Month: February 2009

Used To Bea

Thanks to a comment on yesterday’s post by Paul Wilczynski who is from North Charleston I reduced the total number of South Carolina Post Offices by one to 460. He let me know that there used to be a PO in Aunt Bea’s, but it was closed down a couple months ago. So now after last weekend’s Safari I am down to just 9 remaining Post Offices left to photograph.

Six of these are on military bases throughout the state and it remains to be seen if I am going to do them or not. It will depend on whether I am allowed on the Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek. The 2 Marine bases in Beaufort, Paris Island and the MCAS have no problem with visitors, I’ve checked. I assume Fort Jackson in Columbia won’t be a problem as they are a Basic Training Depot for the Army and are used to visitors. The 2 Air Force bases have a stricter visitation policy in that you need at least someone stationed there to escort you, I have an in for the Charleston AFB, but for the one in Sumter I don’t. I haven’t yet checked about the Naval Weapons Center, but I can see where they would have a very good rationale not to let civilians on board with a camera. If I can’t get on one base I will not do any of them and will add Amendment 3 to the Post Office Photo Safari Constitution: Seeing as all U.S. Military bases are United States property, they are technically not part of the state of South Carolina, and as such will be stricken from the Big List.

If that happens, we will be down to the final three: A CPU in Beaufort, Saint Helena Island and Daufuskie Island.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 113

Opened The Box

I looked up that second Mount Pleasant location on the net last night and neither one of yesterday’s places were, as I suspected, the official PO. The actual CPU was about a mile down the road in another shopping center. Amendment 1 to the Post Office Photo Safari Constitution was created today. It reads: While still in the area of an unlocatable Post Office from the Big List, it is perfectly acceptable to search the USPS web site to find the updated Post Office and subsequentially photograph it. So first thing this morning we went back over the Cooper River Bridge, and like yesterday it was just as the sun was coming up. With only a slight bit of drama we found the Mount Pleasant CPU tucked inside a place called Smoker Friendly.

A ten mile dash on I-526 led us to North Charleston where our first originally scheduled Post Office of the day caused a real problem. 1050 E Montague Avenue had a regular blue box outside, along with a blue distribution box, but zero outward signs of actually being a Post Office. The sign hanging off the front and the gold painted letters on the window both proclaimed this was Aunt Bea’s Restaurant. I took a photo anyway, then we circled the block just in case, but no other evidence of postal activity was found.

The next Post Office, according to my Google map, was not too far away at the point where E Montague met up with US52, AKA Rivers Ave. When we got to there though the address numbers were in the low four thousands. Ack. We headed north in the hopes that the blocks were short, they weren’t, after about 5 miles we found the Post Office. Trouble was we now had to back track all that way because there was still one more PO in North Charleston to get. After that we needed to go back north further than that pesky North Charleston PO to get the ones in Goose Creek, Charleston Southern University and Ladson.

Once through with Post Offices the weather had warmed enough that we could drive home with the top down. About 15 miles from home I added Amendment 2 to the Post Office Photo Safari Constitution, to wit: It is acceptable to shoot a new Post Office not on the Big List when it was created several years ago or to retake a Post Office photo if it has been updated or replaced since the Big List was created, only if said Post Office is plainly visible from the driver’s seat while traveling the roads of South Carolina and as long as that travel wasn’t specifically for the purpose of taking a photo of said Post Office.

Almost exactly 5 years ago when we started this adventure, the town of Windsor was using a trailer for their Post Office, in the intervening years the trailer was replaced by a regular building.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 111

Missed It By That Much

We were up before the sun to hunt the wily Post Office. First stop was the Citadel in the dim light of the pre-dawn sky. We didn’t see any building that might fit, so we looped in around the parade ground and back out vowing to return later.

We then snagged the 2 others in “downtown” and headed to the city marina where there was supposed to be a neat place to have breakfast. Only trouble was there was no place to park if you didn’t have a sticker or $12, so over the Cooper River (Arthur Ravenel Jr) Bridge to Mount Pleasant vowing to find another place to eat.

