Day 4: Doin' the Charleston

So we woke up early in Chapel Hill, fended off the cats and hightailed it down to Charleston. In a stroke of incredible luck, our GPS unit (whom we’ve nicknamed “Maria”) decided (without our realizing it until we were well on our way) that it would be faster to take back roads from Chapel Hill to the South Carolina border than to go hook up with the interstate in Raleigh. As a result, we took winding two-lane blacktop all the way, through brown fields and tiny towns. We danced in our seats to “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” by Huey “Piano” Smith. I bought the worst cup of coffee I have ever sampled in my life (which, given previous hikes through Nebraska, Texas, Alabama, etc., is saying something).

We made the obligatory stop at South of the Border and happily resisted buying souvenirs for the most part –weren’t able to resist taking photos tho’…







We busted down I-95 to Charleston. And met up with Luca and Ladd, our CouchSurfing hosts for the evening, who were incredibly awesome. We got in touch with Luca more or less at the last minute, while we were in York, and he was kind enough to put us up with his friend Ladd, who has a much roomier apartment. Both are students at the College of Charleston in their last year of school.

Charleston was indescribable. We had a drink and some crab dip at a rather swanky bar at the end of a pier and looked out at a cruise ship loading up with tourists. We wandered through colonial-era alleys and saw ornate churches surrounded by palmettos.



But maybe the most interesting thing was what we saw when we went to meet Luca for dinner. Luca lives in a small apartment near the college, and when we got to his place, he was hanging out with his landlord, George, and their neighbor, Gerry. They offered to give us a tour of Gerry’s house, which George (an architect) had designed. It was spectacular, with a roof deck overlooking the city, a colonnaded patio (complete with fountain) overlooking the alleyway between the houses, and a working sundial hand-painted on the side of the house.



And then they gave us a tour of George’s house (that he had designed for himself), which was easily the most fascinating dwelling I’d ever been in. “Resplendent” would most assuredly be the word. As the immense front doors opened, we noticed that where most folks would have a den, a kitchen or a front room of some sort, George had a swimming pool built into the ground. The walls were lined with antique rugs that George had bought in Turkey. The ceilings were hugely high, and had a giant concrete chandelier hanging down. The floor was all mosaic. The living room had four ancient wooden columns, which they had found on the lot when they cleared it out to build the house. And it was rounded out by a giant poured-concrete fireplace that George had designed himself.



At any rate, Gabe and I both decided that we’re commissioning George to build us houses if we ever have any money. Done. Settled.

And for that matter, you should commission him too if you have the money – look him up at http://georgeholtdesign.com/.

So Luca and Ladd took us to a local joint called Papa ZuZu’s for dinner, which was exactly what the doctor ordered – fresh delicious veggies (and hey, the South Carolina tomatoes are already fantastic this time of year) to counteract the astonishingly unhealthy diet we’ve been rocking for the past few days.

Then we went to the show, at the Village Tavern in Mount Pleasant, just across the bridge from Charleston. Great bar, with a great beer selection and an impressive roster of local and touring bands of all genres – widely regarded as one of the best places to play in the area. Cameron, Steph and Ryan, who were running things when we got there, were really lovely to us, and we had a very nice little crowd by the time we got playing.

For myself, I will say it was the last time I ever play without a setlist, but Gabriel rocked the place. Folks gathered around as he played, and when he lit into Hank Williams’ “Lost Highway,” one dude grabbed a harmonica and started playing along; Gabe gestured him onstage, and he soloed at the mic. He was fantastic. Gabriel did a nice mix of originals and covers, and we sold a few CDs at evening’s end. A good time had by all.

(Live MP3s - Gabriel doing Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" - http://econo-graphics.com/superdupersecret/IShallBeReleasedCharleston.mp3)

We went back and crashed out at Ladd’s house, and in the morning she cooked us a lovely breakfast before she had to depart for school. We ducked into a music/pawn shop to buy a gig bag for me, and for Gabriel to add to his growing collection of sunglasses (this time, aviators with pink lenses – and I must say I look pretty good in ‘em too), got a couple spare keys cut at a hardware store, and lit out on 17 for Wilmington.