Last day of 2014; nothing pleasant - Yr 1, Day 191

Hardeeville, SC (near Savannah, GA)

It was a very stressful day for me because of this job.  I gave it up at around 9pm, got up at 1:00 to work another hour, and worked from 8am until about 6pm.  Still could not meet the deadline due to the client's sytem being really f*d up.  I needed to work with support in India to help me figure it out, but even they couldn't.  Got the sales rep on the phone who was able to troubleshoot and determined that whoever set up the accounts previously didn't do it right, which is why I couldn't get any reports to run.  I needed to finish the task by 5pm, but we finally found the problem at 4:00 and I had about 2500 records that needed to be corrected first.  Client understands and agreed I can finish this up tomorrow.  But it was a lot of high anxiety all day.

Mitch spent the day restringing the blinds to replace the neon pink that he used last time.  For some reason, this time around it took twice as long and after putting them back up, he discovered it wasn't strung correctly, so he'll have to do it all over again tomorrow.

The weather seemed fairly nice - not bright and sunny, but some sun peaking through the clouds.  Neither of us stepped one foot outside the CoW.

It is now 8:00pm and we are both feeling a bit tired and cranky, not even in the mood to play our yearly Scrabble game or even drink.  Maybe we'll just do what we do most nights - veg out in front of the tv and watch some downloaded shows. 

I will end this blog by saying that we have a lot to be thankful for this past year.  Despite some obstacles (delays in the house closing and my dislocated hip), our RV'ing dream came true and other than my hip, we've had good health.  We ended the year with a new addition to the family, our grandpuppy, Ellie - welcome!

Downtown Savannah -Yr 1, Day 190

Hardeeville, SC (near Savannah, GA)

I have a lot of work and a very critical deadline to meet (by 5:00pm tomorrow), but we decided to take the afternoon off.  The idea was to drive around somewhat aimlessly, to explore the area and get a feel for what's around (nothing at all).  Somehow we landed up driving to downtown Savannah, something we had planned for a different (nicer weather) day.  But I'm glad we did, as we got a good feel for the lay of the land.  There is so much walking to do.  This would be a really great place to use our urb-e's -- if only they were available already!

So here is my impression of what I saw in Savannah:

- On the drive from Hardeeville, SC over the bridge (crossing over Hutchinson Island), the skyline was very depressing.  There are a lot of large factories and old buildings - nothing beautiful to look at.  Entering the city limits, it was evident that it was a very run down industrial area, and it looked like many of the factories had closed down.  Houses, if you could even call them that, were dilapidated. 

- As we got more into the central downtown area, it appeared more like a city with old buildings.  Streets were somewhat narrow but clean.  We went to the Visitor Center which is housed in the same building as the History Museum and Railroad Museum (we didn't have a chance to visit either of those, but plan to go back there).  We heard that they had RV parking so were looking forward to a good place to put the truck.  Ha ha!  There was 1 row (about 15 spaces) long enough for small class C's.  The truck would have fit, but it was certainly not a place we could consider bringing our rig.  Unfortunately, the entire parking lot was filled and 90% of the vehicles in the RV spots were cars or SUVs - inconsiderate people!  We decided to give up on the visitor center and pulled out of the lot.  Luckily, we found a parking spot on the street that was big enough to fit our truck, about 3 blocks away!  So we parked there and walked over to the Center to collect some brochures and maps.  I hope to learn more when we visit there, but the premises appear to be an old fort.  In the truck, on the way to the visitor center, we had passed a Mexican restaurant advertising they had a vegetarian menu.  On the way back to the truck, we wanted to go there for lunch, but it was about another 5 blocks away and I was getting extremely tired by then and didn't feel I could make the walk.  So we went back to the truck and decided to drive around the city a bit to check out the other areas.  I found that in the historical district, streets were very much like Charleston -- old and narrow with Victorian houses lining the streets, and in some other parts, it was very much like New York City - a little wider and very congested, with buildings and storefronts lining the streets.

- We passed through the historical district and saw many of the old style Victorian homes which were very similar to those we saw in Charleston, and some even more elegant and palatial.  We plan to take a trolley tour around that area.  We also passed some awesome looking parks, which I hope we'll have a chance to walk through on a nice day.

