Through the tangles

Mount Pleasant, SC -- We are just north of Charleston, the South Carolina city where the first shots were fired in the Civil War. It's a place we've been before, so we recognized some of the sights as we drove through. We are at a lovely KOA campground, complete with a lake, wide, open sites and plenty of amenities. The blurb says it is situated on an old plantation.

It was a fresh morning when we set out from Jekyll Island Campground. We had spent a good session the night before mapping out our route for the day, because we didn't want to spend the whole time dodging transport trucks on the interstates. Our chosen route was along Highway 17 pretty well the whole way. There were two parts that made me a bit nervous; those were the parts where you could see the little "17" on the map on one side of the big city and on the other, but there was a whole mess of other highways in the middle with no clear indication how our little red line got through them all. The two cities were Savannah, GA and Charleston.

So, off we went, Val at the wheel and me with copious maps spread out on my lap and in the door pocket beside me. Full of optimism and confidence that we'd get out the other end none the worse for wear.

After crossing the bridge off the island, we turned northward on Highway 17 to a second more impressive bridge that took us over the Brunswick River and past the city of Brunswick. The Sidney Lanier Bridge is Georgia's tallest cable-stayed suspension bridge, and soars above the river. It replaced a vertical suspension bridge that had been twice struck by ships.

For much of our route, we followed a straight line with tall trees on either side and only a few glimpses of the marshes and waterways to the east of us. But the traffic was light and the weather was fine, and the two big cities were way off to begin with.

I confess that my level of anxiety did augment somewhat as I looked at the map and our GPS screen and saw that Savannah, our first hurdle, was nearing. With no fewer than three maps, I'd sort of seen how Highway 17 worked its way through, but we've had surprises before. My eyes were glued to every signpost on the roadside, and each time that lovely number 17 showed up I smiled inwardly. Yay! As the big city faded into the distance behind us, with not a single glitch or wrong turn, I rejoiced.

Shortly after Savannah, we crossed the state line into South Carolina. When the urban sections had thinned out, we stopped to have lunch and gas up. Our only other objective was a grocery store. We passed a couple of Piggly Wigglys (love that name!!) on the wrong side of the highway before using the GPS to find us a Publix store nearby. The one it found required a U-turn, but we made it with little difficulty and soon were back on good old Highway 17. That was the only time today that we had to hear the GPS lady drawl "recalculating"!

Besides the highway signposts, there were plenty of other signs with odd street or town names. We saw a Rude Dog Lane in one town, and passed another town called Ashepoo, next to the Ashepoo River! Another one I saw the other day was Horse Stamp Church Road. How about that.

A couple of times, our highway joined up with the Interstate 95 for a few miles, so we got to see the wisdom of our choice to avoid it. We were soon back onto the road less traveled -- though it was a four-lane for much of the way with a decent surface.

Charleston was approaching. Another tangle of incoming highways and city expressways! By this time we'd engaged our GPS lady full time, and her calm tones kept us on the right path throughout. Our final destination was only a few minutes beyond Charleston -- or so we thought. As our turnoff to Highway 17 approached, we saw an electronic sign that said "Incident on Ravenel Bridge. Expect delays." We were in the thick of rush hour traffic by this time, headed for...the Ravenel Bridge. A long line of cars snaked up ahead, and we had to squeeze sideways three times for police, ambulance and fire trucks to struggle past with sirens ablaze. When we finally got abreast of the incident there was no sign of a crash, so we fear it must have been a jumper.

As soon as we passed the emergency vehicles the traffic flowed freely and in no time we were at the KOA. Whew! Not quite: our reservation could not be found. Finally, the staff lady checked with another employee and realized it was under Vanin instead of Zanin! Next time I reserve over the phone I will say ZED instead of zee when I spell our name!