USA Road Trip - Southern Food in South Carolina

Sunday in Manning, South Carolina was one of the highlights of the trip as we attended worship at the Keitt Rd. Church of Christ. Everyone in the congregation was so friendly, the Bible Study well presented and the sermon excellent, but the cherry on top was the fellowship lunch after worship that we were invited to attend. “ You won’t be sorry”, the local preacher said, “The Low Country food is really good” and so it proved to be. The previous evening we had gone to Wall-mart to buy one of their delicious fried chickens only to be really disappointed when we were told they were sold out – perhaps we should have expected that in this area. The cheese and ham sandwiches were not really what we had been dreaming about all day.

The lunch however was evidence that the Lord looks after his children and apart from the great chicken, the corn casserole, fried beans, potato salad, sweet yams, chicken neck stew and three choices of cake that still make my mouth water, the friendly conversation and jokes we enjoyed was wonderful. After the meal, on instruction from the preacher, we were given two huge take away boxes and he told Audrey, “ Fill it up, Johan is not going to share his with you!” How right he was! When we finally got to our hotel room in Jacksonville, Georgia, that evening I wish you could have seen Audrey’s face as she tucked into her chicken and vegetables and I must admit she did share her chocolate cake with me. Life is good! Oh yes I forgot to mention that we were the only white faces at worship and two of the hymns they sang were two Buffalo Flats favorites that we had not heard since we left South Africa – no wonder we felt so at home!

Then it was on to Florida and making good time we arrived at Jessie and Errol’s place at Boynton Beach with a sigh of relief that could be heard for many miles. Matilda had made it with hardly a hiccup. What a star she has been – 30 States, over 12000 miles and all she needed was some work on her back brakes and electrical system, a couple of quarts of oil and a service, and here she is. She provided us with many nights of sleeping space and a safe journey in spite of conditions that varied from temperatures in the 100 plus to freezing cold weather and snow. She was not all that fuel efficient (measured her at 13 miles to the gallon today) but someone had to kick start the USA economy. For an elderly lady of 20 years she was “a beaut!” as the Aussies would say and lived up to her name, 'waltzing Matilda'. When we do the final lap back to Oklahoma we trust she will continue to do Charlie and us proud and continue to provide us with such reliable transport. Must say I have a new respect for Ford and American engineering.