- We found ourselves driving on River Street which is a very famous street on the Savannah River.  It is all cobblestone and trolley tracks run through it, making for a very bumpy ride!  The buildings are quite old (one building is called the Cotton Exchange, but it is filled with shops now).  You can tell the area was once used as a shipping port, although now it's filled with touristy shops, restaurants and pubs.  This area promises to be hopping on New Year's Eve, with fireworks over the river, lots of live entertainment and a lot of drunks.  Although we were planning on finding something fun to do, I think we'll be much happier staying home and playing our annual NYE game of Scrabble over champagne (or Apple Pie moonshine, which we found again in apple, strawberry and peach!) and nachos.

- After leaving River Street, Mitch decided we needed a few groceries and wanted to buy some oranges which were on sale at Krogers.  We found the closest one in the city.  The store itself was small with very narrow aisles, and the customers seemed very poor.  In fact, the 3 people in front of us on line used food stamps to pay (and unlike NJ, they don't have debit-like cards.  They used paper vouchers so it took forever to check out).  By this time, I was beyond exhausted and was getting very cranky.  Mitch did a good job dealing with me.  

When we returned at 4:00 (we left at 12:30), I really needed to get back to work.  (This job is still causing me a great amount of grief).  Mitch was a real doll tonight.  He unpacked the groceries and made dinner (a salad and stir fry with rice), cleaned up his mess, did the dishes, and even finished the wash that I started before we left.

Tomorrow's plans are work, work, work.
 

Packing, great dinner, travel day - Yr 1, Day 189

Hardeeville, SC (near Savannah, GA)

Yesterday (Sunday) was the last day we spent in Myrtle Beach.  We spent most of the day packing up as much as possible, especially the outside.  Remember how Mitch had to buy vinyl gutters to hold the sewer hose when we arrived because the sewer hookup was too high, not allowing the waste to travel by gravity?  Well, those were 10' pieces and there was no way it was going to fit in the 8' wide basement (we brought it in the truck through the open back window -- not an option this time around).  So part of the packing up project involved Mitch having to saw them down, which also meant unhooking the sewer line for the night.  Unfortunately, because of the lack of gravity, the line never really cleared right, so while he thought he completely dumped the tank, there was still a lot in there, causing a bad smell all night (which kind of kept me up).  Thankfully, the new campground is designed much better so we able to give it a good flush.

Anyway, because I had packed up and closed the kitchen, we decided to have that nice meal out that we hadn't previously gotten to do.  We went to this really nice, kosher meat - Mediterranean style restaurant called Jerusalem Restaurant.  The atmosphere reminded me of ancient Persia or an Indian restaurant, not at all of modern day Israel.  Some photos are below but they didn't come out very well.  The colors were very vibrant - mostly reds and golds and a lot of mosaic patterns.  But you can see the design of the seating.  It was really breathtakingly beautiful.  Unfortunately, they are redesigning their menu so they didn't have most of what we wanted.  I was going to order schwarma (a middle eastern meat preparation, where lamb, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, or mixed meats are placed on a spit, and may be grilled for as long as a day).  They had just sold their last one.  Mitch insisted I get the ribeye steak, which was the most expensive thing on the menu (I've been craving a piece of steak for a while, but it's been impossible to find a kosher cut).  I was in ecstacy; it was sooo good.  I have the best husband!  He had a combination of potato wantons and falafel balls and a salad, as the cous cous salad he wanted was also not available.  Still, it was delicious and well worth going there.

So today was travel day.  The only thing we had left to do was the last minute inside stuff, so it only took us about 1/2 hr to pack.  We had a quick bowl of cereal and it took us 20 minutes to hitch up the truck.  It was a 190 mile drive and I drove the first half.  Except for about 15 miles of interstate, it was a 2 lane highway (Route 17), and in some places, it turned into a 1 lane road through a congested downtown area (especially through Charleston).  I'm very proud of being able to conquer my fear and drive through that.  We found a Walmart center about the halfway point (Mt. Pleasant) where we parked (there were 3 other RV's taking up loads of space there as well!).  We went to the restroom, bought a few groceries, and then walked to the other side of the shopping center where we found a Cici's - a pizza and salad buffet place.  After refueling our bodies and minds, we hit the road again, with Mitch taking over the driving.  He hit a spot of rain and traffic, but otherwise, it was an uneventful drive.  We left Myrtle Beach at 9:15 am and arrived at the campground in Hardeesville at 3:15 pm.

