May 2, 2026 -- Florence, South Carolina To Hilton Head

Hilton Head

May 3, 2026

Iamout of the rhythm of writing my blog posts. This one will be out of sequence, but I wanted to capture my thoughts about the second leg of my drive from Charlottesville to Hilton Head.

Friday I drove the fast route to Florence by taking I64 to Richmond and then joining the masses driving I95 south. My detour into Wilson, NC was very worthwhile but the drive on 95 was as expected -- not much to see at 75 MPH.

When I got in my car yesterday morning in Florence, I realized I had pretty much all day to get to HHI as I could not check into my Airbnb until 4 PM. I drove a bit on I95 and ventured off at the Manning exit --and exit I have blown by my entire life. Classic old South Carolina small town with a nice enough downtown, some beautiful antebellum homes (as well as some in poor condition). From Manning I decided to take backroads to Hilton Head --and backroads they were. Some US routes (why there are four-lane highways in the middle of nowhere I don't understand), some state routes, some county roads and some neighborhood roads. No sizable populated places -- certainly no Walmarts, and not even Dollar Generals. I saw a lot of mobile homes, some double wides. They say South Carolina is growing quickly but certainly not in the areas I drove through -- at least to Walterboro. Even there, a town of several thousand people, it looked sleepy and somewhat forgotten.

And even from Walterboro to about Bluffton, the area looked poor. But not Bluffton -- that town has boomed over the past 20 years. I took Lucian there his sophmore year of high school for a spring break baseball tournament. It was a nice place but I almost don't recognize it now with all the growth.

As always, the last 10 miles of so before coming over the bridge to HHI was busy with traffic.

Not sure I have captured all my thoughts about my drive yesterday. I live in my bubble of Charlottesville. It, I think the word is, "bothers" me when I see the poor areas of South Carolina. I am not being critical of the people as I am sure there are great folks in these rural areas. It is just that my world dances through areas that have some wherewithal, and in some cases you could call it affluence. I struggle with the differences in appearances between those areas and the poor areas. I'll need to ponder that more.