Update: Living in a Car-Rachel Holbert-Jones Page, Sunset SC #Ravenblackheartllc

Update: Living in a Car~Xie Qi Page, Iva-Keowee SC

I posted this on my Medium blog but not all posts are one hundred percent accessible unless you pay for a membership there so I'm posting it here too. I want post it on wordpress but I will post the update on my next post. I went into the many campgrounds that we have tried or intend to try as it gets warmer. I'm not sure if the links will work, if they don't I will come back later and write another post where I make sure the links work. It's just that it's getting late and I need to eat and leave this Starbucks I'm at.

It’s been awhile since I posted here. Honestly, I’ve been so busy with work and litigation that I’ve had no time to post here. Plus, I’ve been updating my other two blogs at wordpress and blogger and have a long way to go yet to have them complete.

My partner and I have been officially homeless since November 13, 2023. He was evicted as part of this litigation that I’m not going into here. Previous to this, my boyfriend Malachi had said I could live on his boat that is docked at the Hartwell Marina in Georgia only to find out later that the marina doesn’t allow liveaboards and I had to make other arrangements. I had previously stayed with a couple of friends in Canton and Waynesville, North Carolina before settling into living in my car in Anderson County, South Carolina and spend a great deal of time in Iva and Starr (Starr is only 6 miles away).

If I hadn’t gotten out when I did the marina would have made Malachi move his boat which he didn’t want to do. He said he’d find another place to dock it. He has several boats that he docks at Hartwell when they’re not in use. Since, the first post about living in the Hartwell marina, Malachi has found another place to dock it near Keowee. Honestly speaking, I like Lake Keowee better than Lake Hartwell and he can take the boat out on Lake Jocassee too since it’s close. I like the area around South Carolina Highway 11 and there’s a fair amount of camping in the area too that we can take advantage of during the summer when it’s not too hot. My partner and I have already decided that we may go to Michigan or Kentucky in the summer. I spent a great deal of time in Kentucky and West Virginia last summer. I had to be in West Virginia to take care of my aunt but I’ve always liked Kentucky. I like the mountains, it’s just a beautiful area. Except for Louisville, I really don’t like it there and it’s off Interstate 75 going north to Cincinnati and I’m not a big fan of any of the interstates going through Ohio. I like Ohio in the summer. It’s usually not too extremely hot but sometimes it is and on those occasions I head to Michigan. The Upper peninsula never gets that hot.

I’ve made several updates to my story about living on the road. Some of them I’m just going to leave them the way they are and others I’ve completely updated but I have too many posts to update them all. The ,ain updates I made here and will make to my other posts are taking Memphis, Tennessee out. It isn’t that big of a deal but I don’t live in Memphis and never made Memphis my home per se. I was only in Memphis to take care of my aunt and she is no longer in Tennessee. She wants to go back but so far we’ve axed the idea. My cousins want to get her moved to Oklahoma which I think is ridiculous. It’s so far away and I don’t care for Oklahoma that much. It’s not bad, I spent months in Chickasha which isn’t too far from the Texas border and I like Texas. In fact, I’m still preparing to go back to Texas to oversee the cattle my Uncle re-titled in both of our names. It’s going to be awhile before I can go back.

I may also be going to Lowndesville, SC in Abbeville County to renovate/remodel an old house we bought a few years ago. My employers (my Uncle and his business partners) have been talking about remodeling this old house for years now and have just never gotten around to it. They spent about two years trying to whittle the owner down on the price. It was originally being sold for over one million dollars but they finally came down to less than $500,000. It is a very creepy old house and there’s tons of wildlife around there. I know there are some big cats in the area. People say there are no mountain lions in the area but several people have captured them on trail cameras but still South Carolina says there are none. This old house has over 400 acres so it’s huge. The old house was built in the 1920’s but there’s no definitive records because the building that housed the records burned up in 1924 so it’s safe to say the house probably built before 1924 but the exact year it was built is unknown.