The first thing I noticed was the temperature difference.  It was about 70 degrees and very  humid!  Thus return the gnats and mosquitos.  I actually had to put the air conditioning on and change out of my sweatpants into shorts when we got here.  It's supposed to be in the high 60s all week.

The campground itself is ok, although we didn't get to see too much.  It's not a resort but it also doesn't have permanent trailers.  The area itself seems very run down or at least very rural.  I didn't see any stores or shopping strips around and old cottages lined the road.  It's no frills but the grounds are very well kept and there are a lot of trees.  Hopefully I'll have a chance tomorrow to walk around.  We were fortunate to get a pull thru site so we didn't spend hours trying to back in.  Hey, the price is right and it's close enough to Savannah (10 minutes) so it'll do.   We do plan to spend time in the area doing stuff.

Just really nice days! Day 187

Myrtle Beach, SC

Friday - was mostly work, with a brief run to the store for last minute Shabbat groceries.  Stopped work at 3:00 and then rushed to get everything prepared in time for 5:00 candle lighting.  Weather-wise, it was a glorious, sunny day in the mid 60s.  After we lit candles (18 mins before sundown--we still had about an hour before it got dark), we went for a walk along the beach and watched a beautiful, pastel colored sunset.  The water was a cerulean blue, reminding me of the Carribean.  Or maybe it was just a reflection of the sky.  Either way, it was just so awe-inspiring to look at.  It was very low tide, so the sand was hard and compact - easy for me to walk on. 

The campground got fairly crowded as well.  I guess since kids are still on winter break and folks take a long weekend after a Thursday Christmas, it's as good as any opportunity for the locals to get in their campers for the weekend.  With the weather so nice, many people were out walking.  During our walk on the beach Friday night, there were even horseback riders!  About 8 horses, with about 5 kids riding them.  Not sure if it was from a riding school or (more likely) a local amusement.  I would enjoy doing that if I were able to get up on a horse!

Today was another glorious day (December 27th and I was wearing a short sleeved shirt!).  We did not go to services but rather prayed at the lake, then took a little nap, had lunch and then went out for a really LONG walk on the beach (in total, we probably walked about 3-4 miles today).  So many more people were out today and almost everyone who was at their campsite that we passed, enthusiastically greeted us - allowing us to stop and chat with them all.  I love meeting new people!  The ocean was again cerulean and there were many people there - one group playing frisbee, another group throwing a football, lots of people walking hand in hand, a man and his son using a metal detector, and even one older couple sitting on their beach chairs (to which we greeted them with "this is the life, right?")

When we returned to the campsite, we took our our magazines and relaxed in our chairs in the warm sun.  This truly was a very blessed day of enjoying great weather, meeting friendly folks, admiring nature, and generally just being grateful for life.

Nice day, aquarium, group hangout -Yr 1, Day 185

Myrtle Beach, SC

I started out the day (despite it being a holiday) doing some work.  Thankfully the rain finally stopped and it was a beautiful, sunny day (about 60 degrees).  And, oddly enough, Ripley's aquarium was opened today.  What an awesome aquarium, which includes a huge tank that you walk through and see the sharks and other such creatures swimming around and above you.  They also had a "festival of trees".  There were 52 Christmas trees spread throughout the facility representing each state, and each was adorned with ornaments pertinent to that state.  For example, Idaho had a bunch of Mr. Potato Heads and couch potatoes; Hawaii had leis and pineapples, NJ had beach paraphernalia, and dice and cards, Maine had lots of fisherman and lobster related items.  You get the idea.  Lots of pictures below.

When we returned, Mitch took a little nap and I took the fishing rod over to the lake and attempted to fish.

Afterwards, we walked over to the trailer where the other newbie couple are that we wanted to meet.  They weren't around but Jim & Diana were sitting around outside with 4 other couples, so we invited ourselves to join them.  It was a nice hang-out for a while, sharing stories.  The other couples all also live here for the winter.

Overall, a very nice day.  And now, the aquarium photos:

At the entrance

 

A floor to ceiling dark tank full of floating white jellyfish

Inside the shark tank:

Who is that swimming with the stingrays?

Santa being silly with Mitch

Lobster - how did I ever eat those disgusting looking things (before my kosher keeping days)?

These were very interesting and odd looking seahorses - kind of like dragons.

