The soundtrack in my mind has changed, of course.

We left Charleston this morning, driving through the suburbs past “tires for hire” and the Piggly Wiggly supermarket.

We passed so many churches we lost count, but the church we spotted when we stopped in Summerville won the prize for the most original setting.

We’d read about Summerville and its reputation as the home of “Sweet Tea”, a southern speciality.

Enjoying a walk around this cute small town with a cup of sweet tea in hand, Mary spotted a sign worth pursuing.

People, Places and Quilts is a charming store with several rooms full of fabric and gorgeous samples.  My hero found a comfy sofa with a book of Gary Larsson cartoons to entertain him, so we were all happy.

I rather liked the pinboard with paper patterns displayed – how things used to be done pre-technology.

We were heading for Augusta today though, so rather than linger longer in Summerville, we hit the road again.

These long straight roads are a great opportunity for me to set up the “studio” in the back of the van and catch up on some of my journal.

Today was a page about the ice cream in Charleston and another with the plantations on.  I managed to complete most of the cutting and sticking, leaving the writing until I have a steady table to sit at.

Thankfully, I’d more or less cleared away before we had to screech to a halt.

I managed a decent photo of the sign for Denmark, South Carolina.

We’re in Coca-Cola country here and some vintage signs are starting to appear.

The Heritage Corridor was signposted all the way, but we had no idea what it was about until now.  I took a photo to remind me to look it up later!

By now we were heading into Georgia and my hero had instructions to give me plenty of notice so I could have my camera ready to take a photo of the “Welcome to Georgia” sign.

The border was the Savannah River.  I sat with camera in hand, at the ready.

And the silly auto focus decided I wanted a clear shot of those blips on the windscreen.  Bleh.

Hey ho.  Here were were in no time, downtown Augusta, Georgia.

We’re only here overnight, so wanted to make the most of our time and headed straight for the History Museum.

We’re in cotton country here, and with Diana, our guide, pointing out the highlights, we spent a happy hour learning a little about the area.

There were displays to tell the story of Augusta from the very first people until the present day.  Our favourite?

This old fire engine with its highly polished detail and those two “armchairs” up front.

Of course, golf featured quite large in the story.

As did the Godfather of Soul.  (change of soundtrack!)

Augusta was not exactly busy on this Saturday afternoon and we had the museum more or less to ourselves and really appreciated the 1:1 attention from Diana, too.

It was pretty empty outside too!  I can’t imagine many places where downtown on a Saturday afternoon looks like this, can you?

Though there are interesting buildings here and there, sadly we won’t have time to explore further.  We’ll just have to read a little more and find out what we missed.

We soon found out where everyone was this afternoon, though – at the Mall!

We were headed for our hotel though; another Hilton brand but one which is new to us.  We have a spacious bedroom…

a bathroom, of course,

and an enormous sitting room

and kitchen/work area.  It’s a little excessive for just one night, but it’s good to stretch our legs a bit!  Mary has almost the same set up too – we ought to have arranged a party!!

Instead, we did what everyone else was doing this evening