South Carolina, Toronto, And Home Again

So just got back from quite the trip, distance-wise.

First we drove down to South Carolina.

We were just in time to experience the temperatures there dropping into the 20s.  Ouch. Not what they usually have, nor what the place we were staying in was built for weather-wise.

The poor little furnace in the Airbnb inside the resort complex struggled mightily but couldn't bust 60 odd degrees during the cold snap.

The resort had an indoor pool and hot tub complex built basically into the wall of one of the other buildings and it wasn't exactly what you'd call hot either. The water ended up warmer than the air, and the poor hot tub struggled to get to 80 with steam rising above it.

Met a nice family from Atlanta while we were there and the poor folks had to wear jackets in their unit. We, being made of stronger stuff, only had to wear jackets while going out and could handle being in our unit in sweatshirts, so long as we wore socks, as the floor was freezing and never got warm enough to walk on it barefoot.

Still, we had a good time. Got some hiking in, drove around a bit, walked on the beach. I got work done remotely, and the seafood was terrific. Great place, nice people, and about 16 hours away or so.

Of course, the day we left, the temperature got up to 66 degrees and t-shirt weather.  Figures. Next year, I think we need to push farther south.

Then we drove straight up from there to Toronto to spend New Years with Tash's mom.

That was a bit of a haul.

Weather there and on route was warmer than in South Carolina, as everything had warmed up. Go figure.

Had a nice New Year's celebration stayed up to midnight to watch the fireworks and exchange gifts as is tradition.

 

Kinda fun watching the CN tower change colors of its lights at midnight, and fireworks going off around it in celebration.

We drove back today.

The drive back was good with very light traffic and we were making good time until we hit the border.

On the highway leading to it we were then sitting over an hour stuck in traffic. Thus made no sense given how light the traffic was on the highway leading to the border. 

But, right before the bridge, trucks were lined up for miles and then the cars also came to a screeching halt and a standstill that took some time to clear.

Once across, no problems, and we made good time.

Now home unpacking, doing laundry, and getting ready to meet 2023 head on.

The Firefly Distillery

After touring Ft. Sumter, Murphy and I headed to the Firefly Distillery to take a distillery tour. 

While the tour itself was not going on due to Covid, the distillery has their history on display with their first still:

They also had some history of local lowland distilling in South Carolina.

 

Firefly Distillery makes some pretty awesome products, including  a Sweet Tea Vodka.

 

Sweet Tea vodka just works.

Did I forget mention the distillery had a tasting?

Their banana pudding liqueur tasted like a complete banana pudding - not just bananas but also the vanilla wafers as well. The moonshine was great, as was the straight vodka.

They also have a decent gift shop with some appropriately whimsical items.

 

Quite an enjoyable experience, and I got to buy some there to bring home since I'm pretty sure their products are not distributed up here.  If you get the chance, do try out their sweet tea vodka - it's worth it.

Ft. Sumter

We arrived at the Fort and began to look around.

The main draw are the various cannons around the fort, especially as all the interior exhibits are closed.

 

 

While there were plenty of cannon on the inside, firing out.  There were several outside the fort shelling it with abandon.

During the Siege of Ft. Sumter (1863-1865) when the Union was trying to retake the fort, they shelled it extensively. Many shells passed into the fort and hit the interior of the walls rather than the exterior. Some of those shells remain within the walls of the fort.

Quite a few of these shells are still visible inside the walls where they impacted and failed to explode.

When the archeologists were excavating an area, they found a bunch of cannons still in their firing positions at the walls that had been purposely buried in place as obsolete.

Rather cool.  The excavation is ongoing and more cannons and artifacts will likely be found.  Entry to the area was prohibited.

That sign was a red flag to a Murphy.

That was not adequately Murphy-proofed.

We then went to the highest point in the fort to take in the view.

Then we saw a gun mount position that had been installed post-civil war to protect Charleston from attack from the sea.

The ferry was then set to depart, and we were all required to leave with it, so we boarded and left Fort Sumter.  It's a very historic location yet a rather small fort that can be thoroughly explored in less than two hours, especially now that the museum and other interior spaces are closed.