The first time I ever went to this house I swear I heard footsteps. I thought there was someone in the house so I quickly went outside and back to my car. After a short time, I walked around the house and went back inside to take pictures/video and I didn’t hear anything again and there was no one there. I was agitated and a little distraught and very cautious but finally assumed there must have been an animal, perhaps a raccoon or possum that got scared and ran out when he heard me but I couldn’t help but wonder. So later, after it got dark and I had already left and went to Abbeville (that’s the closest place with a grocery store) to get something to eat and returned, I wasn’t going inside just in case a homeless person was staying there which honestly I doubted because it is twenty miles from the nearest stores/gas stations but again, just in case, however, there was no vehicles around the house parked anywhere close. The property line goes all the way to the main highway which is a good quarter mile away and across the street. There’s no place to park near the house except in the driveway. I drove by there several times at night but wouldn’t stop. Each and every time I drove by it appeared there was a light on downstairs and once upstairs, but the power was not on. Every time it appeared there was a light on inside the house but no one lived there, it had been empty for a long time, the power was not on and there was no place to park and I highly doubt anyone would trek through a mile or more of heavy woods to get to the house to sleep inside. It didn’t make sense to me and yet I couldn’t figure out why a light was on unless there was indeed a person inside or perhaps the house was haunted. Who knows? What I do know, is that house always made me feel uneasy and I told my Uncle there’s no way I’m staying there at night. And it’s a long drive (45 minutes) back to Anderson to the Walmart or a rest area. I have no issue staying in an RV or van somewhere populated but I won’t stay at that house. I’m not even comfortable staying in an RV at the house after the experiences I’ve already had there.

If I end up remodeling the house, that won’t be for awhile. And I hope it won’t be during the summer. I really dislike South Carolina in the summer. I don’t tolerate the heat that well. I don’t like the cold, in fact, I do better in the heat but it so humid in South Carolina, it’s like Florida, and I’ve been in SC when it’s over 100 degrees and extremely humid, to the point I got physically sick but not as sick as I got in Nebraska when it was 105 degrees and I was sick for 5 days.

For now, we are in our cars. My partner and I have separate vehicles and we spend the majority of our time either at truck stops, Walmart, Cracker Barrel or 24 hour gas stations. We also camp if we can find dispersed (free) camping. One place we really like and found through Hipcamp is Three Creeks Camp and Nature Preserve: https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/south-carolina-3-creeks-camp-and-nature-preserve-v1qhw2yy?adults=1&children=0, Devil’s Fork State Park: https://visitoconeesc.com/devils-fork-state-park/, Singing Pines Campground: https://visitanderson.com/business-directory-2/singing-pines-campground/, Springfield Campground: https://discoversouthcarolina.com/products/425, Big Water Marina and Campground (my personal favorite): https://www.bigwatermarina.com/, Sadlers Creek State Park: https://southcarolinaparks.com/sadlers-creek, Lake Hartwell State Park: https://southcarolinaparks.com/lake-hartwell?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiArfauBhApEiwAeoB7qL48aCRcw-A5oS1-Bb0vPHfYnL5dV-uO5oTL6mzUwG4Y8yUHTVyv6RoCJMUQAvD_BwE, Conecross Campground: https://discoversouthcarolina.com/products/27324, Twin Lakes Campground: https://twinlakesnc.com/, Winstead RV Park: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100034744253982, Forest Spring Family Campground: https://forestspringfamilycampground.com/, Double Springs Boat-In Campground: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/south-carolina/remote-overnight-camping-lake-sc/, Oconee Point Campground: https://visitoconeesc.com/point-of-interest/oconee-point-campground/, Cherry Hill Recreation Area: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/scnfs/recarea/?recid=47069, Broyles Recreation Area: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/south-carolina/broyles-recreation-area-beach-townville-sc/, Big Oaks Recreation Area: https://www.sas.usace.army.mil/About/Divisions-and-Offices/Operations-Division/Hartwell-Dam-and-Lake/Plan-A-Visit/Day-Use-Areas/Corps-Day-Use-Areas/, Mile Creek Park Campground: https://www.co.pickens.sc.us/departments/parks,_recreation,___tourism/mile_creek_park/index.php, Sullivan’s Family Campground: https://m.facebook.com/p/Sullivan-Family-Campground-100071199744256/, South Cove Park: https://experienceoconee.com/parks/south-cove-park, North Side Gazebo Park, April Valley RV Park: https://aprilvalleyrvpark.com/, Watsadler Campground: https://www.exploregeorgia.org/hartwell/outdoors-nature/lakes-rivers/watsadler-campground, Chattooga River Lodge: https://www.chattoogalodge.com/ and Anderson KOA: https://koa.com/campgrounds/anderson/.

