Interesting Characters

Two Mules, Charleston, SC  -  2013

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

On our most recent trip to Charleston I had intended to make more photos of "interesting characters", tourists and locals who caught my eye for some reason. Sometimes it's their attire, other times it's what they're doing at the time. I got a few of these kind of photos, but I didn't exert as much effort in this direction as I originally intended.

All over downtown Charleston one will see carriages pulled by horses or mules giving tours of the downtown area. I guess because I've had pets for most of my life I tend to assign personality to some animals, probably more than is deserved. Anyway, if I could describe these mules and horses in one word it would be "bored". They spend all day pulling their carriages along the same streets day after day. I'm sure they are well cared for, considering they are revenue producers. Even so, none of them looked really happy about what they were doing. Can a mule even be happy? I don't know. The weather was very mild while we were there, so they didn't look overworked. I don't think I could bear to take one of those carriage rides in the heat of summer, however. I'm sure the mules don't enjoy working on those hot city streets when the temperatures are in the 90s.

These two mules were taking a break while their carriage was waiting for another load of tourists to show up. I thought they were about as interesting as any humans I had seen that day, so I added their picture to my collection.