And it went downhill from there.....

 Yes. It was that kinda day. I had a good morning. I managed to accomplish a few things, even a challenging task in my sewing space. After lunch I hopped in the car as I had an appointment with the:

My iPhone 13 mini's battery was no longer functioning well enough, and Apple care said it was time for a change. Many days my battery would run out of juice by noon. As I have Apple Care on the phone, there would be no charge. It was all going according to plan until the tech said to come back in 2-3 hours. What?! I had figured that with an appointment, the repair would be made on the spot. Not so. 

What's a girl to do? Hmmmm....Dillards is a few miles away. They should have a seasonal shoe sale going on now! And yes, they did. I picked up two pair of sandals...at 60% off. Oh, and there's a Chico's. I haven't been in a Chico's for ages...and look at those pretty tops in fall colors...perfect for our upcoming trip. And then...the rain poured, in response to a loud clap of thunder and lightning that obviously cut the sky open releasing a deluge. I sat in Chico's for a bit. Tapping my toes. Browsing at other outfits and collections...and finally decided the heck with it. I cut my shopping trip short...I'll just have to catch HomeGoods another day! My phone ought be finished anyway. I made a mad dash and joined the line of traffic traveling through huge puddles on the road, creeping along at 15 mph, peering ahead to try to see the vehicle in front of me. If I had my phone, I coulda taken pictures!

By the time I made it back to Best Buy the rain had let up a bit. I wandered inside and retrieved my phone. It was so strange to be without it for several hours. I felt out of touch. 

I arrived home to a delightful surprise. The Mister had pulled leftovers out of the fridge and was reheating them. He had quartered potatoes and had just finished air frying them...and dinner was ready to put on the plate. 

It all sounds rather positive, right? Not downhill at all, Right? Wrong. I noticed that it was feeling warm in the house. After a bit of checking this and that we determined the compressor is not working. We have no AC in the house. And of course....it's a weekend! 

I Go Where I'm Towed to Go

We tow a Jeep when we travel. The Jeep is probably one of the easiest vehicles to tow, and there are very few vehicles, anymore, that can be towed flat. 

There are a number of steps that need to be completed to hook up the Jeep:

Like any pilot, I don't rely on memory. 

I have a laminated copy of this list in the car and 

I go down the list, item by item.

We have never had any surprises. That is, until we returned home from our recent NC trip. 

After pulling into the driveway, I proceeded back to unhook the Jeep.

(There is another list, on the back of the laminated 'Hook up" list

that I use to go through the required steps to get the car out of Neutral.)

I did not get past the first step: "Apply the electric park brake."

It would not engage.

Nothing would. There were no lights. There was no action.

Uh oh!

We unhooked the car from the RV and moved the RV into its new RV barn.

The next morning I crawled to the back of the Jeep, climbing over various things we had stashed in the back seat and into the far back. The battery for the car is located near the lift gate, under a full-size tire. Don't ask me why I know! I carried my cell phone, as a flashlight, and/or to recruit help if needed, and a small flat-bladed screw driver. The tool, I was told, that I needed to open the lift gate (which is usually controlled electronically.)

After crouching in the back, viewing a YouTube video, I felt so accomplished when I heard a "click" and the lift gate popped a bit so that I could push it open. 

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch, the Mister was talking with Jeep/Chrysler. We had intended to either:

A. Jump the battery 

 or 

B. Put a charger on the battery to bring it back to life

or

C. Call AAA to come and help us get the car running.

However,  plan D was the recommendation of the Jeep/Chrysler dealer:

D. Call a wrecker* and have the car taken to the dealership.

We opted for Plan D!

*This Jeep is a plug-in hybrid with all manner of computers and monitoring systems. 

Jumping the car might cause problems with something electrical. 

Dealerships have equipment to "read" the systems and locate errors in the systems. 

Bye, bye car!

Today we received a call from the Dealer. We could come get the car. I was absolved of any crime! The battery had died as it was defective. Evidently it had nothing to do with our towing it, or my hook-up process. And, the best news? The battery was under warranty! Our Jeep had a free ride to the dealer, had a bath and received a jolt of new energy! 

Batteries

Our tour took us to Charleston, SC. We lived 90 miles from Charleston for 34 years, and saw things on our tour that we had never happened upon when we lived so close! That always seems to be the way.

Adventure Caravans arranged for a short city bus tour. We had a delightful guide who was the epitome of a southern belle: accent, hat and all. She shared all kinds of stories with us about this lovely old city.

We took a boat ride out to Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. We had a fantastic park ranger on board who told us the history of the fort with such animation, the audience couldn't look away. The fort is on an island in Charleston harbor, and was a formidable structure in its day. However,  shelling during the early battles of the war left much of the fort in rubble. The old brick bastions couldn't stand up to the heavy armament and the 'new' technologies of the day. The fort was reconstructed in 1870, with modifications, and then, following the Spanish American War a concrete battery, or gun emplacement, was put into the center of the old fortifications to house long rifled canon. This was part of a major coastal defense network.

Fort Sumter and the battery emplacement.

The walls of the fort are a bit lower than they were during the Civil War.

Picture courtesy of boatingtimesscnc.com

On our tour of Fort Sumter, the ranger explained about the network of forts that formed the harbor defense system during the Civil War. She pointed out Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, on the north side of the Charleston harbor. We Dreamers later hopped in the car and took a brief tour of that fort. We were surprised (as we were uninformed or had forgotten this chapter of history) that there were bunkers, or batteries at Fort Moultrie as well.

One of several batteries on Sullivan's Island

This one is at the corner of Fort Moultrie.

Photo courtesy of burgis.org

As we left the fort, we found more batteries, along the beach of the island. A little poking around led me to discover that the lower tip of Sullivan's Island had been purchased to form the Fort Moultrie Military Reservation for coastal defense around 1900. This was closed after World War II as it could no longer play a significant role in defense, but the batteries were never removed. Some of the batteries are visible from the road, and are owned by the town.

 Others are shrouded in wild muscadine grape vines, and can barely be seen poking out from the trees. It seemed a perfect venue for a haunted house in the fall! One end of one of the bunkers has been repurposed as the town library!

One can't help but notice the Sullivan's Island lighthouse. We could see this landmark from Fort Sumter, in the middle of Charleston harbor. Once we were on the island, we had a better view of the lighthouse. It is not your usual lighthouse! This is one of the most modern lighthouses in the US. Instead of rebuilding a typical cylindrical structure, this one was constructed in the early 1960's in a triangular shape. At 140' in height it looks very tall, but there are over 20 lighthouses in the US that are taller. What this may have over them is that due to its more modern date of construction, it has air conditioning and heating... and an elevator!

In 1989 Hurricane Hugo came ashore near Sullivan's Island. The category 4 hurricane brought winds of 135 mph and a storm surge that was 13 feet high. It destroyed 15 percent of the homes on the island, in some places wiping out 3 rows of beach homes. It severely damaged 40% of the remaining homes. 

Courtesy of customersthatstick.com

While driving through the island we saw many lovely homes. The newer homes are constructed on pillars to be above the flood plain. 

This post has gone much like a pin-ball game, bouncing from one topic to another! Perhaps it is time for the ball to come to rest!