Larry W4CSC wrote:
Rosalie B. wrote in
:

Bob is still miserable.

Hmm...If I had known you were here, some 2 blocks from me to the main gate,
I COULD have helped, especially with the Mercedes. Make a note for next
time.....Star Motor Service, 843-571-1628....the Mercedes experts. I've
been buying their service for over 20 years. They have a palatial shop you
can eat from the floor, full body shop, every Mercedes test instrument ever
made. They restored my 1973 220D completely. It's my favorite all-time
car.
That's good to know - we have a 1985 300D (Bob's) and a 1982 300D
(mine)

If I had to live in the Air Force squalor you met, and I have no idea
what's on the base as they only let me through the gate to fix organs,
electronic pianos and the occasional DJ job, I believe I'd have ended up at
one of our fine hotels, or at least motels, if I couldn't stay with the

Could have stayed with our son, but Bob doesn't like to 'impose'.
With our daughter in Miami, she always gives him some job to do (like
this time we house sat for them when they were away at Xmas, helped
out with the kids when she had an operation, and Bob put up a wall for
them), but he still gets antsy if he has to stay with someone more
than 3 days. (We stayed with her twice - once for 10 days, and once
for 3 days).

son. We have thousands of fine rooms and rates around Summerville are more
reasonable. Hell, Motel 6 is only $32 and their toilets work! When is
"cheap", too cheap?

I have stayed in the Sleep Inn in Summerville, but the cheapest I
could find on the web was the EconoLodge at Goose Creek The Inns at
Charleston were $36.50/night which was cheaper. The toilet worked - a
bit too well. After we knew to keep the bathroom door closed it
didn't bother me anymore, or I got used to it. I can sleep through
about everything.

I recommend Red Roof Inn near the Ashley-Phosphate Rd exit of I-26.

Bob probably caught one of our exotic virii, brought into Charleston by
ship crews from squalid 3rd world countries, or by our Mexican and Central
American large immigrant population that is simply exploding because we are
too stupid to stop it. You can now catch Meningitis in Elementary School,
here.....it's like surviving in India's slums. Our latest is a severe
stomach virus that has kept my neighbors in bed for 8 days, so far. God
knows where it came from.....

Sorry you had so much trouble with a simple visit to the port city.....

I don't think it was a virus - I think it was mold or something like
that. I had something like that in Feb. when we were staying in a
trailer in Key West on the base - Bob complained that I kept him awake
by coughing. He made me take cough medicine so he could sleep. (My
sister used to complain that my wheezing from asthma kept her awake
too.)

Or maybe it WAS pneumonia. The only time he's been like that that I
can remember was when he was taking his PADI OW course in Cozumel, and
at that time he thought he breathed in some water into his lungs.

Anyway, all other visits to Charleston I've had a really good time.
We've been by car once or twice before (to visit our son), and by boat
6 times. Stayed at http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/47af4/#TL
Mt. Pleasant 3 times, http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/d3230/
Charleston Maritime Center once,
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/45efa/#TL Buzzards Point once,
and http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/3024a/ Isle of Palms. Our
mast is too tall to go up the Ashley, and I'm not interested in
anchoring in that area with all those currents etc.

We usually stay in Charleston a week when we are there by boat, and we
take at least 2 days to transit from north of Charleston to south of
Charleston because it is too hard to get from Georgetown to Charleston
unless we stop at Isle of Palms. Last year (fall 2003), we went
offshore on the way down to the St. Mary's River, and then in the
spring of 2004 came up the same route (arriving in a dense fog)
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/51083/#TL (St. Mary's to
Charleston), and then again going north from Charleston to the Cape
Fear River. http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/520d2/#TL

We've visited Ft. Sumter, the Aquarium, the Audubon reserve, Ft.
Moultrie, Sullivan's Island, Charleston Museum, and of course
Patriot's Point. I wanted to go up to the locks this time, but Bob
was too sick.

The first time we came down, we stopped in McClellandville,
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/d38e3/ and we have a scar on
the stern to show for it, where a shrimp boat going out at 4:30 a.m.
swung his stern into us when he left the dock. But I understand that
old man Leland died, and the marina has been upgraded, and also the
channel in has been dredged - because the shrimp boats couldn't get
out.
..

grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id1.html