We hurried back to Charleston and Now We Wait and Wait and Wait

We returned to Charleston and picked up our RV which was in the hospital getting it’s first facelift of hopefully not many more to come.   I just figure the RV’s facelifts are way cheaper than mine would ever be.  So… I live vicariously.

SURPRISE!  When we picked it up, of course, it was not ready.  Funny, we must have had some strong stuff (apple pie moonshine or something) to drink because we really thought it would be.

Anyway the carpet and vinyl flooring had been removed and the engineered hardwood was installed along with the carpet in the living room slide and in the bedroom.

The washer and dryer were removed from the closet because they had to install the carpet underneath them.  Well wouldn’t you know, the “somebody” in the payroll that every business has, but no one really knows, forgot to reconnect the dryer vent to the dryer.   So, as luck would have it, I do a load of laundry and the entire bedroom fills with lint.  What the…

They replaced the door jams in the both the bedroom and bathroom with real wood and if you can believe this, you could put a finger between the jams and the doors when the doors are shut.  Also, you could open the bedroom door either way.  If not for the hinges, you would think I have a cafe door.

The carpet was removed from the steps leading up to the bathroom and bedroom and replaced it with engineered hardwood.  Well in their infinite wisdom they added a strip on the edge of each step,  of some other type of wood and it has about a 1/4 inch lip above the flooring, on which anyone could trip.

The Stainmaster mohawk carpet on the living room slide looks absolutely great, but needs to be cut back because when the slide goes in, about a foot gets squished by the kitchen island.

Oh, I leave the best for last.  We decided to replace the four door fridge with a residential fridge.  To those who do not know, there was a drawer under the four door fridge which had to be removed for the new fridge to fit into the opening, which was okay, except that they installed the fridge on the existing platform of the old fridge (right above the old drawer).  It looked good until I opened the fridge.  Since I am vertically challenged, I could not reach any of the top shelves.  I literally have to use a step stool to add or remove items from the top shelves.  It’s actually amusing.

Anyway, it’s a darn good thing that I am heavily medicated, otherwise the Cuban in me would have come out and it would not have been pretty.

In fairness, I think they bit off more than they could chew and they thought that they could finish the project while we stayed in the campground.  However, after realizing how much needs to done, they decided to take the RV back next week and correct all the pending items.  They are being extremely nice and will be putting us up in a cabin in the campground, so we won’t be too tremendously inconvenienced.

In the meantime, I’ll keep taking my happy pills and drink lots of wine.

I’ll keep you posted.

Our Week in Hilton Head

John had a conference in Sea Pines Plantation in Hilton Head Island, SC. and the dates coincided perfectly with the RV’s facelift.  So on we went to Sea Pines Plantation and stayed in a 1 bedroom condo overlooking the harbor with a view of the lighthouse in Harbortown.  The view was absolutely gorgeous.

View from our condo:

The view from a side street park:

We rode our bikes everywhere throughout Sea Pines, walked the beach, ate more food than we should have and we also did some drinking, oh well, you know, any meal without wine is called breakfast.

Some ride their bikes along the many beautiful shaded bike trails all along Hilton Head and some ride right on the sandy beaches.  All in all, this is just a wonderful place to ride.  Old or young, no matter and no worries.

During one of the many bike rides, I had put my phone in the basket of my bike, which happens to be pretty deep and is connected to the handle bars.  There was a terrible storm the night before and crews were out cleaning up the streets.  A lady was sweeping a bike path, and her cart was parked on the path so I had to ride over some small tree limbs on the street, the next thing I know, I look in the basket and my phone was just gone.  It was no longer in the basket.  After a few moments of freaking out, because in addition to all the pictures I could no longer retrieve, I keep my driver’s license and ATM card in the phone case.  I really had think about what could have happened but didn’t have a single clue, as I had not gotten off the bike, nor had I fallen, and I was only 10 minutes into the ride.  Fortunately, I was riding with my friend, Jenny Leggette.  I rode all the way back to the condo and returned empty handed.  Jenny suggested I use her phone to call mine.  No answer.  I was really puzzled, so then I called John, who was golfing, to ask him to please answer any incoming calls, regardless of the area code, since I was really hoping for some kind person to pick up the phone and have the decency to call him.  Oh well, my mind was full of thoughts on how long it would take to get my driver’s license again, how long it would take to get my ATM card reissued, etc., where would I ask them to be mailed to, etc.  

