Riding Out Hurricane Sandy, (Posted Tuesday)

Virginia Beach, VA. (Tuesday morning)

41 deg. overcast, SW wind @ 10 mph.

Forecast = Overcast with a chance of rain. High of 52F. Windy. Winds from the SW at 25 to 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph. Chance of rain 50%.


It’s about 7:00 AM Monday morning as I’m writing this on a word processor. Can’t get on the Internet this morning, so this will have to do for now until I can copy and paste it to Blogger.

It stopped raining for just a short time Sunday morning, so Jim went outside just to check things out. About the only thing he found was that there was a small branch from the tree to my left, laying on my roof. It’s small enough that he’s pretty sure it didn't do any damage.

In the afternoon, it started raining really hard and it got real windy and didn’t let up until sometime in the evening, although I don’t think it ever completely quit raining. Then, sometime in the middle of the night, it started raining really hard again, and hasn’t let up since.

The winds have been quite strong at times with gusts in the 40 to 45 mph range. There were a few gusts yesterday afternoon that I think were even higher than that. At times the rain was going completely sideways just like you see on TV when there’s a reporter standing out in the storm, trying not to get blown away.

It’s still dark out as I’m writing this, so I can’t tell of there’s any water standing in this park. There were some pretty big puddles yesterday already, but nothing to be alarmed about.

They’re saying that it’s going to keep on storming all day here in Virginia Beach. Then, tomorrow, things should start to improve.

I sure hope so. I've had enough rain and wind for awhile!!! : (

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It's now Tuesday morning and I think we're just about through with the storm.

By about 8:30 yesterday morning, the winds seemed to die down some but the rain kept coming down, very hard at times. On the news the whole report was about the high tide coming at about 9:30 in the morning with Hurricane Sandy's winds pushing the water onto shore, plus a full moon, which also raises the tides normally.

All morning long they had been showing flooded streets and businesses and then as the tide rose, they were showing the waves coming over the Virginia Beach Boardwalk!!!

By high tide, they had closed down some of the bridge/tunnels in the city and were showing more closed roads, some of them Interstate Routes. By noon, the water levels from the high tides were dropping and some of the streets and roads were beginning to reopen. Then, sometime during the afternoon, the temperatures started dropping and the winds switched to the west.

Meanwhile, we were still having heavy rains and some strong wind gusts.

The winds seem to have calmed down overnight and so far this morning I haven't felt any strong gusts hitting me. Hopefully the worst of it is over. Today is the last day of our 2 week stay here at the park and Jim needs to get outside and get me ready to travel.

So, was the decision to stay here and ride out the storm the correct one? Well, it appears that we've weathered the storm OK, but Jim says that if he had it to do over again, we'd head inland. We were lucky in that Sandy stayed well off shore, but there was the fear that it could turn and come on shore at any time. The winds were fierce at times, the downpour of about 24 hours was unnerving, being that we didn't know if we were going to get flooded out or not.

I think that both Jim and Linda feel that it just wasn't worth the stress to hang around in the area see Joe, Nancy and the girls, one more time. It probably would have been worth it to head inland for awhile and then come back out here after the storm was over, if they wanted to visit some more with them.

Did you know that every second, a large hurricane releases the energy of 10 atomic bombs?

Riding Out Hurricane Sandy (Posted Sunday)

Virginia Beach, VA.


About 12:15 on Saturday, it started to rain. Not hard, but a steady drizzle at first. Then as the day wore on, it rained harder at times and towards evening, the wind picked up noticeably.

Many of the RVs here in the park left in the morning and some left in the afternoon after it started raining. There's still quite a few of us here though and I doubt if very many more will attempt to leave before the storm is over.

Right after dinner, Saturday evening, Jim pulled in my slides as my awning toppers were already starting to make some noise and the forecast was for the winds to pick up overnight.

As I write this, (Sunday morning at about 6 AM), it's 60 degrees outside, the wind is blowing out of the North at about 15 mph with gusts around 30 mph. It's raining, but not real heavy at this time.

This is the forecast for today. (Sunday)  Overcast with rain. High of 64F. Windy. Winds from the NNE at 35 to 45 mph with gusts to 60 mph.

This is the forecast for tonight. (Sunday Night)  Overcast with rain. Low of 52F. Windy. Winds from the West at 40 to 45 mph with gusts to 65 mph.

