Ugh, I am sorry to hear about your luck!
I fly CO quite frequently out of CHS and I NEVER take the 430 or the 645pm. They are some of the most frequently delayed flights going into EWR. I usually take a 6am on Sunday or the noon flight but mainly on Sundays.

The CO crew at CHS are VERY good and I frequently rave about them to HQ. When I was at the CO DO this past Feb, I pulled one of the route schedulers aside and literally begged for another flight since all 3 of our CHS-EWR are booked pretty full most of the week. I even begged for our CLE flight back due to such horrible delays on the CHS-EWR route. There are no easy ways to AVP through EWR or PHL as the delays can be quite frequent and long. Next time, I would book the first flight of the day out of CHS into EWR or take UA through IAD to ensure you get there on time.

Hope you got there in time for some turkey....You are missing some great weather here!!