Cooper River Bridge Run - Wheelchair Racers 2018

Cooper River Bridge Run, Wheelchair Race, Charleston, SC   

I am so impressed with the wheelchair racers that it motivates me to get up bright and early on bridge run day to catch them. They start the race early at 7:25 am and are first over. They basically cross the bridge with their arm muscle power. Incredible athletes. Congratulations to all!

Thelma & Louise Charleston Style!

Thelma & Louise, Charleston Style!

I've been taking enough weekend road trips with my friend Rosie that folks have laughingly called us Thelma & Louise. I can't help it. She loves to drive and I aim to be the perfect sidekick. We haven't decided who is who, there have been no Brad Pitt sightings and luckily there are no cliffs in the lowcountry but the tag name stuck in my head. Thelma & Louise, Thelma & Louise....what could we do with that?

I happen to have just the right gang of talented friends to pull together a morning of silliness and this is what we came up with! Thanks to my friend, co-worker and photographer Leah Sparks - who usually concentrates on photographing birds in swamps, convertible owner and set designer Laura and fashion consultant Lisa, we almost killed ourselves laughing.

After I wound my wild hair back on top of my head and Leah wiped the raindrops off her lens we headed to the Fish House at Patriot's Point for lunch with perhaps the best view in town.

Thanks ladies! I am still grinning!

To see what Leah usually takes pictures of and prints to consider for purchase check out her website at: L.S. Photography

Happy birthday to our bridge!

Grace Bride, Cooper River, Charleston, SC

This is the picture I wanted to duplicate when they closed the old Cooper River Bridge. The last cars to drive over it were to be the Model A Club cars just like the first stream of cars to drive over it.

I went with my camera and camped out on the Mt. Pleasant side waiting for the parade of cars. The catch was that the participants were having such a good time, waving, enjoying the scenery and posing for pictures that they didn't arrive in a stream of vehicles but one after another. I couldn't duplicate the shot but I did get a picture of almost every car. What a fun ride that must have been.

 Our bridge is ten years old this weekend and a lot of festivities are planned. Happy birthday!

Happy New Year! 2014

Cooper River Bridges - old and new, Charleston, S.C.

Happy New Year kids! Thanks for hanging in there with me through 2013. Your comments and emails certainly added pleasure to my year. Now we have a whole new year to play with. Let's try to make it interesting. I enjoyed a lovely early dinner out at Rue de Jean last night with a group of friends. It was the perfect way to end the year. Now, after a lazy morning, I am heading out for my first walk in the new year.

Cheers to a new year. May it bring good things to you and your loved ones.

The photo is one of the last cars over the old Cooper River Bridges before they were demolished. They had a parade of vintage cars cross over before they put the barricades up.

Spring time glory

Magnolia Plantation Gardens, Charleston, S.C.

Magnolia Gardens pulls me like a magnet at this time of year. It is impossible to resist and you can see why. How perfectly lovely. I did a quick walk through the blossoms and the swamp walk happily clicking away. Photographers were tripping over themselves today with all the latest equipment, long lenses and tripods. I slipped in between them, snapped a couple shots and skipped along my merry way.

Cooper River Bridge run in the morning, kids. Who is running?

Down memory lane - led by Grace

Grace Memorial Bridge, Charleston, S.C.

Here is a trip down memory lane for you. The photo above was taken when a parade of Model A Ford's were the first cars over the new Grace Memorial bridge crossing the Cooper River in 1929. When the bridge was closed in 2005 to make way for the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, a parade of vintage cars were the last to cross it.

I waited on the Mt. Pleasant side to get a re-enactment of the earlier view but the vehicles came across the bridge one by one with passengers waving, celebrating and taking pictures so it didn't work out quite the same. Still, it was a festive occasion and I'm glad I was there to capture it.

Does anyone else remember the old rickety roller coaster ride of a bridge? Nothing beats Frank Starmer's photo story of the building of the new Cooper River bridge and demolition of the old ones. The opening of the bridge and fireworks display was just grand and felt like a city wide party.

More Bridge Run 2010

Cooper River Bridge Run 2010, King St., Charleston, s.C.

I've had well over a 1,000 hits from folks searching for Cooper River Bridge Run pictures. Here are a couple more to tide you over while you keep searching for the official site with your picture.

I'm off to bed, kids. Turn the lights out.

You know you are from Charleston if.......

Model A Club crossing the Cooper River Bridge, Charleston, S.C.

These are just a few of over 600 entries on the Facebook "You know you are from Charleston, S.C. if..........." site:

You know you are from Charleston, S.C. if....

The smell of a marsh makes you homesick.
You eat rice with every meal.
You don't understand cities that have to keep electing new mayors.
You've mowed your lawn on Christmas.
You've killed a cockroach with your bare hand.
Unless a cockroach is bigger than your hand, it's just a baby - no big deal.
The construction signs say "Let 'Em Work, Let 'Em Live"
You've seriously considered climbing on top of the Coburg Cow to take a picture.
It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy.
You get excited when you see a guy selling boiled peanuts out the back of a pickup.
You know not to pick up the orange "Half Rubbers with flags" that are found in the puddles on downtown streets.
People actually grow and eat okra.
You know exactly when high tide is - even if you don't own a boat.
You've driven over all the Cooper River Bridges.

Yours?