Our last week in Charleston was an absolute flurry of activity. My last week of work, boat projects, both vehicles break down, visiting with friends, a hatch chile festival! and provisioning like we’re never going to see another store.

We went to Tuesday night porch night to see bus club friends, and on Wednesday I had a girls night with my friend and her 3yo. We made tacos from scratch, turns out Vivi is pretty good with a tortilla press! It also turns out that tortilla dough is the BEST playdough.

In fun last minute problems: my car’s check engine light came on (turned out to be nothing, yay!). Then it had a caliper sticking, and since we simply don’t have time to DIY that Kyle took it in to get fixed. The bus is making a weird noise too, we haven’t figured that one out yet.

I started to put the mainsail cover back on but I had to stop because I was getting lightheaded and dizzy. That’s right, it’s nearly October and we’re still at 102°F, which is really hampering the projects we need to get done. Since it was so hot, I was wearing a crop top, and fun fact about battens! They are made of fiberglass! So my stomach was very red and itchy.

On Saturday we’ve had standing plans to attend a Hatch Chile Roast, and I’ve been so excited about it. It was even better than I expected, there were several vendors that used hatch chiles to make their own tasty creations and we went from vendor to vendor trying out hatch chile ice cream, or hatch chile potato tostones. And the best part: it was all (shockingly!) free.

We met Jim and Frances there, along with their new baby, and Frances’ mom. They weren’t sure if Violet would tolerate being removed from her car seat, but we got lucky and I snuggled the newborn for a while.

I was going to buy some roasted chiles, but I wasn’t too sure what I would do with them and honestly, I don’t need another project right now since we plan on leaving in four days. The roaster was fun to watch though!

We didn’t get a beer at the chile roast because the line was way too long, but the brewery sponsoring the event was right around the corner so we meandered to Revelry Brewing afterwards to try the Hatch Chile Lager.

The following day was the mega errand day. We’re essentially provisioning like it’s the last time we’re going to see a store, which isn’t entirely inaccurate – the marina we’re moving to is quite remote. $200 at Costco, $200 at Aldi, $150 at West Marine. A few things at Trader Joe’s, a few things at the bulk food store, a few things at the thrift store. Another West Marine. It’s so much easier to go out and buy things than get actual work done. We both got some passage treats; Kyle got a salty, crunchy snack mix and gummy worms, I got a Costco-sized bin of biscotti.

We got ALL the eco-friendly cleaners – 10L of vinegar, and enough detergent to last us a few years. We don’t have room to store any of this stuff, of course.

We bought spices like we’re never going to see another store. As you can see, we bought two black peppers, because we picked up bulk spices at five different places and completely forgot what we had bought already.

After spending so much money, we needed some beer to numb the pain so we took the bus to Pawley’s Island, our home away from home. Unfortunately, the noise the bus is making has become more prominent so we spent our entire visit trying to solve that problem. (You can always tell which beer is Kyle’s because I have never in my life been able to take a photo of the beer before he takes a couple sips.)

The bus definitely has a loose tie rod, and luckily a bus club friend has the parts we need so Kyle got right to work replacing the tie rod. The noise persists. Say it with me: we. don’t. have. time. for. this.

Down to the wire, we decided to take advantage of SC’s bizarre but wonderful rule that vehicle insurance fully covers windshield replacement (a true testament to how well the roads are maintained, I don’t think I’ve ever replaced my windshield before but since moving to SC I’ve had to do it twice because of freeway debris damage).

This was a text I got from Kyle: “Window guy says your car will be much quieter now. Windshield was barely glued in, and about half an inch too low.”

Alright, all that’s left is my last day of work, then we’re taking off!

It’s the end of a month and the start of our new lives!