As of right now, the storm is about 395 miles East of Charleston and 260 miles SSE  of Cape Hatteras and is traveling NE at about 15 mph. The problem is that it's such a large storm that the hurricane force winds extend around 105 miles from the center of the storm and tropical force wind extend out as much as 520 miles from the center.

As I've still got an Internet signal right now, I've decided to go ahead and post this. Don't know when my next post will be, but will post when I can.

A Good Decision?

Virginia Beach, VA.

66 deg. overcast, W. wind @ 10 mph.

Forecast = Overcast with a chance of rain, then rain in the afternoon. High of 70F. Windy. Winds from the NE at 20 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph. Chance of rain 70%.


Well, it's done.

"What's been done", you ask?

Yesterday, the decision was made for us to stay here in Virginia Beach even though they're forecasting some really nasty weather for this area. Was it a smart decision? Well, I guess time will tell. As I'm posting this, it looks like the main part of the storm, (now Tropical Storm Sandy) is going to pass to the North of us, but Mother Nature has a way of changing her mind.

Many people here at the park don't seem too concerned about the storm. In fact, there were quite a few RV coming into the park yesterday, and many, many RVers have put out all kinds of Halloween decorations!!! If we have any kind of wind at all, I really don't see how those decorations will survive!!

If we have much of a storm here at all, I don't imagine that I'll be posting on this blog. My Internet signal is already real flakey and I'm sure it will get worse as the weather deteriorates.

I'll post when I can.

Did you know that the word hurricane comes from the Taino Native American word, hurucane, meaning evil spirit of the wind?

Finally, CLT's Problem and Hurricane Sandy

Virginia Beach, VA.

58 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Partly cloudy. High of 75F. Winds from the NNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Well, Jim finally took photos of Joe and his family and got them downloaded onto this computer. So, I'm finally able to post them here so you can see who I've been talking about for the past week. : )

This first one is, of course, Joe, LInda's son.

Nancy, Joe's wife and our body building family member.

This is Sami, (Samantha), Joe and Nancy's oldest daughter,

And Amber, Joe and Nancy's youngest daughter.

 Tuesday, Linda called Walgreen's and was told that the rest of her medications were there, so she and Jim took CLT and headed over there and picked them up.

CLT (Cute Little Truck),  hadn't said anything, but come to find out, he's been having a problem with his brakes!! Jim caught it when he noticed a noise coming from CLT's left front wheel and was pretty sure that it was the brake pad wear indicator. I didn't realize it, but Jim said that he thought he had heard something over a week ago when we were in Apex, visiting Mike and his family.

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  what to do?

Well, when Jim and Linda went over to Joe and Nancy's for dinner, Jim asked Joe if he had any recommendations of a place to get them checked out. Joe said that his friend Ray, (who Jim and Linda know), was now doing repair work on cars, and he would call him and see if he had time to look at CLT.

Well, to make a long story a little shorter, Ray said that he had time and would be glad to check CLT out. And, he could do it Wednesday afternoon!! So, soon after noon yesterday, Ray came over here, picked up CLT, took him back to his place, repaired both the front and rear brakes, and had CLT back here in time for Jim and Linda to head over to Joe and Nancy's for dinner again. : )

Talk about service!!!! : )

CLT says that his brakes haven't felt that good for quite some time now, and says that now, he'll be able to do a better job of helping me stop when we're traveling. : )

Today, the plan is for Joe and Nancy to come here for dinner. Jim also wants to do a few things outside as we're expecting quite a weather change because of Hurricane Sandy coming up along the coast.

Right now, Sandy is forecasted to stay well offshore  but you can be assured that both Jim and Linda are keeping a close eye on any changes in the forecast. In any case, we'll probably have quite a bit of rain with some wind and falling temperatures after the storm has passed.

Did you know that a lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court?

Nancy's Bucket List and A Disappointing Meal

Virginia Beach, VA.

50 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast =Partly cloudy. Fog early. High of 75F. Winds from the SW at 5 to 10 mph.


My Internet signal here at the CG has been really quirky the last few days. As I'm typing this, the signal keeps dropping off and on, but I really wanted to post so that I didn't get too far behind.

Saturday evening, Jim and Linda took CLT and headed where Nancy was doing her fitness show. Well, come to find out, this was actually a local body building contest and many of the participants were really into the strength and body building thing.  

