Settling In - Townville March 2015

Little by little we are settling in.  We are officially South Carolinians with SC drivers' licenses and tags.  Here you pay a tax on personal property such as autos and boats, but the tags themselves are only $24 and good for two years.  Oddly, the tag x date is issued for only 1 year, so you need to renew it when you pay your property tax, although you pay the tag fee only every other year.

We haven't done any sight seeing as yet.  We were going to take a trip to one of the waterfalls this past Thursday, but it rained.  Rains a lot here, but it sure does make everything bloom.  Temperatures fluctuate a lot, too.  Today it is barely 50 and will be 30 tonight.  It will be 75 by Monday.

Our new shed was delivered yesterday.  Bob has already made a work bench in it.  He is looking forward to having a workshop again.  This next week, we'll be busy unpacking things from the RV undercarriage and storing some items in the shed.

 

A carved gnome outside the camp's WiFi lounge

 



 

camp office & general store

 

 

The camp pool which goes to a depth of 9 feet.  There is a miniature golf course across from the pool, a combination tennis and basketball court, and and hiking trails behind the pool.

 

A local eatery next to Whitehall Produce (which was closed).  The Barnwood doesn't look like much from outside, but it was clean inside and had great food.  

 

We had to laugh when we saw this license plate above our table!  Small world.

 





A view of Lake Hartwell from Rte 24.  We cross over the lake twice on our way into Anderson.  What a difference from US 41 and Bonita Beach Road!!!

                    Some more scenery on Rte 24 heading toward the turnoff for the camp

Heading into Townville, 2 miles north of the camp along SC 24. 

 

Once you pass the post office, you're basically out of Townville. 

Locals fondly call this The Townville Mall.

Dogwood trees which appeared to bloom overnight along the road to the camp

 Proudly she waves from our deck

               A flower box Bob made.  I haven't had daffodils in a garden since I lived in NJ.

 

 

The shed! The shed!

 

There was only one young man who delivered and set up the shed with the help of an amazing hydraulic trailer/lift which he was able to maneuver with a remote control.

 

 

Cinder blocks and shims were added to level the building.  It was all done in less than 40 minutes.







 



 

 

 







Back Home and Moving Ahead March 2015

Once back from our sad sojourn, we wanted to dig our feet in and continue with plans to settle here.  We continued to hit roadblocks.  At the end of February, our on line banking was hacked.  The bank locked all our accounts and credit card.  It was quite a hassle setting up new ones and then getting our direct deposits and withdrawals transferred to the new accounts. Even when we thought everything was taken care of, we found out some things weren't done correctly, and we had to start all over. The move from Florida to SC required new drivers' licenses, tags, change of Medicare supplement plans, finding new doctors, getting new home, boat, and auto insurance and cancelling Florida policies. We are still waiting for the dust to settle.

I was able to get my SC driver's license without a problem, but the DMV wouldn't accept the documentation Bob had which showed he was born in Australia and his father was a US soldier.  Other files were in the underbelly of our trailer, which required pulling out all of them in one compartment to get to the one he needed.  But, ultimately, he did find a form "Child Born Abroad of US Citizen" which the motor vehicle department did accept, so he was able to officially become a South Carolinian.  Later, while comparing license mug shots, I realized mine showed me as male instead of female, so that means yet another soiree to the DMV.  Then we still have to get new tags, and the state allows only 45 days for that.  I have to wait for a transfer of my title from FL to SC, which could take 3 weeks.  Bob should be able to get tags for his truck this week.

In addition to the red tape, we have many projects lined up.  Bob is working on making changes to the existing deck to accommodate the shape of  our unit.  He had the old wood shed removed, and has ordered a new and bigger one which will be delivered early April.  We want to plant a flower and vegetable garden.  When it rains (which is quite often), the ground turns a muddy red clay.  He will come up with some landscaping plan to correct that.

Also, there are so many wonderful places to explore here.  I keep clipping ads and articles of things to see, and plan on putting them in a "to do" jar and pick one out for each week.

Have Gun Will Drill Bob

 

Work Camper John uses backhoe to remove shed while Bob supervises

 



It was a little tricky balancing the shed on the uphill slope

Bob leaped up on the back to help John unload the shed at the storage area.  I didn't think he was going to make it!

 



Sorrow Darkens Our Bright Outlook 2015

The day after we put our house on the market,  Bob's younger brother, Leonard, unexpectedly passed away.  We had visited him and his wife, Amy, in Anderson last November.  At that time, Leon told us he had liver disease and was a candidate for a liver transplant and was in the processing of making arrangements for one in January.  Right after Christmas, he became ill again, and was hospitalized.  After several days of testing, he was told on January 4th that he had liver cancer and maybe 6 months to live.  We were planning on leaving on the 7th to go up to visit him, but it was too late.  He had two days.  There was a memorial service for him in Greenville the next week, and Bob and I drove up for that.  Leonard's last wishes were to have his remains interred at the VA cemetery in Bushnell, Florida.  The service was set for Friday, March 6th.  All during the time we were readying for the move, we were dealing with his loss, and knowing we would have to make one more trip back to Florida. It was a very solemn and moving ceremony with the unfurling of the flag and re-folding it for presentation to Amy, then Taps were played.  I know Bob was looking forward to spending time with his brother up here, helping him finish building his garage, working on old cars, shooting pool, fishing, and just hanging out together.  It is difficult to believe he is gone.



