Happy New Year from our new home to yours!

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year!  We FaceTimed with our family back in CT over Christmas and had our Christmas dinner at the local Waffle House which suited us just fine!

We finally decided on a manufactured home in an over-55 community that fit the bill!  It is in Flat Rock which is a village within Hendersonville, home to Carl Sandburg's Historic Home and the Flat Roock Playhouse. It has two bedrooms, two full baths and a great three-season room.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

View of left side:

Front on...I think those may be boxwoods?

On the right side, currently having a nifty ramp being built onto it:

The right side again showing the carport:

We are currently painting the kitchen.

The sunporch!

My walk-in tub!!!  Oh yeah, baby!!!

This unit is the perfect size for us, and best of all we were able to pay cash and have NO DEBT!

First time for that for either of us, and it feels great!  We can even save a little each month. That's what downsizing and moving out of Connecticut did for us!  

Happy 2016!

Hendersonville, NC

We finally arrived in our new community about a week ago even though we don't have anything to live in other than our RV or a motel!  We have been looking at manufactured homes in a few communities.  There are not that many units available so we are weighing our options, deciding what is most important to us. 

In the meantime we have gotten a post office box and we joined the local YMCA so we can both exercise.  We are venturing out to start learning the roads around town.  We are currently staying in a motel because the temps are going to drop precipitously in a few days (20s at night) so we rewinterized the rig.  We are going to bring in our Christmas decorations so we can feel merry here in our motel room.  Luckily we can park the RV just about right outside our door so Steve can run out to get whatever we need.

PO Box 1689

Flat Rock, NC 28731

Old Sheldon Church Ruins, Beaufort, SC

We have been laying low at another Passport America Campground in Beaufort, SC while we continue to struggle with Packrat to get our belongings to Hendersonville.  It appears that worst case our container will be delivered on Dec. 16, but it could be sooner. Tomorrow we are going to start driving north and I found a Days Inn in Hendersonville that will give us a reduced rate it we stay for three weeks so that's what we are going to do.  We will be able to start settling into our new community albeit temporarily because there are no units available yet in the community we want to live in; however, this way we'll have a place for Christmas.

Back in the day I was very interested in archaeology and we discovered the ruins of the Old Sheldon Church in Beaufort yesterday.  It was was accessible via my scooter which was on its best behavior...no bad noises at all!

I will let our photos show the story, but following is some info about it from Wiki. This is a beautiful, peaceful place and you can tell you are on hallowed ground. 

Steve behind the pulpit.

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Sheldon Church Ruins
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Sheldon Church Ruins
Location	Beaufort County, South Carolina, USA
Nearest city	Yemassee, South Carolina
Coordinates	32°37′6.7″N 80°46′49.7″W
Area	4.5 acres (1.8 ha)
Built	1753
Architect	Unknown
Architectural style	Greek Revival
Governing body	Private
NRHP Reference #	70000562 [1]
Added to NRHP	October 22, 1970

The Old Sheldon Church Ruins is a historic site located in northern Beaufort County, South Carolina, approximately 17 miles (30 km) north of Beaufort in the Sheldon area.^[2][3] Known also as the Sheldon Church or Old Sheldon Church, the pre-existing building was originally known as Prince William's Parish Church. The church was built in the Greek Revivalstyle between 1745 and 1753. Prince William's was burned by the British in 1779 during the Revolutionary War. In 1826 it was rebuilt. The following is from an article in the April 1969 Sandlapper Magazine by Charles E. Thomas, “The Picturesque Ruins Of Old Sheldon Church”. “The official South Carolina report on the “Destruction of Churches and Church Property,” after the War Between the States, described Sheldon’s second burning: “All that was combustible was consumed..., its massive walls survive the last as they did the former conflagration,” Bishop Thomas wrote, “Exactly as it happened a hundred years before in 1779, when General Prevost, marching from Savannah into South Carolina burned the Church, so now in February 1865, General Sherman marching from Georgia into South Carolina, burned it a second time.”

An alternative view has more recently come to light, however. In a letter dated February 3, 1866,^[4] Miton Leverett wrote that "Sheldon Church not burn't. Just torn up in the inside, but can be repaired." The inside of the church was apparently gutted to reuse materials to rebuild homes burnt by Sherman's army.

