Sunrise Illuminated Cloud Bank Over Historic Sullivan’s Island, SC

14 Monday Feb 2022

Posted by “Oh Captain My Captain” in The Writing Room

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Beauty, Boats, Clouds, CruisingTheICW, History, Life, Memories, Mount Pleasant SC, Photography, Pictures, Pitt Street Bridge, Reflections, Sullivans Island SC, Sunrise, The Beauty of God's Creation

Captured with an iPhone 4 at 6:38 AM 8/20/2013 — *Captured with an iPhone 4 @ 6:38 AM 8/20/2013*

February 14, 2022. The southern end of Sullivan’s Island is where the Atlantic ICW connects to the Charleston Harbor. Across the ICW is the Pitt Street Bridge with a history of its own. It was once the trolley causeway and bridge from Mount Pleasant, SC to Sullivan’s Island and the Isle of Palms.

The original bridge, known as the “bridge of boats” was used in the Battle of 1776. It was built prior to the Revolutionary War and used in the Battle of 1776. The bridge had to be rebuilt and was finished on June 7, 1777, almost a year after the Battle of Fort Sullivan. That bridge was rebuilt by the time of the Civil War.

In 1897 the causeway and bridge were sold to a group of investors that included Dr. Joseph S. Lawrence. Dr. Lawrence vision was to bring visitors from Charleston to Mount Pleasant via ferry, where they would catch the trolley that would take them across Sullivan’s Island to a new resort on the Isle of Palms The beautiful new mahogany, electric trolleys with leather seats ran down Middle Street on Sullivan’s Island. Today as you drive down Middle Street, every crossing street is still numbered as a trolley station. When we lived on the island in the 1980s, our home sat at the corner of Station 22 1/2 and Ion Avenue. The trolleys may be long gone, but the island is as incredible as ever.

Today, the Pitt Street Bridge Park is favorite place for residents and visitors to walk, cycle, socialize, enjoy bird watching, capture beautiful sunrises and sunsets, or simply to watch the boat traffic on the ICW and Charleston Harbor. I especially enjoy going to the Old Bridge on fall and spring mornings. In the fall the “snowbird” yachts are traveling from the Northeast to Florida for the winter. In the spring those same yachts are traveling back north for the summer. From an economic impact perspective, the ICW is like an interstate highway to many coastal small towns. Many large cities also enjoy economic benefits from the ICW, but sadly, don’t seem to share the small towns appreciation for transient and leisure boaters.

Valentines Day brings back memories of the many engagement and wedding pictures I’ve witnessed taken at the Old Bridge Park. When you visit the park throughout the year, you have to wonder how many of the couples you see snuggling to watch a sunset, or sitting on a quilt having dinner and quietly talking, will become one of the couples later having engagement and wedding pictures taken at the park.

There’s a lot of history at Mount Pleasant, SC’s Pitt Street Park, and a lot of memories are still being made there. And yes, a LOT of photographs are still being made there!

“Oh Captain My Captain“

One Year Ago There Wasn’t A Storm, But There Was “THUNDER”

11 Tuesday Aug 2020

Posted by “Oh Captain My Captain” in A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, Thinking Outside The Boat

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1974 Pinto, 427 Chevy BIG Block, Babineau Metal Works, Bowman Gray Stadium, Family, Friends, Gary Babineau, History, Life, NASCAR, NASCAR Modified racer, North Carolina, North Carolina Motorsports, Peace Haven Speedway, Proud to be an American, Racing, Reflections, SCCA Formula Vee, THUNDER, Truth, Winston-Salem, Zink C-4

August 11, 2020. Cruising the ICW is about cruising the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in a boat. But, racing and fast cars were my passion long before boats. This post is about THUNDER. When not CruisingTheICW aboard Slow Dance, there’s nothing better to cruise than THUNDER.

“Flat out ’til you see God, then BRAKE HARD!!!” Anonymous

One year ago, a dream came true. A NASCAR Modified came into my life — a vintage, street legal, NASCAR Modified appropriately named “THUNDER.” Having heard it cranked countless times over the past year, my neighbors consider the name appropriate. I’m not the only “motorhead” in our neighborhood, just the loudest.

As a child, I developed my confidence racing in the juvenile division of the Forsyth Micro Midget Club, in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC. My mother may have ended my “budding racing career,” but she could never erase the memories or my love of racing. I no longer needed Mother’s consent in the 1980s, when I started racing a Zink C-4 Formula Vee, in SCCA competition. I sold it in 1999 for us to buy our first cruiser.

The first time I saw NASCAR racing was in the early 1950s, at the half mile, dirt, Peace Haven Speedway, also in Winston-Salem. It was one of NASCAR’s first tracks, and hosted some of the biggest names in NASCAR racing. My Mother’s great uncle was one of the developers of the track.

Bowman Gray Stadium, a quarter-mile, paved oval, also in Winston-Salem, was another early NASCAR track. Since the stadium had lights, NASCAR began racing there every Saturday night during the racing season. I spent countless Saturday nights watching the modifeds and other NASCAR series race there. It led to my passion for the Modified Series. Sad to say, the closest I ever got to racing Modifieds was watching them.

Three years ago we were returning from a trip to our old hometown when on the other side of I-40 in Davie County, I saw a vintage Bowman Gray Stadium racer that had been converted to “street legal,” traveling Eastbound. If I’d been driving my old Land Cruiser, we would have crossed the median and chased him down just to get the story of the car. That one sighting lit a flame of desire for a “street legal” NASCAR Modified. Last year as we prepared to cruise the Chesapeake Bay for the summer, one appeared for sale online. We took delivery on it last August.

In the late 1970s, the car was built and raced in the NASCAR Northeast Modified Division. After retirement, it was eventually bought and converted to “street legal” by Gary Babineau, of Babineau Metal Works, in Auburn, IN. When it comes to sheet metal, Gary is an artistic genius, hence his claim to fame of building 19, authentic reproduction, 1960s vintage Indy racers, for museums and private collections. He did an equally masterful job with a little, red, 1974 Ford Pinto — South Carolina’s first, “street legal,” vintage, NASCAR Modified race car. I have never driven or raced anything that was video taped as much as THUNDER.