Quick Weather Update - Ice Storm Pax

As with many places around the world this year, South Carolina has been experiencing really strange and extreme weather. When we were watching the weather network yesterday, they had announced that an ice storm might occur over the next couple of days, and go until Thursday morning. In preparation, they already closed down all of the schools for two days, and moved my mum's flight from Thursday morning to Thursday night. The ice storm did come, and the power has been flicking on and off since the middle of the night. This week the weather is going to go from the ice storm and -1 today, to sunshine and 17 on the weekend.. strange.

Trees coated in ice

Note the layer of ice on the table

If you can zoom in, the trees are all coated in ice

Frozen fountain

Our First Day

Surprised not to sleep the day away, my mum and I were up and out the door by 9:30. We first went to meet Scotty and Dallas, the owner's of Annie's Inn. They are extremely friendly, and like everyone down here they have a very heavy southern accent. I was super excited to see Elf, so we went and grabbed our coffee and headed to the barn. For whatever reason it took us three tries with the GPS to find the actual barn, and so 45 minutes later we finally arrived. The paddocks are big and beautiful, with a very cute barn that sits behind them. Beside the barn is a large field where the dressage ring and jumping ring are. The people who provided me a stall in their barn, Penny and Lindsay, were super nice, gave us a tour of the place, and wasted no time in showing us where Elf stays. Elf was really happy to see my mum and I, and every time we tried to walk away she would press herself up against the stall. Unfortunately today it was really rainy, but the footing is so nice and sandy that it absorbed all of the rain. I decided that it would probably be a good idea to lunge Elf, since she hadn't been ridden in 10 days. As expected, I got dragged once or twice when she decided it would be a good idea to gallop away from me and leap over some poles that were on the ground. After a while, she finally settled, and I took her in for a nice groom. We spent the rest of the day getting settled, and my mum helped me stock the cottage with groceries. It's official! I am all unpacked and ready to go. It will be interesting to see what comes over the next week, month, and following months. 

Here are a couple pictures of Elf from today. I will take some pictures of the barn and such in the days to come.

The Trip Down

Monday February 10th:

My mum and I were up at 4am. I was so excited that I barely got any sleep, and when the alarm went off in the morning I was wide awake. After my Dad kindly helped me load up the car, and we had our regular morning tea, my mum and I were on the road by 5:30. After about an hour on the road, we ran into really bad weather in the Niagara region. After taking the snow tires off only a couple of days before, we slid our way to the border. This bad weather continued on until Pittsburgh, and added at least another hour to our journey. The rest of the trip seemed to speed along, and we were making really good time (even making up some of the delay we had with the weather)… Then we hit North Carolina and were stuck in traffic, which added at least another hour and a half to our journey. I drove the entire way down, and my mum was an awesome passenger keeping me awake, entertaining me, and making sure I had my coffee and snacks. 

By the time we got to Aiken it was 9:30pm. I was disappointed because it was so dark that I couldn't see the town that I would be living in for the next three months. However, I did get to see the place I am staying (Annie's Inn), which is super cute and I'm so happy that my mum arranged for such an awesome place for me to stay. By the time we had dropped off my stuff we were starving because we hadn't had a proper meal all day. Being a small town in the middle of nowhere, there was barely anything open. Finally we found the main little town and were just in time to grab a quick slice of pizza. By the time we got home and showered it was 11:30… Needless to say that we passed out pretty quickly. 

I took these pictures when I arrived, so it was dark and rainy. Nevertheless, here is the grand tour: 

This is a two-level cottage- My cottage is number 9, the one on the bottom

The view of number 9 from the front

The cottages and the actual Inn are set up in a square- This is the centre and view from my room

The same view from a different angle

My cute little porch 

The living room 

The living room from a different angle

The kitchen
 

The bathroom

The bedroom

The bedroom and closet

Elf's Arrival

We received an email early Saturday morning to let us know that Elf had arrived safely. Delfina seems to love the lack of snow and being outside without a blanket. The weather has been ranging from -4 to +20, but it has been staying towards the warmer side of things this past week. Can't wait to get down there in a week.

Elf's Departure

Friday January 31st, 2014

The alarm went off at 4am, and it was time to go get Delfina ready for her long adventure. My loving mother was kind enough to get up with me to give me a hand (I sometimes like to call her my groom.. I'm sure I will pay for this later). After stopping through Timmies we get up to the barn at 5 o'clock. When we arrived Elf was enjoying a nice sleep, but soon realized that something exciting was about to happen when she noticed our early arrival. She greeted us like her usual nosey self, and then proceeded to eat her hay and warm bran. She was all ready to go, hoof-oil and everything when the trailer arrived to pick her up. After loading up all of her things, it was time to load Elf. We took her outside to load her, and she was very well-behaved. She loaded perfectly, and I am not sure if it was because she trusted me more or if it was just out of sheer nosiness. Regardless, it all went smoothly and they were off on their long 15 hour journey.