mores and sing around the campfire. Or maybe we'll just sit and watch the birds outside, run around the house like lunatics and nap a good deal.

Fred, as you can imagine, is not amused.

Developments

I see it's been about a month since I last posted. I can't believe I've been so negligent, especially since so much has been going on with the house.

First, the house, to all intents and purposes, is done. I've made my final payment to the contractor who, all in all, did a great job for me. There are a half dozen very minor items on my punch list which he will take care of on Friday.

The electrician still needs to do a few things including put the connectors on my internet lines. But since my friend John helped me order and install a wireless router the hard-wired internet outlets are something of a moot point. The router works just fine, and I can use wireless anywhere in the house. I can even connect to it on my iPhone, although I can't use the phone in my iPhone.

I've installed my land line phone, after a brief kerfuffle over the serving CO and getting the cable laid across my property. I have ordered DirecTV and it's due to be installed tomorrow. This will be the first time I've ever had anything other than broadcast TV, so this will be a treat for me.

Today I ordered a sofa for my den. This is the sofa. And the fabric.

My mother in law helped me pick it out. I ordered some pillows in a wild, coordinating fabric that will really perk up the room.

Yesterday I found a cat to adopt. He was given up by an elderly man who was going into assisted living. He's a 7 year old male and seems very friendly. He was taken to a local county shelter where they would have put him down. Luckily the vet they called said she thought she could place him. He's been in her office for a couple weeks, and I think he'll be glad to be in a home and be the only animal here. I will pick him up tomorrow. I am naming him Fred after Georg Friedrich Handel. His coloring is pure Siamese, but he's beefier and shorter than a Siamese. 

Lastly, I have been unpacking, sorting, purging and organizing my stuff box by box. I'd say I'm about half way through, with plenty still to unpack. But it's getting done. It's getting done.

The important thing is that the guest room is ready for guests, so when your travels bring you my way, I will have a warm welcome ready for you.

Living Color

I'm pleased to report that the house is proceeding on-track. It's still looks like I'll be able to move in within a week or ten days. 

Every time I visited the place this week the drive was packed with trucks belonging to workers tiling my kitchen back splash, doing the finish electrical work, and painting. And I use the term "workers" advisedly The painter even had his wife there for a couple days. He says she's almost as good with a paintbrush as he is!

I'm including chips from the Sherwin Williams website so you can get a more accurate idea of the colors. My photos are pretty dark The living room, dining room and kitchen are painted Lagoon. It's a fairly deep tealy-green, and is a lighter shade of the same color as the exterior of the house. 

My bedroom and the guest room are Vesper Violet, a medium-value grayed violet. I have no clue about the intended purpose of the electrical outlet half-way up the wall in my bedroom. I will say that this house absolutely will not lack electrical outlets. Frank ordered PLENTY of them!

I plan to use grass green and yellow as accents in the bedrooms -- more green in my room and more yellow in the guest room. My father-in-law says he won't sleep in a "purple" bedroom, but I'm hopeful my other men friends are more sanguine. 

The studio is Daydream, a shade lighter of the same grayed violet as the bedrooms.

My bedroom in California was a violet so pale it was almost white. I liked the color and decided to amp it up for this house. 

I'm fearless with colors in my quilts but for some reason  I'm timid with paint colors in my house. I'm trying to be more bold; we'll see in the fullness of time how successful I've been.

The Biggest Quilting Tool in the World

Chances are that if you have a hobby you've noticed this phenomenon: Tools specifically marketed to hobbyists are more expensive than the same tool marketed to the general public. Cycling socks? If regular socks cost $7, cycling socks cost $20. Model railroad board? If a sheet of regular plywood costs $12, a sheet of model railroad board costs twice as much and is one-fourth the size. You can buy a package of a dozen spring hairclips at the dollar store for, well, a dollar. A package of 30 of identical clips, packaged by Wright for quilters to use when binding a quilt, retails for $7.00.

As a quilter I'm always on the lookout for tools in unlikely places. Often tools purchased at the dollar store or at Home Depot will be cheaper and will work better than tools made especially "for quilters". Need to label your blocks or stabilize them for signatures? A roll of masking tape ($2.00) will do the trick nicely. Need an unusual template? A window shop will cut a piece of acrylic in the shape of a bunny or an acorn for a buck or two. Need a guide for stitching that perfect 1/4" seam? A little stack of Post-It notes from Office Depot will handle that task easily.

So you can bet I'm patting myself on the back. I've just acquired the largest quilting tool in the world and it was absolutely free. It's the vinyl floor in my new studio. You can see the pattern is a black and white checkerboard. The squares are 9". When I need to block a quilt, or measure a piece of fabric, or pin-baste a quilt sandwich, this grid will keep things nice and square. 

Of course, the floor wasn't free, but it didn't cost anything extra for this pattern. So I'm calling it free.

Oh, and the studio is 15' x 30'. I think it's fair to call a 450 square foot floor the largest quilting tool in the world -- until someone challenges me for the title.