Mitch inside the mouth of ???

This one for my daughter and cousin!

An example of one of the trees - Oklahoma with all the cattle and cowboy themed ornaments:

We ended the day by having a campfire. "T" joined us and we had a very pleasant evening schmoozing and drinking Moonshine!

Work, wiring, weather, Mr T - Yr 1, Day 184

Myrtle Beach, SC

Today is Christmas Eve, so Merry Christmas to my readers who celebrate the holiday.  May we all experience joy and peace.

This week has been a great disappointment in terms of visiting the rest of the places we wanted to go: Brookgreen Gardens again during the day, Magiquest and Ripley's Aquarium.  We also wanted to have dinner at a nice seafood place overlooking the beach.  We won't have a chance because this is the last weekend we'll be here.  Tomorrow is Christmas so everything is closed; Friday is early Shabbat so no time to really go anywhere as I need time to prepare and I also have work to do.  Sunday we need to do much of the packing up and Monday we hit the road for Savannah.  Reason: work!  Unfortunately, I really did have a pretty intense deadline to meet for a new client who is very difficult to work for.  He's very nice, but he is very unresponsive and when he does answer, he is extremely vague.  The project I've been given involves a complicated, custom software program which I've pretty much had to learn on my own.  Forgive me for patting myself on the back, but I believe I have the skills and experience to do this.  It's just very frustrating having to!  On the other hand -- good money!  Maybe I can pay the bills for another month, especially since Mitch has had exactly 3 jobs in the month we've been here.  Fortunately, my other steady client has been quiet this week.

Mitch has been extremely busy this week doing electrical work.  He's been replacing the halogen bulbs with LEDs and for some reason, the other day, turning on a switch blew a fuse.  There is a short somewhere in the system.  It's been a major troubleshooting ordeal and he's been taking every fixture and switch apart to try to locate the problem (he's gone through 30 fuses already.  Thankfully they're only pennies apiece).  I should have taken photos for posterity of all the wires hanging out, but alas, there is only one which I remembered to take when he was just about done.  As of today, he thinks he found the problem, but he was too tired after working on it for 8 hours to test it out.  He'll finish up tomorrow.

The last few days have also been rainy, with the epitome of a major storm happening today.  It was such a drenching rain that there are lakes next to the lakes.  We have a huge puddle next to the RV in which the ducks were swimming, instead.  Mitch took a video of it (bad pic of me in there - I was in my "work at home" clothes and focusing).

We did get new next door neighbors.  Interestingly, the man (his name is "T") came over to us, knocked on the door to introduce himself.  I loved it!!  I wish I could do that, but I'm sure there are folks who don't appreciate being disturbed.  His wife was visiting her mother who lives in the area, so it was only him.  He explained how he grew up in the area, how this campground used to be a pirate themed amusement park where he worked as a pirate who got killed every day in a sword fight (that was in the 1960s).  They've been full timing for 3 years and have been to almost every state.  He mentioned there was another couple a few sites down who also just started full timing a few months ago, and he suggested we go meet them.  Hopefully tomorrow the rain will let up and we'll be able to get outside without a rowboat!

Saturday; lots more photos, grandpuppy! - Yr 1, Day 180

Myrtle Beach, SC

For Shabbat, we returned to Chabad.  The services were a bit better than last time (more singing and the rabbi gave a little sermon) but I still did not feel warmly welcomed by the women, as they sat around me, talking to each other in Hebrew.  We were invited to a Chanukkah party that evening (complete with Israeli dancing) but declined because we were pretty certain all or most conversation would be in Hebrew and we'd continue to feel left out (besides which, I think dancing is still a very risky activity for me as it's too easy to accidentally twist my body).  The original plans had been a toss up between going to a fancy restaurant, a comedy club or a dualing piano bar.  What did we do? .... we stayed home and watched some shows on Netflix.  It's ok, as neither of us was really in the mood to go outside.  The weather was miserable and raining.  We saw some clips of the comedian on Youtube and felt he was just "ok" but not worth the trip or price.  The piano bar would mean the added expense of a taxi (about $50) because who goes to a bar and doesn't drink - and we won't drink and drive!  Plus most of the place is outdoors (at least the walk from the parking lot to the bar) and neither of us wanted to walk in the cold rain.  So Mitch shelled more pecans (we still have about 10 lbs left) and I sat on the recliner.

