Friends and Family Tour 2017

Labor Day Weekend - Severn, MD  We spent a few days with Andy, Yoko and the kids.  It was a good visit which included good times with the grandchildren, some golf and of course Yoko’s great cooking.  I found out I can be quite a good Gyoza maker.  Gyoza is similar to pot stickers only better and of course, these were home made.  We also went to a crab house to eat some Chesapeake Bay crab.  I tried this years ago and was unable to get the knack of the whole experience.  Everyone including the kids was quite good at cracking the shells and picking out the meat.  As good as I am at making gyoza, I suck at cracking crabs.  Just give me a good old Maryland crab cake and I’ll be one happy camper. (no pun intended)  We decided to leave on Monday, Labor Day, to avoid the DC traffic.  As it turned out that was a great decision. Driving was easy.

Florence, SC  We made it to Florence, SC by late afternoon.  As you may remember, our RV air conditioner was broken so we decided to stay in a Best Western.  After eating supper, we decided to take a little closer look at the Hurricane IRMA reports.  GA showed some concern but I was hell bent on making it home.  By the next morning, Tuesday, I was sharing her concern.  It looked like we were going to get hit indirectly but we were still in the possibility for a direct hit.  Our villa was already set up for a storm and with the thought of having to turn around and evacuate in a few days made it seem senseless to continue on south.  After reviewing all our options and a few calls we decided to go to Cincinnati and park at Katie and Franks until we could make our way home, if there still was one.
Cincinnati, OH – We arrived on Wednesday afternoon.  The IRMA situation was getting worse and our neighbors and Josh decided to evacuate.  Josh arrived at F&K’s on Thursday.  For the next three days we continually watched The Weather Channel, talked with friends and tried to prepare for a future that would be quite different than what we envisioned a week ago. 

We took the opportunity to fix a few things on the RV.   With the thought that we may need to live in the RV indefinitely once we got home, the broken air conditioner became a priority.  We tried to get an appointment to have it fixed but 3 weeks away was the earliest opportunity.  I decided to get on the roof and have a look for myself.  All along I believed it was the compressor that was broken and I could not fix that but maybe there was some other problem as doubtful as that seemed.  Since our RV doesn’t have a ladder to the roof, I went to Home Depot and rented one.  Once I got up there, I took the cover off and found a blade had cracked and flown off the condenser cooling fan.  That caused the vibration and lack of cooling.  Of course, no one could get a replacement fan at least for 7 or 8 days.  But I found a place in Batavia OH that got me a new fan blade the next day.  Josh and I brought it home and 20 minutes later I had a completely functional air conditioner.  Total price of the repair including ladder rental…$104. 

On Saturday, brother Dan was attending a gun show 45 miles north of F&K’s.  That afternoon he came down for a visit, spent the night and left for home Sunday morning.  It was a good distraction to have him here and provided another fresh mind to pick on how to cope with the impending tragedy. 
Sunday afternoon was the day of destruction.  I kept hoping for some form of break.  My idea of a break at this point was to have something less than 4 feet of flooding.  I’ll never forget Josh announcing that IRMA turned toward land and it was downgraded to a Cat 3.  Was this our break?  It was.  Although our neighbors in Naples, about 20 miles south didn’t get much of a break, we did.  As I write this 3 days later, we have had no structural damage, roofs intact, and no flooding.  Of course, trees were blown over, debris all around, the street was flooded and impassable and no power but, our home escaped damage. 

Our thoughts soon turned to travelling home.  I targeted Wednesday to travel home thinking it would take 3 days for us to get there and by Friday we could get gas and have power or at least only need to live in the RV a couple more days.  If we had to stop along the way and hold up we were in an RV and that seemed reasonable.  On Wednesday, we were all packed up to hit the road.  We reviewed the gas and power situation.  The farther south, especially south of Macon GA the situation was rather bleak.  That, coupled with the power restoration going slower than I thought made it seem prudent to stay put for the time being.  We’ll decide on a day to day basis. 
I can’t say enough how open and hospitable Katie and Frank have been.  It was good to be with family during this time.  We have yet to hear a complaint or any shortness or frustration from either of them.  We are so thankful.


That brings the blog up to date for now.  Normally I say See Ya Out There but not sure when that will be.

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