It’s Not All Fun and Games!

 We got the RV hitched fairly easily. We couldn’t get one of the sway bars on. Because we were on a hill, I had to drive it down the hill to get the bar on. Our macho neighbor who didn’t understand why we had to dump our tanks so often was watching us hoping we would screw up. But we got it on and felt triumphant!  If Glenn could see me now, he wouldn’t believe it. We got through the dumping station with no problem and felt so good we accomplished more new tasks! We said goodbye to Hunting Island and headed for Charleston where a friend said we could use her house while she was gone. 

We had a pleasant ride there and found parking on an island in front of her house. We quickly set the RV up and then headed into Charleston. Being Christmas week, the streets were teaming with people. Something we wanted to avoid due to COVID. So we drove around sightseeing til we got hungry and found an outdoor restaurant that we could take Darla to that was closer to home base. We found a great Mexican restaurant nearby and had a great meal! It was going to be nice to sleep in a bed that night!

The next morning we went on the hunt for a new painting spot. First we went to James Island County Park. A really nice place to camp, but it was filled as many of the better campsites are. We didn’t find anything to paint so we headed to Kiahwah Island. Christine had heard of it because she and her husband were thinking of buying a place in the area and she wanted to see it. But it was private so we turned around and found another development nearby. It was really beautiful. It had some ancient oak trees with Spanish moss dripping form the branches with a river behind it. OMG, it was just what I was looking for!

But we couldn’t find anyone who worked there to ask permission to paint there. Because it was that pretty, I set up anyway figuring they could throw me out when they discovered me. Christine didn’t feel comfortable about it so she walked Darla. Finally a realtor came by and Christine went in to talk to them about a cottage she was looking at to rent out. When she came out she was white as a ghost. It was a trigger…She kept thinking about how it should Rick with her there.. How much she missed her life with him, how her whole life had changed so much. She was in total despair. She wanted to leave. As much as I wanted to stay and finish, I packed up and we headed back. We had a long talk about things on the way home. Christmas season is now so hard for us. Christine has kept her feelings buried because they are so painful so it was bound to seep out one day. But our talk did us both good. It was a talk you can only have with someone in as much pain. We have to realize there will be days like this. Grief is not something you just get over after a year or a certain amount of days. It comes and goes in waves. The holidays amplify those feelings. It is good to have each other to know that we aren’t going insane! Seeing that the day was almost over we went to dinner to self medicate.