100801 - Up ate and packed the car. We left our 'bacation house' about 9am and headed to the main land where had our first detour to see the pink and grey elephants. What a way to start the day!We then got serious about our travels and headed straight for Columbia SC where we found loads of cool things. Our first stop was the world's largest fire hydrant!
Not far was a tunnel back to the beach!
Grant thought we were lost so he asked this lounging farm girl for directions.
We took a break from the excitement and got some lunch. Then to the SC State house for some more cool history. The fits thing we did was search for the 6 bronze stars that mark where re cannon balls struck the building from Sherman's troops during the Civil War.
We then checked out the George Washington statue that the Union troops busted.
Then on to the monument for James Marion, the father of gynecology. I let L explain this one...
As we walked around the building we saw a monument to the end of slavery.
There were many other monuments and this one to Strom Thermond where they had to recently add the name of his half black daughter.
Back on the road and past the world's largest baseball water tower.
In to Dylan's home state and a stop at the welcome center and a geocache find! Up through NC and before we hit VA we made a detour through the mountains to avoid the horrible 77N bottleneck at Wytheville and had a very cloudy trip up. The trip down the other side was remarkable and we saw Christmas tree farms that stagger the mind. Definitely worth the zig zag drive. We came off the mountain in Wytheville where low and behold we ran right into the world's largest pencil!
We then found a great Chinese restaurant and filled up. On to the hotel and one last swim, hot chocolate and cookie adventure before bed.
