How to Prepare for your Trip to Charleston (Part 1)

“Doing Your Homework”
by Amy Tankersley

If this is the first thing you’ve ever read by me, stop now and go back to the beginning. The material in those first two postings will be on your final exam.

Preparing in advance will save you time once you get here. And we all know that time is money. Research our weather and attractions, so that you don’t end up like so many other tourists we see every day: stumbling around, too hot or too cold, not knowing what to do. (Although they do supply us with comic relief.) But if you take my walking tour and read all my postings, and take all my advice, you’ll become part of my inner circle. Your vacation will be better, and you can join me in laughing at all the unenlightened.
In our extreme seasons, winter and summer, I see people over-or-under dressed for the day; they are unhappy and have to stop everything to go buy an umbrella, extra clothing, or medication of some kind. Look up our weather by googling Live 5 news, and if you want to go the extra mile and get an idea of our historic weather averages for the season, google Average weather for Charleston SC. This all sounds so obvious, but apparently it’s not.

Medication: I mean over-the-counter stuff we all need everyday. For the record, if you are safely in my hands, I will always have my little pharmacy available for headaches, pain, allergies, diarrhea, etc. Recently, a man’s wife could not leave her hotel room due to diarrhea. I just happened to be working the sales desk for our carriage company that day. He came to ask where a pharmacy was. He would have had to walk somewhere to buy meds and come back, wasting valuable vacation time, but I had immodium for him to give her immediately. She was able to normalize that much quicker, in time to get on our last carriage of the day. I’ve also given out Benadryl for people allergic to horses. But Auntie Amy cannot be with you every minute, as fun as that would be. So carry a pill box with small amounts of everything you could possibly need.

Brainstorm with each other as if you were going camping. Here is a list you can start with, and add to or subtract from, as your needs apply:

• Season-appropriate clothing and remember that “average” means it will most likely
  be a little cooler or a little warmer than that, so bring a good range.
• Comfy shoes. Heels are sexy, but their glamour fades on a cobblestone street. (Although I have enjoyed a good laugh or two at a tourist’s expense.)  So join Auntie Amy’s elite inner circle and enjoy your vacation.
• Umbrella for each person we have a high rainfall average. Get the minis that can fit
  in purses, backpacks, or cargo pants side pockets.
• Men-get cargo pants or shorts. There will be lots of stuff to take along- a mini
  umbrella, camera, water bottle. Fill up those pockets and free up your hands. Stop making your
  poor wife carry everything.
• Custom-made tiny pharmacy. You’ll need to nurse that hangover in the morning.
• Camera or good camera on your phone. Delete some stuff now to make room, because T.G.C.I.T.W needs all the room you can get plus more. Buy extra chips.
• Shade hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, mosquito repellant
• An open mind, a sense of humor,and patience.

Absorb this for now. I will expand on some of these subjects in a later post, especially numbers 1, 2, 8, and 17. Tootles, Amy.