The ruins lie amongst majestic oaks and scattered graves.

Inside the ruins of the church lies the remains of Colonel William Bull, who "greatly assisted General Oglethorpe in establishing the physical layout of Savannah, Georgia. Bull surveyed the land in 1733 to form the basic grid pattern of the streets and squares."

The site has proven to be a popular site in the Lowcountry for photographers and wedding ceremonies in contemporary times. As of October 2015, the Old Sheldon ruins are not available to the public for hosting wedding ceremonies. An annual service is held the second Sunday after Easter.

1-800-PACKRAT Part 2

I haven't posted for a few days because we are in a holding pattern due to some Packrat issues.  We found a very small RV/trailer park called Art's RV Sites in Fayetteville which is Passport America so it is only costing $15 per night with full hookups, and it has been in the 40s at night so we haven't needed a hotel.

When I made the original contract with Packrat back in September, I gave them the wrong destination zip code...for Henderson, NC not Hendersonville, NC.  How this happened I cannot fathom, but I made them play me the taped phone call and sure enough, I did.  I did say the word Hendersonville several times, and the agent should have caught the discrepancy but she didn't so there is blame on both sides.

Evidently Packrat does not deliver to Hendersonville  because it's too mountainous so we wouldn't have been able to use them anyway. Our unit is sitting in Raleigh, NC and what we are all trying to arrange is for it to be transported to their Charlotte, NC facility and then trucked to Hendersonville (at great additional cost, I might add!) The supervisor in Raleigh is trying to reach the supervisor in Charlotte but has not been able to, so he has asked his boss to intervene.  We are four days into this negotiation!

We will stay here in Fayetteville tonight, but then the nighttime temps are going into the 30s so we are going to travel about 200 miles south to get to some nighttime temps in the 40s again, unless we hear from Packrat today with news that we should start traveling north towards Hendersonville.

In the meantime we have decorated the main living area of our rig for Christmas including a tree!  We have also finished our Christmas shopping and will start packaging up for mailing boxes.   Folks have asked us where to mail our gifts to, but right at the moment I have no idea! It will be to General Delivery at a post office where we land for the holidays, but it's too soon to say for sure. 

Cape Fear Botanical Garden, Fayetteville NC

Today we decided to visit the Botanical Garden in Fayetteville.  Unfortunately we only saw a fraction of it because my scooter started making some terrible screeching, grinding noises!  The motor is self-contained so there is no way for us to see inside, but it sounded as though some sand or gravel got inside of it somehow.  Maybe it is just ready to be retired...we think it's about 13 years old as its the very first one I got.  We might just be needing to buy a new one shortly.

We found this to be a quite accessible venue with both both paved and gravel paths, just wish we could have seen more of it!  Spring would be fabulous here with much more in bloom.

However, we took a lot of nice photos, so enjoy!

Parsley used as groundcover!

Great raised planter with salad greens, etc.

Not sure what kind of berries these were?

Red lantana

Variegated lantana

Snapdragons

Giant prickly pear cactus

Decorative cabbage

Cool metal frog sculpture holding a lantern (Wilson would have loved this!)

Plus they have a great gift shop!

Dickens Holiday - Fayetteville, NC

We are spending a few days in Fayetteville, NC to enjoy the warmer temps...70s during the day and 40s at night.  We are out of motels and back into our rig, which is really nice and a whole lot cheaper.

Last night we went to the Dickens Holiday fete in downtown Fayetteville.  It is the kickoff to their Christmas season and the lighting of their lights up and down the Main Street.

This was a pretty church we saw coming into town.

Pansies are blooming here!

Everyone got a candle to hold...

There was a parade down the Main Street with bagpipes, a horse drawn carriage and people dressed up as Dickens characters.

There were throngs of people; at some point their was a countdown from 10 to one, and everybody held their candles up...

...and on one the lights came on and the fireworks began!

Steve saw this sign as we were making our way back to our car...

Catastrophe Averted!

After spending a second day in Alexandria, VA to rest my back, provision up and do laundry we set off toward 95S again today.  We did too many miles on Saturday which resulted in too much sitting for me.

