RV Adventures With Edna: 'Soda City', South Carolina

Today we spent the day wandering in Columbia, South Carolina, also known to the locals as "Soda City." Note that no inventing or manufacturing of soda ever happened here and that the nickname actually comes from an early abbreviation of Columbia, or "Cola."

We discovered a small park and this memorial to Jack Linwood Van Loan. His name probably won't ring a bell but the place 'Maison Centrale' might. Can you guess what it's more notable name is?

This city likes its murals so any respectable adventure blog will include them. And what's not to like about a quirky statue of the world's largest fire hydrant? Standing almost 40 ft tall, it comes complete with signs that say "no dogs within 50 ft."

If you're a 90's music fan, you may recall that Hootie and the Blowfish are from Columbia, South Carolina. A rather unimpressive statue awaits any fan and thankfully it's a freebie. Their debut album Cracked Rear View was pretty darn good in my opinion. Can you name any of their tunes? Next trivia question - the band's lead vocalist started a solo r&b career, then later hit the country charts. Who was it?

I had my first ice cream of the trip and the butter pecan cookie waffle cone did not disappoint. Mango held off on the ice cream but did try a vegan sloppy joe that he said was very good. Needless to say, I don't need to worry about making dinner.

We wandered around Mast General Store and found a jigsaw puzzle we had to have then it was back to the campground just in time for happy hour. We were disappointed to learn that the campground is not renting out kayaks right now as we were looking forward to some time on the pond before we move on. But the 2 mile loop around the pond (last picture) is available if exercising makes it to the top of the priority list.

'Maison Centrale' is better known as the Hanoi Hilton. Van Loan was a POW there for 6 years along with fellow inmate John McCain. Darius Rucker was the lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish.

-June