Howard Johnson North Charleston

Overnight in 2004 at the Inns of Charleston

by grandmaR

"Route to the Inns of Charleston"

When we got to the Isle of Palms, and Bob refused to take I-526 bypass over to SC 642 because he said that he couldn't go in the back door of the base because he'd get lost. So we slogged along US 17 and up I-26 and then up Dorchester Rd (SC route 642). When we finally got to the AF base about 1600 (4 o'clock), the main gate was completely torn up with construction (I mean no road at all - down to mud) and we had to go in the gate by the exchange anyway.

Bob wanted to know where the Inns of Charleston at Charleston Air Force Base office was, but although I'd told him when I phoned for the reservation (can only be made 72 hours in advance for retirees), and he said he knew where that was (they said they were next to or behind the clinic) - he really didn't know.

So we stopped in the parking lot of the housing office, and I phoned. The initial phone message comes on with a lady with a VERY deep southern accent who says that they don't accept collect calls (which always takes me aback because I'm not making a collect call). When I actually get someone alive on the phone, we find out that the Inn office is just around the corner.

We sign in. Retirees can only stay 3 nights. Then we drove over to our room. It was really quite nice. There were TWO kitchenettes and one of the refrigerators was out of order. There was also a very nice bathroom between the bedroom and the living room. The room was $36.50/night We could have had a cheaper room if we had wanted to share a bathroom, but I didn't want to do that.

Then we left and went over to our son's house. It was almost 4:30 and took us 50 minutes to drive the 15 miles. He had made spaghetti and we had a nice dinner. Afterwards I used the movie section of the camera to record our grandson playing the violin and trumpet, and our granddaughter (first grade) reading the comics to her mom. I also took pictures of our grandson's parakeets and our granddaughter's lop-eared piebald rabbit.

Our grandson asked me about the family tree stuff, particularly the ancestor that he is named for, and I found a photo of Hewett Anderson Beasley as a boy which I think looks remarkably like another of our grandsons. I tried to take a photo of it.

We left about 10 after 9, and it only took us about half an hour to get back to the base.

"December 7, 2004"

We checked out of the Inn (they charged us $1.00 for the internet access. Then Bob went to the exchange and got a check cashed and went to the commissary and got cranberry juice. We stopped for fuel at the Hess station on Dorchester Rd. We then went to our grandson's house and I took some more pictures of their pet animals (like the one at the top of one of the cats with Xmas tree).

We took our DIL and son out to lunch at El Rosarito which is a Mexican restaurant which has a buffet lunch line. We never found out exactly what the price was for this buffet, but I think it was about $7.50 each.

I had fried ice cream again, and they both had flan which they apparently love and which was part of the buffet.

We talked until almost 2, and then we left and drove out Alternate US 17 to I-95. We have reservations in Kissimmee for tomorrow night, but it is too far to drive there in one day, so we are going

Next: South to Richmond Hill outside of Savannah for tonight. That's only about 100 miles.