 

 

 

 

 

 



Lake Hartwell Campsite Sights March 2015

                                       View from our site looking north toward park entrance:

View south of the lake:

The laundry & bathhouse across the road from us:

The upper portion of our site:

 

 

The lower level with fire pit and old wood shed:

 

First night on the road

We had decided to leave on a Sunday thinking traffic might be lighter.  I had to drive the Mazda and since I don't like driving on the interstate, we took local highways once we got to Arcadia.  It was heavy stop and go traffic on parts of US 27 between Avon Park and Ocala, and at one point, the brakes on Bob's truck started smoking.  He kept saying we had too much weight in both the trailer and my car which was packed to the brim.  He also thought there would be plenty of campgrounds along the way, but the few that we found were booked up.  We did finally get lucky and found a place just over the Georgia border. It certainly wasn't much of a place, but after 9 hours on the road, it was a haven.

The next morning, we continued on highways and back roads and got to Lake Hartwell about 2:30 in the afternoon.  What should have been a 12 hour drive took us 17, but at least it wasn't a white knuckle drive.

Bob did a great job of parking the trailer as close as he could get it to the deck structure that was on our lot.  We had to buy it from the previous owner, but we had planned on putting up a deck anyway.  Bob will need to modify it since our trailer has a different configuration than the unit that had been there.

The next morning, we woke up to a light snowfall.  It looked beautiful as the flakes reflected in the lamplight.  There wasn't much snow and it didn't last long, so it wasn't a problem for us.

The site in GA.  

The camp owner's llama which he had gotten for his grand kids.



We made it!

 



A deck awaits our arrival

Successful docking



White stuff!!!



Just enough to enjoy the novelty

 

Nothin' could be finer...

than to move to Carolina.  Around Christmas time, Bob and decided we were ready to sell our house and move.  Both of us agreed we didn't want to buy another home, but would rather go full time in an RV.  We already had a seasonal lease at the Lake Hartwell Campground and Cabins in Townville, SC.  We put our house up for sale on January 5th, and, to our surprise,  it sold a week later.  Closing was to take place February 25th.  I said my final farewell to Florida Family after 19 years of being there.  Folks kidded me that I had to leave the state in order to finally retire.

We knew we made the right decision because despite several hurdles, everything fell into place.  We decided to buy a new and bigger RV which we would use as a permanent residence and keep our old one for traveling.  Bob got a great price from a dealer in Ohio which the folks in Florida were not willing to match.  So, he first towed our pontoon to Townville to store it at the campground.  On the way there, the  boat trailer fell off the back of the truck.  Thankfully he was off the interstate on a road in Ocala on his way to get fuel at 5:30 in the morning.  A passerby saw what happened, pulled up behind the boat so no one would ram into it in the dark, and helped Bob reattach the trailer and directed him to a place where he could get a part to fix it.  He also had a blow out on the truck later on and had to buy a new tire.  But, he made it to Hartwell, stored the boat, then moved our old trailer to storage before heading to Ohio.  He made it back to FL with our new home in tow four days after leaving.  Marathon trip.

Meanwhile we were in the process of downsizing 25+ years of accumulated "stuff" in a 1500 square foot dwelling to fit into a 40 foot trailer.  We tried "estate" sales, but they weren't very successful.  Folks wanted garage sale items and prices.  We tried consignment shops, but they wouldn't take items more than 7 years old.  Even the non-profit thrift stores were very selective.  The only one who welcomed items (other than tvs or mattresses) was Goodwill. 

Bob was afraid the hitch we had for our old trailer was too old and wouldn't be strong enough for the new unit, so we had to get a new one.  He also noticed a screw in another truck tire, so he had to get the leak fixed.  The fan on our refrigerator went out 10 days before closing date, so we had to have that repaired.  Three days before our ETD, one of the slides on the new trailer wouldn't close all the way.  Bob got approval from the manufacturer to get mobile repair, but we had to pay the $700 bill and wait for reimbursement.   We realized despite our weeding out and whittling down, we still had too much "stuff" and too much weight for the trailer, so we had to dump items at the last minute.  Somehow, we managed to get it all done, and Sunday, February 22nd, we said goodbye to Bonita Springs.

For sale sign and our new home on wheels

Last pool shot in Bob's "man cave"

Removing the pool table.  One of Bob's pool buddies bought it

 



 

Look, there's actually a car in the garage.  Probably the first time since we moved in back on March 5, 1990!

RV Doc to the rescue for our broken slide

 

A surprise, actually 2 surprise visits from dear old friends who used to work at Florida Family... Marion on the left, and Audrey in the middle.  Neither knew the other planned on wishing us farewell that day. Marion brought over a very touching good bye gift and card: "bread so you will never know hunger; salt so your life will always have flavor, and wine so that joy and prosperity may reign forever."  Audrey gave Bob a bottle of honey bourbon which he certainly welcomed by day's end.