The first Mount Pleasant Post Office was an easy find, followed by Isle of Palms and Sullivans Island, but on the final leg of the loop the second Mount Pleasant PO proved elusive. We had an address, 401 W Coleman Blvd, Suite A and as we traveled along watching the numbers go down some sort of space warping occurred and there was 400 numbers on the odd side of the street (which we wanted) and 600 numbers on the even side. We pulled a u-turn and slowly cruised looking for a Post Office. we found a strip shopping center with an address of 409 but then there was construction and the numbers were back in the 600’s. One more u-turn and further down the street with both sides having 400 numbers we found 401 in a small strip. Suite A was a nail salon with a blue mail box outside. I looked inside and could see no other evidence of postal activity and figured the PO had probably moved on, but I took some photos anyway.

Breakfast was at a small place that I’m sure has been a restaurant of some sort since the place was built in the 60s. There was a local crowd, the service was great and the food was adequate. When I pulled out of the restaurant to head back towards Charleston I passed a place that had small signs by the road for UPS, FedEx, etc. Thinking that maybe that is where the PO had moved to I pulled in and seeing a small USPS sticker on the door took some photos vowing to check on the interweb when we got back in for the day.

For the record, neither place is the Post Office, the second Mount Pleasant PO is now in a different location altogether, which we passed, but didn’t see. There is some internal debate as to whether to go back and take a picture of it. For one it is against a rule made in the beginning to create a list and follow it, no fair updating it, or it might be like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, once you are done it is time to start over and two it would mean yet another trip over the Cooper River Bridge which beside crossing back and forth to get these 4 Post Offices, we made a second trip with the top down for the express purpose of me taking pictures.

Then we made a third round trip to go over and find the terminal of the Charleston Water Taxi at Patriot’s Point so we could take a cheap boat trip, $8 per for a round trip, and get some photos of the Charleston waterfront sights, i.e. aircraft carrier, that bridge, cruise ship, aquarium, etc. Wouldn’t you know it, but the Water Taxi is closed for the season, opens next weekend. We got in the car to drive for lunch, but the fine print on the bottom of the card of the Mediterranean restaurant Donna had picked out was closed on Saturday. We ended up at a seafood place on Shem Creek that was very good, but I still think we would have preferred a gyro.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 110

Business Trip

In the off-season when there aren’t any kids around at the pool of this condo complex on the oceanfront of Folly Beach, the seagulls have a good time.

The original plan was to wait until after dinner and going out to take a couple Post Office photos, but everything when awry when I suggested stopping and taking one or two because we were going to pass right by them. Seven Post Offices later we arrived at the hotel in Charleston.

That wasn’t the first time our plans strayed either. We had picked a couple places where we were going to go for a nice long walk in the woods, the first being Givhans Ferry State Park, where there was a 5 mile loop trail around the perimeter. When we opened the trunk at the park Donna asked, “Where’s my hiking boots?” “Oops.” I was wearing mine and somehow forgot to pack hers. All she had was a cheap pair of sneakers to walk in and after calling me a knucklehead, she gamely started on the hike with me. It took us a bit to find the beginning of the shorter loop trail, which according to the map off the net, led to the longer loop. We never did find a connection and after talking to the ranger it turns out it wasn’t a great loss, because that big loop wasn’t really a trail, it just followed an old forest service road.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 108

Let’s Do The Time Warp Again

When the Losties left on the Island started jumping around in time I have to admit I was intrigued, I’m a sucker for a time travel story, but after last night it was almost too much, like too much cheesecake can be too much of a good thing.

Sort of seemed like they are doing it to show how clever the writers and producers of the show are. See how smart we are? Remember way back in episode X of season X when character A did that thing in the jungle and there was what appeared to be a throw away comment to soon to be dead character B? Didn’t seem like much at the time, but now, in season 5 episode 4, it is a major plot point that lays out the story arc for character C.

Well I’m hooked now, so, I say:

It’s so dreamy, oh fantasy free me
So you can’t see me, no not at all
In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention
Well-secluded, I see all
With a bit of a mind flip
You’re there in the time slip
And nothing can ever be the same
You’re spaced out on sensation, like you’re under sedation
Let’s do the Time Warp again!

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 106

Who Is This Woman?

Not too much time, TDTVS is on in a couple minutes. After tons of typing in cryptic commands in three attempts to get the wireless to work under Ubuntu, I did it, but only after running some temporary commands. I was then led through more typing to make it permanent. When I rebooted, it turned out to have been anything but permanent. I tried the temp fix again and it would have worked, but the thing that turned out to be permanent was the wrong WEP code that I had entered last night it seemed to be preventing me from logging in.

I may just have to reinstall Ubuntu from scratch again. Or maybe I should see if I can find a different distro that does support this wireless card.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 106