Patriot's Point: USS Laffey

Moored beside the USS Yorktown and dwarfed by her  in size yet packijng a punch of history is the USS Laffey

The USS Laffey, a Sumner class destroyer,  is famously known as "The Ship That Would Not Die".

The Laffey first served in the Atlantic theater, doing convoy escort and supporting the D-Day invasion.

It was at the Battle of Okinawa on April 16, 1945 however that she earned her moniker.  Hit not once by a kamikaze, not twice,  but by six separate kamikaze hits, as well as four bomb hits and an F4U Corsair hitting its radar antenna, all in one day. 

The Laffey crewmen, in the face of insane odds against which other ships would have been surely lost,  saved their ship from the extensive damage from those attacks, with 32 crewmen killed and 71 wounded out of a crew of 336.

The ship was in rough shape when she pulled into port in Seattle after the attack.

Repaired and refurbished, she served on proudly in the Korean War and into the Cold War.

She's the last surviving Sumner class destroyer.

The ship is in good shape and entry on to the ship is near the stern.

Passing cargo ships go by under her guns.

The galley:

 

The Laffey's torpedo launcher:

 

The Sumner class was the first class of destroyers to have a combat information center.

Radar:

The ship is now a national historic landmark

Much of the ship, including the turret interiors, was unfortunately closed off for access to the public due to Covid.

But the exterior of one of her turrets shows her action history well.

While we didn't get to see all of the ship, it was still a good and educational experience to explore what we could of this historic ship.

USS Yorktown: The Flight Deck - Phantom!

As you exit the stairs onto the flight deck, the first aircraft you get to see is an F4 Phantom II.

The Essex-class carriers such as the Yorktown never operated the Phantom as it was considered to be too heavy an aircraft.

Murphy of course decided to see if he could use the tutorial he had received from OldAFSarge and open her up.

He tried, but alas, the Phantom had been Murphy-proofed, with all access ports sealed up tight.  They must have known he was coming.

No joy there.

Still it's an F-4 you can get up close and personal to see. 

USS Yorktown: The Hangar Deck, Like Gaul

Is divided into three parts.  

The hangar deck has enormous blast doors dividing the deck into three separate sections.  This protects the hangar deck and stores located inside from damage during battle. Originally there were three aircraft elevators to move the planes to and form the flight deck from the hangar deck.  Later modifications removed one of the elevators.

It's a very large  space, crammed with interesting exhibits, history and many artifacts of the Yorktown, and a special exhibit about her sister carrier the USS Franklin and how it survived crippling damage from an air attack in March 1945 due to the heroism and effort of her crew.  The attack had killed 800 of its crew, yet the ship was saved and returned to service after incredible damage.

A 40mm gun mount from the Franklin is on display  on the hangar deck, with some damage from the attack still visible.

 There's also a very good movie shown in by the memorial about the Franklin to the left of the gun mount that is well worth watching.

There's plenty of aircraft on display as well:

A Stearman biplane navy training aircraft:

 

The many types of aircraft that the Yorktown operated are on display:

The F4F Wildcat -

 The initial main American naval fighter of the war.  While inferior to the Zero, it was made famous in the hands of aces like O'Hare and Thatch, and proved to be able to meet the Zero on its own terms when the right tactics were used.

The F6F Hellcat - The US Navy's highest scoring aircraft of World War 2 and successor to the Wildcat:

 

The F4U Corsair:

 

The Douglas A-1 Skyraider

 

The Grumman Avenger TBM torpedo bomber:

 

The SBD Dauntless dive bomber:

 The F9F Cougar - bringing the Yorktown into the jet age.  Subsequent Navy jets quickly began to become too heavy to operate off the Yorktown.

Yorktown recovered the astronauts of Apollo 8, after their historic flight around the Moon in December 1968; so there are some space related exhibits, including a mock Apollo capsule:

And a mock up of the Friendship 7, the Mercury spacecraft piloted by John Glenn.

The hangar deck makes for an impressive display of the history of American naval air power.