We are also only about one hundred miles from the Chattahoochie National Forest which when it gets warmer I want to camp there: https://www.fs.usda.gov/conf. Lake Jocassee is another place I like: https://visitoconeesc.com/lake-jocassee-is-open/.

While camping is good when you want to get away from it all, I prefer staying at truck stops or rest areas. During the winter it’s too cold to camp and no one is out there in the wintertime. Although, we stayed at a couple of these places recently even though it was cold but it was on warmer nights. It wasn’t during the nights where it was in the teens or twenties. Above forty degrees is good now. I used to absolutely freeze when it dropped below sixty degrees. I could stand it about 55 degrees but anything lower and I was letting my engine idle. Back in 2021 I was letting my little Ford Focus idle every night but I have a much better setup now. When my partner and I moved into homelessness, it wasn’t long before I had to find a better way because one comforter wan’t keeping me warm so I ended up getting a blanket that I bought at a Goodwill, two throws that I got at a ministries place that help the needy, a thin blanket the church gave me at Christmas, a throw I bought at Goodwill and one throw my partner didn’t want so now I have it. I also bought another pillow to put in my floorboard to prop my feet on but it’s not as comfortable as I thought it would be. I have a hard time getting my feet in my shoes. I still have the pillow but I use it to put my phone on at night and listen to my scary podcasts.

Anyway, I’ve updated my signature (I call it) at the bottom of my posts a couple of times so far and probably will update again. I will update some of wordpress and blogger posts but not all. I will primarily update it to get rid of the Memphis, Tennessee headlines because I’m not in Memphis anymore, have no intention of returning and never really lived there. I just took care of my aunt in Memphis. I was in Savannah, Georgia briefly while my cousin had my aunt there caring for her and now we are supposed to be moving her to Dead Women Crossing, Oklahoma and I posted about that here and on my other blogs as well as my YouTube videos but I have no idea when that is going to happen. For now, she is still in Sutton, West Virginia. My cousins are talking about moving my aunt to Georgia where one of my cousins’ family has a cabin that would be big enough for two of us to care for her at the same time. It’s almost to the point where it takes more than one person to take care of her.

That said, I’ve been writing all day, it’s nine o’clock at night and time for me to eat something and get out of this Starbucks I’m in and go to our nightly sleeping place which will probably be the truck stop we’ve been going to every night for the past few nights. We try to change it up but my partner gets stuck on one place and doesn’t want to go anywhere else. I like the routine too. And this has turned out to be longer than I intended. Before I go, I’m trying to eat a healthier. In the past few weeks, I’ve fallen into some bad habits when it comes to my eating. I’ve been eating cookies and candy which I know is a big no-no. My partner is severely diabetic and on insulin and just can’t seem to leave the sweets alone.

