The first day was memorable. We started our day by jumping on the trolley and heading to South Battery Street, where we walked along the roads and roads of beautiful, expensive homes. We then headed uptown to The Old Exchange building, which is built on the site of the old Charleston wall. We took the tour, which allowed us to see a portion of the old wall and learned the history of the area. Later, we browsed some art galleries and went to the Nathanial Russell House for a tour.
That evening we had a reservation at The Charleston Grill, which is an AAA four diamond restaurant in the Charleston Place Hotel. We had made reservations about a week before. The service was unbelievable, and we ate like we hadn't eaten in days. To be honest, we barely ate all day, so we wouldn't over do it with calories. Joe had a pork dish, and I had red snapper with grits. For dessert Joe had homemade ice cream, and I had the best crème bruelle I had ever tasted. The food was top rate.
When we left, we both felt a little bloated, and Joe was complaining that he was having a hard time digesting his food and he felt somewhat gassy. In the middle of the night he woke up, saying he didn't feel well and he was in severe pain. We thought he needed something to help digest his food, so we headed down to a 24 hour grocery store and got some Gas-X and a few other things.
The next morning he still felt somewhat bad, but he seemed to be doing better than the day before, so we decided to head down to Savannah for the day. We spent the good part of the day there. We took a trolley tour, looked around at some shops, and spent a few hours at the Riverwalk area. Then, we started to head back. Joe slept most of the way back. He was tired, since he had not slept the night before. He woke up about a half hour before we were back to Charleston, and said he was in a lot of pain and he needed to head to a hospital. As fate would have it, our hotel room was right next to a hospital, so we both spent all Friday night, from around 6 until midnight, in the ER. The doctor said he would be admitting Joe to the hospital, so I went back to sleep in our hotel room.
In the morning, I went back to visit Joe at the hospital and they were running some tests, which took forever. I guess they needed to call in someone to perform the ultra sounds, but they had forgotten to do that. Around 3 or so, Joe was getting really anxious to get out. He said he didn't feel much better, but he didn't want to just sit around in a hospital bed.
They told us Joe needed his gallbladder removed. The doctor informed us that there was a stone lodged, which was causing the pain. We had two options: we could have it removed there or wait until we got back to Raleigh. Joe decided he wanted to get out of the hospital, and he would just have it taken out when he got back home in a few days. The doctors released Joe and we got copies of his tests, so we could bring it to a surgeon back home.
Once we started to head back to Raleigh, we were both exhausted from the ordeal, and couldn't wait to get home. I drove all the way home, which was about 4.5 hours, since Joe was on pain medication. I was so tired. I had to stop to take a couple of power naps on the way back. The second stop I made was at a rest stop. I pulled over for about 20 minutes and shut off my car. I took a nap and headed to the rest room. When I came back to the car it was starting to rain pretty hard. I turned the car and the car wouldn't start. I turned the key again, the car still wouldn't start. I could get the radio to run and so forth, but the engine did not want to start.
Joe and I sat there or a few minutes. We figured we would just try to start the car in about five or 10 minutes. We tried it again and the car just wouldn’t start. We called AAA to have someone came jump start our car. We didn't even know where we were, just that we were on a rest stop of 95, so it was hard to give the telephone representative directions to where we were. I was so tired when I was driving, I had not paid attention to the exit signs.
After about an hour, AAA showed up and started out car and we were off. We were so afraid to stop the car again, so we did not stop the car again until we got home.
Joe had his gallbladder removed later that week and he was out of work for about three weeks. As for the car, I didn't drive it for about a week, since I was afraid I would have more issues, but when I eventually started driving it again it was fine. I had the battery tested at a garage and they said it still had full battery life. Joe and I have no idea why the car wouldn't start at that rest stop. It doesn't make much sense to us, but one thing is for sure, we'll always remember Charleston.
Links:
The Old Exchange
The Charleston Grill
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