August 28, 2011 Surviving Irene

The hurricane's coming, the hurricane's coming! We had been hearing that for well over a week. Yesterday morning we woke up to cloudy skies. By noontime showers of rain were beginning to fall with mild winds. By evening the rain was steady and the winds were stronger and this continued throughout the night. This morning the rain started to slack off and by 1pm we had bright blue, sunny skies once again. Other than leaves blown off the trees everything else appears to be in tack. We consider ourselves lucky as areas south and east had some flooding and property damage.
We are hoping that the hurricanes quiet down for a spell as we prepare to go to Myrtle Beach next week.

Family Togetherness, Earthquake and Irene

Last Friday, August 19th, Tom and I along with our granddaughter, Maddy, drove from Taneytown to Stafford, Virginia where we met up with our son, Todd, and his wife, Beth, and grandsons, Anthony and Parker, to travel down to Duck, North Carolina on the Outer Banks. We had rented a beach house in the Schooner Ridge section of Duck for a week. We had the use of club house that included 2 outdoor swimming pools and an indoor swimming pool. The sun shone brightly most of the week. Tuesday was cloudy with a few showers. A lot of time was spent on the beach soaking up the sunshine.

From 2011-08-20- Outer Banks

We did ride down to the Jockey's Ridge Park and walked up the huge sand dunes and then continued on down to the Hatteras Lighthouse on Monday.

From 2011-08-20- Outer Banks

From 2011-08-20- Outer Banks

We cooked most of our meals. Barbequed ribs, low country seafood boil and seafood pasta to name a few.

From Drop Box

Maddy and Anthony enjoyed bogey boarding in the ocean. Parker liked to play in the sand but preferred swimming pool water to the ocean.
Wednesday, August 23rd, Tom and I spent that morning on the beach. Around noon we returned to the beach house along with Parker, Maddy and Anthony. Some sandwiches were made for lunch and Anthony carried some down to the beach for Todd and Beth. While sitting at the kitchen counter area Tom and I felt the house swaying and looked at one another saying we thought we had just had an earthquake. Maddy and Parker were on the lower floor and Maddy also felt the house sway. A little later Todd, Beth and Anthony returned and Todd said we had an earthquake- they had received a phone call from Beth's mother telling them about the quake and its location was close to Todd and Beth's home in Virginia.
During the week we were hearing about Hurricane Irene that was moving across the Atlantic Ocean but was not predicted to make landfall until late Friday or Saturday. By Thursday it was apparent that this strong storm was going to hit the Outer Banks area and a mandatory evacuation for all visitors had been ordered. We had hoped that we could stay until early Friday morning but were told that we had to leave or we would be escorted off the island by the sheriff. About 11am we had packed up and left our rented beach house a day early on a bright sunny day. The storm was not predicted to hit until Friday afternoon or evening. As we were leaving a mandatory evacuation had been ordered for all residents on Friday.
Tom and I are now at home awaiting the effects of the storm in our area.

A Weekend in Lancaster, Pa.

Last Thursday, August 4th, we left home about noontime and traveled to Lancaster County, Pa. to a campout with the Traveling Americans. We were east of Lancaster in Kinzer at Roamer's Retreat Campground. Two other rigs from our camping group were already at the campground and then more followed on Thursday and the remainder arrived on Friday. We had 9 units in attendence which is a good turnout. Thursday evening a group of us went to Plain and Fancy restaurant for a family style meal. Friday evening a bigger group went to Country Cupboard and Buffet restaurant- some ate at the buffet but Tom and I opted for ordering from the menu.
Saturday morning our hosts for the weekend had a nice continental breakfast. In the evening we had an Italian style meal with the hosts providing pasta dishes and the rest of us bringing a dish of salad, bread or dessert. I made a dessert called "peaches and cream" which was like a cobbler. Sunday morning the hosts prepared pancakes and sausages and others brought dishes to share, I took a bowl of cantaloupe. We had campfires on Friday and Saturday nights- Friday night the weather was fine for a campfire but Saturday night we had rain. In spite of the rain, several of us sat around the campfire with our umbrellas anyway.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

During the day everyone does their own thing. Tom and I went to several of the shops and stores in the area.
Some of the folks left the campground on Sunday. Four of the units, including us, stayed until Monday. Tom and I rode over to the Strasburg area, stopped at the campground that the group will be going to in October, and registered for that weekend. We ate a nice late lunch/early dinner at the Iron Horse Cafe in Strasburg before returning to the campground.
Monday morning we returned home. It was a real nice weekend. The weather was fairly good for most of the time, had some hot days and a little rain.