This was on Nancy's "bucket list" and it's the first time that she has done anything like this. She's been training for almost a year, practicing her poses eating only certain foods and doing all the other things necessary get ready to compete.

So, how did she do??? Well, she came home with 3 trophies!!!!  2  4th place and 1  5th place. One was for the "novice class" category, one for the "tall women's class", and one for the "over 40 years old class" !!!  : )

Really great for her first, (and she says her last), competition!!!! ; )

Sunday, absolutely nothing happened except to watch all the week-end campers pack up and head for home. Linda worked some more on her family tree program and Jim watched football on TV.

Yesterday, was another slow day. About 4:30 or so, Jim and Linda took CLT and headed over to Joe and Nancy's and then they and Joe, Nancy, Sami and Amber went out to eat at the Atlas Restaurant near their house for dinner.

The company was great and everyone had a good time, but in the last few years there has been a bunch of changes at the Restaurant and none of them seem to be for the better. Joe's food was cold, Sami's order was messed up and had to send it back, hardly any of the food really stood out and the service left something to be desired.

From what I understand, the Atlas used to be a very good place to eat and many times the restaurant was crowded. Now, there were only a few people in there and I doubt that Jim and Linda or Joe and Nancy will go back again.

Very disappointing. : (

The rest of Linda's prescription are supposed to be ready today, so Jim and Linda will probably be heading over to Walgreens. They also have a grocery list started, so they may pick those items up at a grocery store while they're out and about, but we'll see.

Did you know that on this date in  1915, The first U.S. championship horseshoe tourney was held in Kellerton, IA.?

An Interesting Day and Company

Virginia Beach, VA.

54 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast =  Clear. High of 72F. Winds from the WSW at 5 to 10 mph.


Yesterday was a very interesting day. Early on, RVs started coming into the park for the weekend and the parade of RVs continued all day.

Not too long after noon, a great looking 5th wheel pulled into the site beside me. After it was pretty well set up, Jim walked around behind me and introduced himself to the owners.  He found out that their names are Will and Tammy and they're from Canada!! They're on vacation and are in the area to see the sights in and around the Virginia Beach area.

Come to find out, their 5th wheel is a Newmar, so when they saw me, they were very interested to find out more about me. As Jim was talking to them, they asked quite a few questions about me, so after checking with Linda, Jim invited them over to see the inside of me.

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  after they had their RV completely set up, they came over and took "the tour". : )

Will and Tammy seem like a really nice couple. They were very interested in my features and gave me some very nice compliments. They have remodeled much of their 5th wheel and seemed interested in the modifications that have been done to me. (Such as my hardwood type flooring, desk and recliner).

Not too long after they went back to their RV, Joe called and said that he and Amber were on their way out here and was wondering where in the park I was located. I didn't know if they'd be able to find me because I'm hiding behind that tree, but a little while later, they pulled up behind me.

I think CLT (Cute Little Truck) sitting out in the open gave me away!! ; )

Soon after they arrived, Jim fired up the grill and cooked some burgers. Then, after visiting for awhile, they headed back home.

Walgreen's still hasn't called, so I suppose that Linda will have to call them to see if the rest of her medications have arrived. Then, this evening, Jim and Linda are going to head over to Joe and Nancy's house and then go to some kind of fitness training show that Nancy is in.

Did you know that six Presidents' wives were born in Virginia? Martha Washington, Martha Jefferson, Rachel Jackson, Letitia Tyler, Ellen Arthur, Edith Wilson.

Prescriptions and Company Coming

Virginia Beach, VA.

67 deg. scattered clouds, no wind.

Forecast = Overcast with a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain in the morning, then partly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain. High of 79F. Winds from the SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.

Not a whole lot to report on for Thursday. Jim and Linda did go to a Walgreens to get prescriptions refilled and everything went pretty well. They were short on one medication though, so they'll have to go back again today or tomorrow to pick it up.

Being that I'm going to be here for a total of 2 weeks, there may be a chance that some of you may be in the Virginia Beach area. Well, I'd invite you to come and see me, but I really don't know if you'd be able to find me because I'm hiding behind a tree. CLT is out in the open though, so maybe you can spot him parked next to me.

Tonight, Joe and Amber are coming to see me and to have dinner with Jim and Linda. I think Jim is planing on cooking hamburgers on the grill if the weather co-operates.

I hope they can find me. ; )

Did you know that Virginia was named for England's "Virgin Queen," Elizabeth I?


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