Not six miles into our trip today and we experienced our first breakdown of sorts...we hit a bump in the road and we lost the cotter pin and bolt that attaches the trailer hitch to the back of the RV.  Steve looked up at the backup camera and said, "we lost the car." Luckily there are some safety cables that run from the car to the RV bumper so we didn't actually lose the car, and there was an immediate breakdown area we could pull right over into.  We have Good Sam's Roadside Assistance, so we dialed them right up!

Nice construction area we could immediately pull into!

Then Steve noticed some damage to the hood of our car...from the bolt flying back and hitting it?

After waiting for two and a half hours for GS Roadside Assistance to not find someone to come out to help us, we Googled closest auto parts store and it was .6 miles away, so Steve locked me into the rig and drove there with the car. He was back and had us all fixed up in about 40 minute, with extra parts in case this ever happens again.

So we only drove 130 miles today, but averted what could have been a catastrophe! Staying at a Comfort Inn in Petersburg, VA. Temps will be in the high 20s tonight.  

Traveling with a Disability

Out of the Days Inn by 10; our destination today is the Quality Inn & Suites in Alexandria, VA.  The nighttime temps are still hovering around 30 degrees F, so it's a motel again tonight.  This time I booked it directly last night and got a better rate, a better room and the ability to cancel by 6 if needed. I also joined for free the Choice Hotel's 'Choice Privileges Program' where you can earn free rooms.  I wish I had done this earlier in the trip because we had a bunch of hotel stays that would have counted!

Gas in Bordentown, NJ is $1.89 full-serve!  We saw these solar panels all over town...CT is way behind the times for utilizing solar energy!

Our route today is I-95S to the Delaware Memorial Bridge then exit 1A onto Rt 896S which turns into Rt 301S/50 to 95/495 around Washington, DC then 95S to Alexandria, VA

This is the Delaware Memorial Bridge that crosses the Delaware River.

(I don't know why this is all of a sudden blue but I am too tired to figure it out!)

This is the The Bay Bridge over The Chesapeake River, and what I find interesting is that they offer escorts to drive your car over it because so many people are afraid with the edge of the bridge seemingly right over the water!

I have been neglecting to talk about accessibility in the hotel  rooms we have been staying in!  I always ask when making a reservation if they have HA rooms, and sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Depending on how I am feeling I might pay the higher rate for an accessible room or not. I have a small bath seat in the shower in our rig that Steve can easily bring into a hotel room so I can shower if there isn't one there already.  Depending on the lip into the room and the size of the room, I will definitely bring my walker into the room and maybe my scooter. If I don't need the scooter we leave it in the back of the car.

We bring our own food because of my dietary restrictions, and all of the rooms so far have had a refrigerator and a microwave! We look for hotels with free continental breakfasts so Steve always visits that for himself and to round out my breakfast.

As far as finding pet-friendly hotels, we had our tiny dog certified as an emotional support dog for me so we can take her anywhere for free. She is trained to use puppy pads as well as going outside, and she has her own portable stairs to use to get up on the bed!

Back to me, for those who don't already know, I have MS, bursitis in my legs and now degenerating disc disease among some other health issues.

Firstly, I wear a seaband on each wrist which is a Velcro band with an embedded plastic bead which you place on the inside of your wrist over a certain pressure point that drastically decreases motion sickness. We originally got these for a long ferry ride and I love them.  They allow me to write this blog, do things on my phone and read my Kindle all while traveling.

I sit on a foam neck support to protect my lady-parts which have another problem, and I use a back-hugger pillow behind my back.  I wear really comfortable clothing all the time, which include stretchy loose knit pants, sort of like sweats.  All my sweatshirts have to zip all the way up and down for easy layering, in fact I am starting to purge my wardrobe of pullovers.  I wear shearling slippers which are easy on and off, and my seat in the rig is as far back as it can go so I can put my feet up on the dash for my bursitis.  This presses my back firmly into the back pillow.

Whenever we stop for anything I take the opportunity to get up, go down the steps of our rig which has extra hand rails and take my walker outside to walk around the parking lot.  I search out swimming pools and recumbent exercise bikes like a fiend! The more I can move the better!

Lastly, let us not forget the personal chef who accompanies me wherever I go, and doubles as a husband!