By the way, if you want to keep a pair of thread snips handy to your machine, do what my friend Mattie does. Pick up a key coil. Thread your machine's cord through the ring, and fasten the clip to your scissors. Voila! Your snips will always be at your fingertips.


In the latest news on the house, the interior painting began today, and the finish and trip work progresses. Tomorrow I'll be shopping for mirrors, towel bars and such for the bathrooms.

I'm Floored, or At Least The House Is!

Yes, it's true. The hardwood floors are stained, sealed and varnished, and the vinyl flooring is laid in the studio. And last Tuesday the Silestone fabricator measured and made the templates for the countertops; he said they'd take no more than two weeks to make and install.

This week I hope to see:

• the baseboard molding installed
• the bathroom cabinets (which have integral sinks) installed
• the interior painted

I think then the final steps of the construction will be installation of the kitchen countertops, the light fixtures and fans, the toilets and the appliances.

I have an appointment for the delivery of my studio furniture on Thursday. I'm going to shop for the guest room mattresses on Monday. And I'll call the antique dealer to ask him to deliver the guest room beds this week as well.  

My mother-in-law and I are mapping out our moving and move-in strategy. 

I've given notice to the woman who rents me a room that I'll be moving out the weekend of May 15. Keep your fingers crossed for me that we have no slips in the schedule!

In the Kitchen

My antsy-ness to get the house done continues, but so does progress on the house. The hot news this week is that the kitchen cabinets are in and they are gorgeous!

I wanted the cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling, but I read in a design blog that solid cabinet doors would look too "monumental". They suggested putting a second, shorter bank of cabinets with glass doors up near the ceiling. And that's what I did. I can put my fancy/pretty stuff up top. It won't be used as often so it's OK that I'll have to get out a ladder to access the upper cabinets. The space on the right against the far wall is where my fridge will go. The "window" on the left is a pass-through into the dining room.

I believe we'll be measuring for the Silestone counter-tops next week. 

The tile has been grouted. The air conditioner has been installed.

We had a bit of a delay this week caused by discussions between the painter and the contractor about whether the floors should be finished before the interior is painted, or vice-versa. Finally they determined the floors should be done first. The sanding is occurring as we speak.

Today my wonderful father-in-law brought up the boxes he built for my Square-Foot Garden. I have been reading about this raised-bed technique for years, and it's about to become a reality. This soil-less technique requires vermiculite as part of the growing medium. It's a bit hard to find vermiculite in the quantities needed at a reasonable price, but abundant, inexpensive vermiculite is one of the joys of South Carolina. Vermiculite is mined in Spartanburg county and the mine referred me to a nearby processing plant that let me buy 8 cubic feet of it for a song. A nice country drive up to Enoree, a visit to the plant (where the operators filling and palletizing the bags of vermiculite reminded me of my bill-print plant in Houston) and I was in business. I'm going to try to start my planting this weekend. My father-in-law built the boxes for me in exchange for a promise of part of the eventual harvest!


I'll close with an amusing anecdote. When Frank and I first discussed moving to South Carolina we were still in Southern California. I'd never lived in a house with air conditioning. I asked him if we could have AC if we got a house in South Carolina. He looked at me rather strangely -- as if I'd asked if we could have indoor plumbing. Very kindly he explained to me that virtually everyone in South Carolina has air conditioning and that, yes, we could, too.

Mid-April House Status

For some reason I'm antsy about the house today. Some days I'm pretty cool and calm about how the project is progressing. Other days I'm just ready to be DONE. I think a couple reasons I'm impatient today are that I just wrote a big check, and we seem to be on the home stretch. But we seem to be ambling along the home stretch rather than racing towards the finish line. 

Since I last wrote about the house, 

• The interior walls are primed.
• The bookcases in the hall are in.
• The garage doors have been hung.
• The hardwood floors are laid -- excepting for about four square feet in my bedroom where they ran out of flooring. 
• The tile floors are being laid as we speak.
• The drive has been graded and spread with crush-and-run. 
• The light fixtures and ceiling fans are ready to be installed. 

Next steps include:

• Finishing the wood floors.
• Laying the vinyl flooring in the studio. 
• Installing the bathroom cabinets and toilets.
• Installing the light fixtures.
• Painting the interior.

The cabinet maker is working on the kitchen cabinets. I'm expecting great cabinets since the bookcases are really nice. This design element was my idea. The hall was built wider than usual to permit bookcases to go in on either side. My father-in-law remarked he was skeptical, expecting the hall to seem narrow and cramped, but it's still a good four feet wide, even with the bookcases in place.

Last week I ordered furniture for my studio -- a sturdy table, a couple kitchen islands on casters which I can use for cutting and pressing stations, and some chairs. I also ordered a small table for my kitchen. This furniture is unfinished and I'm looking forward to finishing it. It's been a few years (probably 20!) since I finished any furniture, and the products available now for the DIYer look pretty user-friendly. I also found a pair of twin beds when my mother-in-law took me to the Metrolina Antique Show near Charlotte. They are mahogany and seem to be sort of Art-Deco style -- perhaps from the 20s or 30s.

So I'm hopeful that the end is in sight. I'm ready to be in my own home, sorting through stuff and settling in. 