Until next time……..My story……..UPDATE: I'm moving to a marina on Lake Keowee, only in a smaller boat, a 1981 Yukon Delta 28 that needs a ton of work................I’m Rachel Xie Qi Holbert-Jones Page and this is my story: living in Iva, South Carolina (Anderson County), part time in Hartwell, Georgia on my boyfriend's boat, a 1986 Chris-Craft Catalina 381. I was at the Hartwell Marina which doesn’t allow liveaboards so I left. He purchased a 1996 Holiday Mansion 39 Barracuda, 1977 CHB Trawler 34 (I’m remodeling), 1986 Marine Trader 54 Sunliner that I’m updating, 2018 Sunseeker Manhattan 52, 2001 Nordic Tug 37 and a 1983 Fishcraft 28 (similar to the AdventureCraft 28 I lived on and still call home). I’m also camping at various places, mostly lake campgrounds. ****************I still care for my aunt in West Virginia sometimes and hoping not to have to return to Memphis, Tennessee. We are scheduled to move my aunt to Dead Women Crossing, Oklahoma but first it’s to Georgia for the winter & Michigan in the summer. I’m still traveling for work and have been to my Uncle’s ranch in Alpine, Texas to oversee it and the cattle he retitled in both of our names, Texas Longhorns, Scottish Highlands, Brangus and show horses. He’s also added Bison and Beefalo to his ranch. **************************************************************** For my work travels my uncle purchased a 1995 Ford E-150 Econoline GT Starquest Campervan. I wasn’t sure about an older van like this but the man that owned it had completely converted it with solar power and electrical, it was a good deal. It only has 112k miles. It only has a sealed portable toilet but it is okay because I prefer a public toilet and only use a camper toilet if I’m dispersed camping, at a Walmart or Cracker Barrel. I prefer rest areas and truck stops. For short trips, I drive a car or SUV. ***************************************************************** I have an avid love for photography and capturing the essence of old, abandoned houses, allegedly haunted places, classic, antique vehicles, lakes, rivers, nature, museums, art galleries, antique shops, car shows and historical places. I’m not a ghosthunter or paranormal investigator although I’ve had people request me to lead their groups, I’m a legend hunter. I love scary podcasts and spend more time on YouTube or Audible than Peacock or Tubi. I used to watch TV or movies when I stopped for the night but now I usually go right to sleep when I stop and prefer the podcasts of Darkness Prevails, What Lurks Beneath, Swamp Dweller or Red Owl. I like to listen to scary trucker stories too, occasionally grizzly/polar bear attacks, audiobooks & Dateline Podcasts. I like google scholar, casetext, medium, wordpress, livejournal, blogger, unsplash, pexels, pixabay, pinterest, instagram, facebook, X, tumblr, amazon, eBay, shadowlands (for places that are haunted), reading, greek mythology, animal shows, National Geographic, the metaphysical, food, camping, fitness, weightlifting, nutrition, health, gua sha, face rollers, beauty, fashion, tai chi, yoga, YouTube (listening to van lifers and people living in their vehicles), road tripping, computers, internet and creating videos. I also like long drives & deserted back roads. Work consists of scouting for investment properties and rehabbing/remodeling those properties for my employer. We also remodel old boats and restore classic cars. *****************************************************************Visit my blogs at https://rachelholbertjonespage.com, https://sassygrrl32x.blogspot.com and https://youtube.com/sassygrrl32 ……………………..By Rachel Xie Qi Holbert-Jones Page AKA sassygrrl32 & Haunted Legendhunter & Bourbon Street Blogger **********************************************************Alot of people have asked me the story of my homeless situation and I’ve removed it for now and will discuss it in my blog posts. *****************************************************************#rachelxieqiholbertjonespage #sassygrrl32 #Iva #Keowee #SouthCarolina #Hartwell #Georgia #andersoncounty #Michigan #livinginacar #vanlife #nomadlifestyle #carcamping #roadtripping #boondocking #carlife #livingoffgrid #vandwelling #vanliving #legendhunter #haunted #abandoned #xieqi #sassyaftersixty #deadwomencrossing #oklahoma #westvirginia #memphis #tennessee #bourbonstreetblogger #bepositive #prayer #GodBless #rebranding #westernzhoudynasty #daxie #nanyang #mandarin #xiemei #lowbow #vitallifeforce #flowingvitalenergy #unseenenergy #taichi #davisislandersllc #rizzoreipartners