DAY 3- Charleston to Spartanburg and Dinner at Lee and Trisha's home- 10/22 added Ken and Pat's writeup

Please see the update at the end in Red. 
The day in Charleston started out with rain, rain, rain, although we were able to pack and have our 8 AM drivers meeting before the rain really came down hard. Getting out of town was a challenge for many people, but everyone eventually made it out of town. 

It was a nice drive on the back roads to Columbia, SC. Again we were a bit slow, so didn't manage to park with anyone else, nor even see anyone in the town. The points of interest were several houses including Woodrow Wilson'a Family home as well as other stately homes. 

WOODROW WILSON FAMILY HOME

AERO AT WOODROW WILSON'S

We drove by the houses, however didn't arrive at the times for the tours, but some MOAer's were able to visit some of them.  

SAW SOME CHEAPER LATER

The afternoon weather was quite a bit better for the reminder of our drive to Spartanburg. 

Once we were settled into our hotel, we headed out to Pauline for a WONDERFUL BBQ by our hosts  Lee and Trisha.

Thank you presentation.

The sunset going home was very spectacular. More later...

 See below Ken and Pat's writeup that they did for this day for the Farewell Party. 

"The day started a little cloudy with the 8.00am driver’s meeting in the parking lot of the Ansonborough Inn.  However before we started it started to sprinkle a little so most of the tops went up and we set off with a visit to the local gas station to show the French and others how to pump gas (petrol) and use a credit or debit card to pay for it.  Quite a site with all the pumps filled with Morgans.

The first highway was the I 26 west and the GPS wanted us to take it all the way to Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, however we had different ideas and took the scenic route 176 through the countryside.  There were fields of cotton, Harvested brown corn stalks and peanuts as well as many other crops that I could not recognize.  The rain at times was heavy but not as heavy as the previous day’s storms and it was very warm and humid.  Eventually the rain stopped and although it did not sunshine it was warm enough to be really comfortable.  The homes along the route varied from small stately homes to very small homes but the most noticeable were the incredible number of churches with square spires with spiky towers on top.  They were all in very good shape and it would have been great to see how many attended on Sunday. 

Cameron was the place where the homes were much larger and there were acres of cotton and gain crops.  However we were having difficulty with the electric fan on the car which was not functioning correctly although Ken had had it repaired the previous day.  When we arrived at the visitor’s centre in Columbia (the capital of South Carolina) the car eventually boiled over whilst we tried to find out about the four beautiful houses that we were all waiting to see.  Some people went for lunch in Columbia but we went to see the Robert Mills House with its beautiful garden. 

The Robert Mills house was designed by Robert Mills who enjoyed symmetry but unfortunately it was not completed before the owner died. In his will he left the previous house that they had owned to his wife, so she never got to live in the house that they had furnished together.  There was also much haggling over who owned the house as many of the trades people had not been paid when the future owner died.  It eventually became a Bible College and a school and in the 1950’s was in the process of being demolished when it was rescued and given to the city.    There were only two pieces of furniture that belonged to the prospective owners but the society that owned it had tried to furnish it with furniture representing the period of its building.  There were three floors open to the public and in order to maintain the symmetry the Architect had a false door in the reception hall.  It was very interesting and well worth a visit. 

We had hoped to visit Woodrow Wilson’s family home and many others did visit it. However, we decided to try to get the car fan finished so that we could relax in the evening, so we took a visit to the local Napa for parts and then hi-tailed it up the high speed highway 26 to the Lee and Tricia's house where we fixed the car.  Most of the others went up through the Sumpter National Forest on highway 176 and told us that it was really amazing and beautiful.  Some however let their Morgans open up and I was told that one of them went over 100MPH up highway 26. 

Dinner at night was at the home of Morganeers Lee and Tricia.  It was held in the garage amongst his spectacular collection of cars.  The Morgans were all parked on the front lawn and were looked over by members of the English car club who were also at the party.  We had a great dinner of ribs, chicken, and salads followed by delicious peach cobbler.  We all drove home just before dark to the Holiday Inn in Spartenburg.   A great day was had by all and hopefully our fan will work for the rest of the trip.  Thanks to Lee and Tricia for hosting a wonderful get together and also for helping with tools and garage space to repair our Morgan."