My travel buddy gistrailblazer and I drove through some worse than usual Charlotte, NC traffic yesterday, all during an epic deluge which was part of a system which created tornadoes and flooding.

Given those circumstances, we decided to get a cheap motel room rather than press on to Congaree National Park where we had a campsite reserved. Though we were disappointed in this change of plan, it was definitely the safe thing to do.

We resumed our plan this morning and spent several hours at the park and in Congaree Wilderness Area. Given the amount of standing water near the campsite where we would have been staying, we both feel confident that we didn’t really miss out when we bailed to a motel room.

I was really happy I got a chance to visit Congaree despite the bad weather.

The ecosystem of Congaree National Park is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. It was really good for my brain to be confronted with something so different.

In the afternoon we headed to a National Park Service site called “96.” I gave our shuttle driver a call to confirm our plans and we have no reason to expect equally ridiculous weather once we are on the trail.