The hot, humid south. After the temperate weather in Vermont I was longing for a good southern summer. We applied for travel positions in Savannah, GA and after waiting for a month to hear back from the hospitals there, we expanded our search to Charleston, SC. A few weeks later we got a callback from a rehab in the city, and we were southward bound!

When we pulled into the Charleston military base that would be our home for the next three months the sweat was already dripping off of our brows. I got my fill of summer heat in the first day there, and Stephan teased my for the rest of the time about how much I’d wanted the hot summer we were now swimming in. The base was bare bones, concrete parking lots and a bathroom trailer that no longer worked. It did offer security that the rest of the city campgrounds couldn’t provide, and we enjoyed being able to bike to the base gym and shop at the NEX.

The city was chaos, during our first week there we stopped at a railroad crossing and watched as the rails went down and car after car continued to drive straight past the barriers. The next day we were passed by a high speed police chase, and every day sirens blared down the streets passing the base as law enforcement headed to new emergencies. Both Stephan and I had grown up in the south, but after life in tranquil Idaho, and neighbor centered Vermont, it was hard to remember what appeal southern charm held. New buildings were popping up on every street in the pretty downtown areas, and the streets were covered in tourists.

The one thing we did find in Charleston that we had missed elsewhere was community! My brother connected us with some friends from a group called No Place Left, and within our first week we were connected to a church and had a stable network of like minded people that grounded us, and helped make the crazy city feel like home. They opened their homes to us when the hurricane season put the campground into lockdown and forced us to leave our camper for the weekend. They fed us lunch every Sunday, prayed with us and for us, and challenged us to grow.

After our three months in the south were over we were more then ready to get out of there. The south will always be my home, but I feel that many things are changing there, and not necessarily for the better. The cities have become overcrowded, and life there sometimes feels frantic in its rush for success. It has beautiful spots, and many people I love very much, but I’ve grown to appreciate the slower pace of life that the less crowded midwest offers. We got our fill of hot humid southern summer, and we were ready to head west again!