Taken by Surprise

One fact has been brought home to me in the aftermath of Frank's death: I have many wonderful friends who will go out of their way to help and support me. 

Last week I stopped by the house to pick up my mail. No one was working that day so I thought I'd walk through and enjoy the peace and quiet for a moment. I noticed I had a voicemail on my iPhone, so I checked it. One of my quilting friends from Florida, Sharen, left a message saying I should check my US mail box because something was waiting for me. 

Intrigued, I continued to wander around the house. The mailbox had held the usual bills and circulars, but no notice of a package waiting at the post office. Then I saw it. Apparently the mail carrier had left a package for me at the house the day before. The workers set it carefully aside where I'd see it, but where it would be safe. Oddly, it wasn't from Sharen; it was from another quilting friend, Aileen, in California. And it was a good sized brown cardboard box. 

With all the self-control of a child I opened the box and my jaw dropped. Inside was this lovely, lovely quilt. Aileen included a letter of explanation. 

My quilt group, A Pocket Full of Mysteries, the quilters who make my mystery quilt patterns, had organized this project. Each block -- 82 in all; there's a block on the back -- was made by one of the members. The blocks arrived from all over the US and from many foreign countries. There are embroidered, paper-pieced, appliqued and embroidered blocks -- personalized with the block makers' names and locations. It is no exaggeration to say that the love and care that went into each block clings to my quilt like a fragrance. Quilters all over the world organized this project, made the blocks, designed a setting, assembled the top, quilted the sandwich, bound the finished quilt and labeled it. Words are quilted into it -- words of comfort as well as the names of quilts I've designed for the group. 

Aileen's wonderful letter touched me deeply. She wrote (in part), 
I consider myself a writer, but words failed me when I heard about Frank. I spent a lot of time moaning, "It's not fair,'' as did so many of your quilting friends. And as quilters do when we can't reach out and hug, we sewed ... May our threads wrap you in love and hold you near when you need us ... May we have many more years of stitching together. 

I sometimes think a quilter is the perfect recipient for a gift quilt. She understands the care and work that go into the project. In this quilt every stitch is very dear to me, and I will cherish it always. I can't wait to move into the house and display my quilt proudly on my bed.

South Carolina Explorations

Last Saturday I attended a small Sacred Harp singing at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Pendleton, SC. Pendleton is in the northwest corner of South Carolina, near Clemson University. My visit was a great opportunity to learn a little more about the history of my new state, and to reflect on how important history is to South Carolina. 


Remember, I'm from Southern California where few residents can trace a family connection back 70 years. Still today, many Californians are from somewhere else. Most of the oldest buildings date back to the turn of the 20th century, and old buildings are often razed to make way for new ones. 


Not so in South Carolina. Most people from elsewhere think of the Civil War when they think of the history of this state. That war and its aftermath was, indeed, hugely important. My father-in-law has filled me in on some of the gaps in my understanding of that terrible conflict: South Carolina started it; the opening shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter, just off the coast near Charleston. South Carolina never surrendered. And the proper name for the conflict is The War of Northern Aggression. Monuments to Civil War incidents battles and other incidents abound. 


But South Carolina was first colonized by the English in 1670. So at the outbreak of the Civil War, the notion and the reality of South Carolina was already two hundred years old. The University of South Carolina was 60 years old in 1861. South Carolina was in the thick of the American Revolution, and several battlefield monuments commemorate that period. 


One thing I tend to forget is how small the US was in that time, how sparsely populated most of the country was, and how many of the major players were related to one another. A few examples: Both Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis served as superintendents of West Point before the Civil War. Jefferson Davis was married to Zachary Taylor's daughter. And at the start of the Civil War the standing army had only around 2,500 officers. 

And so my visit to Pendleton revealed to me some facinating connections among the movers and shakers of the South Carolina Piedmont and Blue Ridge regions in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. St. Paul's church was founded in 1822. One of the gentlemen at the singing told me that it was founded by Thomas Clemson and Floride Calhoun. Thomas Clemson was the statesman who left his fortune to found the institution that became Clemson University. (He did not specify in his will that women and blacks should be excluded from the school, unlike the founders of some other Southern universities.) Floride Calhoun was the cousin and wife of US vice president, senator and statesman John C. Calhoun, and a landowner and manager in her own right.

What my informant failed to mention was that Clemson was married to one of the Calhouns' daughters. So we have a close connection between these important individuals that sheds light on the society of the time. 

The church appears to be wholly original. We found a hand made nail on the floor. Examination of the pews and floor showed that this was the fastener used throughout. The joinery is careful, but amateur. This is not a monumental cathedral but rather a frontier church, built for use. It's surrounded by a graveyard still in use. Floride Calhoun traveled to New York to buy the hand-pumped organ. The organ was sent via ship to Charleston, then up country via river and road until it reached its home where it is still in use today.

As I drive around the state and get to know it, it's fascinating to see the juxtapositions -- old and new, history and today, city and country. South Carolina is bigger than I expected, and it's also more interesting, more diverse, more complex. I still have plenty to learn, and I'm enjoying the journey.