A little angel was listening to me and John received a call from a lady who had picked up my phone.  He then called Jenny, who sweetly made the arrangement for us to meet.  The lady apparently was an employee of Sea Pines who happened to be cleaning the sidewalk right where I rode over the small tree limbs.  Apparently, she found the phone on the ground right by the gutter.  It must have bounced out of the basket.   Good thing as it could have been gone forever.

Relief – nothing was missing!!  All was good in the world again.  There are still a handful of good, honest people out there.  

Question:  Do things happen to everyone as frequent as they happen to us?  I often wonder, as I think I would be good with a little less excitement.

Anyway, it was good seeing old friends and their wives and catching up.  By the end of the week we were ready to get back to our simple, normal life, haha, return to our home on wheels and pick up Jackson from doggy Taj Mahal.

Back to Charleston we go to wait for Camden.  I hear his head is down and he is ready, but apparently the oven door is still shut.

I’ll keep you posted!

The Other Sides of Charleston

Throughout the years, we have been to Charleston numerous times and each is always special.  To those who know me well, know that although the water remains “f” brown, it really is very beautiful.

Charleston will never lose its charm any time of the year and since we were going to stay in the area for an extended period of time waiting for baby Camden to make his appearance, we thought it would be fun to explore the surrounding areas.  We decided to drive around the surrounding islands.  The campground we stayed in is located in Johns Island, with is pretty rural and is really close to Wadmalaw Island, which is even more rural than Johns Island.  Wadmalaw Island, home to Irvin House Vineyards, grows muscadine wide.  Our friends Linda and Tommy Sexton from Beaufort joined us at the campground so we decided to visit the winery and participate in a tasting.  John and I agreed that we do not particularly care for sweet wine.

However, the same location hosts Firefly Distillery.  We also shared vodka tastings and that was a totally different story.  The lushes in us would not allow us to leave empty handed and we ended up purchasing different flavored vodkas and even walked out with apple pie moonshine, which by the way is AMAZING when you pour 2 spoonfuls on vanilla ice cream.  Apple pie moonshine is very smooth but very dangerous as it creeps up on you, kicks your butt very quickly, and trust me, even walking becomes a challenge.

While is Johns Island, our 10 year old bikes, which last year endured many, many, surgical procedures began to again demonstrate signs of illnesses.  So being the decent people we are,  (haha) we put them to sleep and bought new ones.  The new ones are GREAT!  They only have 3 speeds (not the 21 speeds and thousand chains we used to have) and you have to backpedal to brake.  Reminds me of when I was a kid and that keeps me on my toes as I keep squeezing the handle bars when I want to slow down only to realize – Oh darn the hands no longer control the brakes.  Because of that I’ve had a couple of “close” calls.  It’s much better now but I remain a slow learner.

We have begun to take daily rides and one of the really nice things this area has are great bike trails.  One such trail is the West Ashley Greenway, which is paved and/or graveled throughout and is mostly shaded by beautiful oak trees and intertwines throughout neighborhoods and marshlands.  You can see all kinds of wildlife in their natural habitat while “attempting to exercise and lose weight”.  Well, I don’t know about the weight loss I’m sure that will come by maybe Christmas, but I’m getting really good at laundry! 🙂

Our Beaufort friends invited us to see Beaufort and its surrounding areas like a native so we took them up on their invitation and drove south.  We had lunch at a small little place called Shrimp Shack for shrimp burgers, which we had never had before and so thoroughly enjoyed.

We were also taken to Hunting State Park,

walked the beach and drove by the lighthouse.

