"Following where my camera leads me!"

"Following where my camera leads me!"

Friday, January 31, 2020

Front Porch of the lowcountry and a Bed/Breakfast to Avoid

We went to a small town called Walterboro recently.
Scenes along the way:














The town's symbol is the red rocking chair




Tansy spots one, and climbs it to go sit in it, LOL


This chair is SO BIG, I FEEL like a little Tansy in it! ha ha LOL




I thought y'all would get a kick out of seeing this big red rocking chair! I loved it. Think I'll put one in our yard! ha ha Just kidding.








We took a pretty long hike here and enjoyed all the pretty scenes--trees, blue sky, bridges, water.








The trails beckon.......


























thirsty girls!!




I was intrigued by this old peeling white house!










"Spike" the guard dog out by his dog house! LOL


The water tower below was built in 1915 and is over 130 feet tall. It's made of concrete and holds 100,000 gallons of water. The base holds 3 JAIL CELLS! back in the old days, travellers could actually bed down here for the night if they could not afford a hotel stay. Yep...they slept in the jailhouse! LOL






The town has lots of pretty old houses and churches.
We were now starving for supper! After driving around, Mr. Front Porch spotted this:
Nothing fancy....but good old fashioned country cooking! There was a sweet kitty wandering the parking lot.










the menu had lots of choices!! Hard to decide.....
I got a fish sandwich...it was so big! And the onion rings were so good!




Just loved the food....highly recommend this place! And the prices were great.
sweet "tater" fries and a Club sandwich
And the girls each got plain cheeseburgers! LOL When we travel with the dogs, we get our food to go and usually find a park or playground to eat.

I would NOT recommend this place:
It's a bed and breakfast.
I was told there was a lovely free doll display in there, so we drove in, there was really no signs or anything directing you to parking...so we went over where other cars were parked, and I got out and headed up to the porch. We had the dogs with us, so Mr. Front Porch stayed in the vehicle with them and settled in with a book to wait on me.
A man came out on the porch and I had no idea who he was, he could've been a guest staying there, or another customer, delivery person---whatever.
He put his hands up in the gesture that says " stop--go back!" and  says "what are you here for?"
I smiled (because I always smile at people, and I am friendly! LOL) and  told him I'd heard about the pretty doll display and had come to see it, I had no idea who this man was, he never identified himself as the owner/manager/employee but he started taking steps towards me with his hands still saying "stop, go back".
He said "if you didn't make an appointment---you can't come in".
I was surprised and thought it quite rude.

He said "my wife hurt her foot" and I replied, as one does--"so sorry to hear that--I hope she will be ok".It probably would've ended right there because I have no idea what kind of staff this place has and if the wife's hurt foot meant they couldn't prepare/set out the evening snacks/tea/wine/cookies/whatever or check in guests or prepare tomorrow's breakfast, but THEN.....
 And  I couldn't believe it--but he used his hands in the motion you use for small children or dogs---the hands showing the "shoo- go away!!" motion. By now I'd figured out we weren't welcome here!! ha ha

He said "we have a BIG GROUP checking in in a little while" (again, "shoo-ing me away with his hands as if I were a pest). I'm thinking "yep, they are more important than us because $$$, and you could care less about securing future customers--that much is very clear." 

If I ran a bed/breakfast or an inn, and I couldn't accomodate you whatever reason (rooms full, no appointment made, etc.) I would AT LEAST apologize and say "well, sorry for the misunderstanding....PLEASE feel free to look around at the gardens if you like, and let's set you up with a future appointment"......I also would've said "and if you like...please come in for a short bit and you can see our pretty lobby/staircase/fireplace/dining area (whatever the most attractive points are)  in case you want to make future reservations and again, so sorry that we couldn't accomodate you today, but we sure hope to see you in the future! and I'll give you some brochures to take with you."

(never let a potential customer leave  your premises without a business card and current phone number, some brochures and a postcard, I would think?---I spent many years working in the hospitality/hotel industry and that's one of the first things I learned)

Mr. Front Porch and I have a long history of  staying in  many inns and bed and breakfasts in many states over the years, (so we definetly know and understand the procedures and the accomodations etc.) and all of them were very happy to show us around their beautiful properties (brief tour)....hoping to get our business of course. Alot of times we would go look at properties to see what they were like before we would even make reservations.

So much for "Southern hospitality" at this place.

I give hundreds of good reviews on things to go see and do in the Charleston area and beyond, (from free and cheap, to pricey and elegant!) and I rarely give a "bad review" but this place just "took the cake". LOL

Walterboro's slogan is "front porch of the lowcountry"---this man wouldn't even let me ON THE PORCH!" ha ha LOL

Other than this place, Walterboro was a very nice clean little town, proud of it's history, and had very friendly people.