Today is another yucky day weatherwise, and it promises to be this way at least until Thursday, with Wednesday bringing thunderstorms (but 70 degrees!).

So Mitch finally uploaded the rest of his photos and I present them below.  First is the photo at Whales of me next to the other old model Ford:

Next is an updated photo of our menorah on the 5th night of Chanukkah.  I decorated it with some dreidels and gelt (chocolate "money" used for betting in the game of dreidel) so it's a bit more festive.

Here's a photo Mitch took of me fishing:

And now the rest of Brookgreen Gardens, Nights of a Thousand Candles:

As I mentioned, it is a sculpture garden.  Here is a photo of a sculpture of a man sitting on a bench reading the newspaper.  Mitch enjoyed reading over his shoulder.

There was a little museum on the grounds which included indoor and outdoor model trains.  This first one was outside showing an actual town.  The blue lights behind it represent the lake.

The train went around mountains and towns and an amusement park:

There was also an amusement park display built from an erector set:

 And a real sleigh that was used in the 1800's (unfortunately, more of me and less of the sleigh in the photo)

And the rest of the gardens:

Reflection of the tree in the lake.  Really awesome in person!

The Christmas tree - 60,000 lights

Last but not least, we are going to have a grandpuppy!  Her name is Ellie and she is a 7 week old corgi.  Jess and Griffin got to visit her for the first time yesterday and will be bringing her home on 12/29.  Here are a few photos.  Sadly I won't get to meet her in person until we're back that way again, which may not be until the late spring.

Is this happy or what?!

Happy Birthday, Mitch! - Yr 1, Day 178

Myrtle Beach, SC

Today is Mitch's 57th birthday and #1 to spend in our new home on wheels.  Here's to many more to celebrate together, and in the CoW.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of work to do today, so we didn't do much.  In fact, Mitch did most of the work, such as making breakfast and most of Shabbat dinner.  We had to run out for groceries (ok, gift - I did the driving!) and he even did 95% of the unpacking and cleaning up.

Despite the forecast for showers tomorrow, we plan to go to shul.  Hopefully we will do something special again tomorrow night -- we're leaning towards either a comedy club or a dualing piano bar.

Next post will reveal all, and hopefully will have the additional photos promised on day # 177.

Urgent Care, Whales, Brookgreen Gardens - Yr 1, Day 177

Myrtle Beach, SC

We started off the day by going to an urgent care facility.  Mitch had a minor medical issue he wanted to have looked into.  Fortunately, they couldn't find anything, so we'll just keep an eye out.

On the way back, I wanted to stop into a beach store to see if I could find a bathing suit.  I should have gotten more photos as this place was huge and awesome.  It was more like a museum than a store!!  Here is what you see when you first walk in.  The balcony extends all the way around the entire store with the same general theme and the store is like supermarket sized.

The entrance of Whales

Mitch in front of a REAL old Ford in the store!

There's also a photo of me next to the other Ford that was in the store, but that's on Mitch's camera and I'm waiting for him to send it to me.  Hopefully in my next post.

And no, I wasn't able to find an adequate bathing suit yet.

The real highlight was our trip to Brookgreen Gardens, which is a magnificent botanical and sculpture garden (brookgreen.org).  They run a special event called Night of a Thousand Candles.  Words really can't describe the experience which was breathtakingly awesome and totally magical.  Even photos don't do it justice.  Here's a video from their 2012 event and lots of photos we took, but it doesn't nearly capture being there live.  As a reference:

- The event runs Thurs/Fri/Sat for 3 weekends in December.  Number of candles used in 9 days: 54,000 votives, 1500 pillars and 4500 teas.
- Number of lights:  500,000 mini lights & 350,000 LED lights
- Christmas tree has 60,000 lights
- Number of candles lit each night - 5,000+
- Number of candles floating in pools - 500+

They also had a lot of live entertainment, including a wandering bagpipe player, a bells ensemble, a rock/pop band and pop choral ensemble.

The grounds, especially the trees are spectacular.  I'm sure there's so much we couldn't see in the dark and I'm hoping we'll have a chance to go back and experience this magnificent place during the day.  Anyway, here are the pictures and video:

The tree reflecting in the lake.

Floating candles in the water

I have a few more photos that Mitch took but they're on his camera so I need to wait for him to have a chance to upload them.  Hopefully by the next post.