We then went to Paris Island.  Tommy is a Marine and went through boot camp here in preparation for Vietnam, so he was able to take us on an up close and personal tour, which was amazingly touching as John’s dad, also a Marine, walked these streets 70 years ago, as he prepared to fight for our freedom during WWII in Okinawa.

Next week, the unit goes to RV hospital for its facelift.  We decided that we do need a residential refrigerator.  We also don’t like the carpet or flooring it came with, so we will have all the floors resurfaced with engineered hardwood and a Stainmaster Mohawk carpet on the bedroom and slide.  In the meantime, we are off to Hilton Head for a week.

See you soon!


 

Finally, we got to see the kids in Charleston, SC

We arrived in Charleston and are staying at Oak Plantation which is located on US 17 (Savannah Highway).  This is one of the prettiest campgrounds we’ve stayed at.  Oak trees are everywhere.  Our site has no trees, but that suits us just fine as that way we are able to get satellite reception.

We were able to connect with Randy and Carolyn and meet them for a quick dinner, close to their new apartment in Daniel Island and got to see the nursery for the very first time.  Our excitement is building!!!!

Katrina flew from Cheyenne, Wyoming into Atlanta and drove in with Carolyn’s youngest sister, Lindsay, to attend Carolyn’s baby shower Saturday.  It was held at her sister, Jenny’s home and she baked the most amazing coconut cake, which only took her 10 hours to complete.  She began the process on Thursday and asked if I would consider helping her wrap some presents, which, of course I was more than willing to do.  Well, while I wrapped, she began following some gourmet recipe from some gourmet Charleston chef.  The experience was rough to say the least!  I never knew how bad Hell’s Kitchen could really be.  She is a much better woman than I as I would never have ventured into even trying to bake, especially a complex recipe, and would have gone straight to plan B (Publix) even before my very first obstacle.  On her fourth attempt, it did turn out amazing and it was a real labor of love.  God bless her.

Apparently, the campground must be somewhere in the boondocks because we get every thunderstorm that passes by.  On Friday night, it rained and rained and thundered and thundered.  That was not enough.  We lost power, our neighbor was picked up by rescue and was taken to the hospital, we got hit by lightning and our surge protector paid the ultimate price, but it dutifully did its job and protected ALL our appliances.  We survived the following day by using the generator in the meantime.  We called in a tech to rewire the surge protector so that it could still work in the unlike event we got hit by lightning again.  We ended up searching all over for a new switch, found and ordered one and it will be arriving soon.  The tech will have to come out again and properly rewire the surge protector again.

The shower was just lovely.  Carolyn’s aunts surprised her by attending from out of town and she was all smiles.

John and I took Randy, Carolyn and Katrina for dinner at Halls Chophouse.  Reservations need to be made months in advance and Carolyn, being the planner she is, took care of this detail and that was wonderful.  I’ve had many steak dinners, but I do have to admit I had the most exquisite filet on the bone I have ever enjoyed.  We all enjoyed our meals and had a wonderful time.

You all know how this Facebook thing works.  We posted being at Halls and wouldn’t you know it, our neighbors, Kim and Rob Loranger happened to also be in town, so we met them at a neighborhood bar and kept having fun.

Sunday night we met John’s cousin Vivian and her husband Skip at Fleet Landing in downtown Charleston for dinner and to Kaminsky for dessert and coffee and drinks.  For whatever reason we had never been to any of these establishments and we obviously missed great treats.

  
On Monday we drove to Kiawah Island and took Jackson to Beachwalker  County Park which is the only dog beach in the area.  Of course, as soon as he sees sand, he starts hunting for crabs.  It’s actually pretty funny to watch.  On our way back we drove on a dirt road for who knows how long to visit Angel Oak, which is estimated to be about 1400-1500 years old.   This is a site not to be missed if you are in the area.

The switch for the surge protector arrived and the unit got rewired so we are now protected against any more power fluctuations.  Let’s just hope the coming storm approaching this week continues its northeast track and totally misses us.  If it’s at all the same, I would rather not have to deal with any more power outages and for that matter rain.

We are getting ready to watch Belgium v. USA and will catch up with you later.