6/30/2012 The Aftermath of the Storm

(Rehoboth Beach, DE)

We should have listened to the news and weather before heading to bed last night. At 12:30 we were woken by our 5th wheel moving. Actually, I thought someone had hit our fifth wheel because it was moving so much.

I jumped up and looked out the window and in the sections of campground I could see lights were coming on in every RV. We then realized it was wind, intense wind. We found out this morning it was clocked at 65 miles an hour and that the east coast was hit with a fast moving, killer storm. Its been called a land hurricane.

Bob went out to secure the few things we had that could have been blown away. Others were out putting down awnings, stowing lawn chairs and laying bicycles on the ground.

The lightning and thunder were also intense and while it rained, it wasn’t enough to flood anything.

Millions lost power and the Eastern Shore was hardest hit. It will be several days, if not a full week, before some areas have their electricity restored.

I rode around the campground this morning before heading over to the marina.

A table and grill overturned by the wind.

What was left of a canopy. A mangled aluminum frame and the canvas cover was nowhere in sight. Neither was the tent that sheltered this air mattress and those that slept on it before the storm.

I can’t even imagine being in a tent last night. I saw lots of tents with mangled poles laying on the ground, the owners probably in local motels this morning.

Some tents either stood during the onslaught of this powerful storm or the tent dwellers just had no other means of spending the night anywhere else and had to get them put back up last night.

Lots of campers were out this morning looking for towels that were pinned to temporary clotheslines and were blown away, looking for sand buckets and shovels their little ones left out, damage to awnings was being assessed and talk between neighbors centered on the storm.

When I got to the marina there was lots of activity on the docks with marina personnel making sure that lines were secure, no boats were leaning to one side or the other and that generally everything made it through the night.

The marina café didn’t fare so well. The first thing I noticed was an umbrella, or what was left of one, in the parking lot behind the café. I sure didn’t expect to see this when I walked around front.

As you can well imagine the storm is all anyone is talking about. Well, that, and our 100 + degree days. This is so unusual for June in this area.

When I got my golf cart organized and arrived at the ramp I found utter chaos! I had two boats in the ramp and seven waiting in line and the parking lot was already full.

One of the boats was having mechanical problems and the boat owner and his buddy were trying to fix it right at the ramp and from what I heard from those waiting in line they had been there for a half hour already. It took me no time at all in getting them to pull the boat back out and to work on their problems in the parking lot.

When you put a boat in the water it is a ramp rule that you immediately take it to the courtesy dock and then come back and get your truck and trailer and get them parked. This way, if the ramp lot is full and you have to go to the remote parking lot then at least the ramp can be used by someone else. Got that?

As each driver starts to back down the ramp Bob and I stop them and remind them of this, especially if we’re busy. Now mind you, if they were the only one using the ramp and the ramp lot wasn’t full we would have no problem with them leaving the boat tied to the ramp dock and parking their truck first. That applies only if we aren’t busy.

I had this fellow and his three buddies come to put in a rather large boat. When I stopped the driver of the truck on the way down the ramp he told me that he would be parking behind the dry stack building and wouldn’t need me to follow him to the remote parking lot. I told him that was fine but he still had to move his boat the courtesy dock first. He assured me that one of the fellows on the boat would move it. I stood there and watched them launch it and saw a short exchange take place between the driver and one of the guys with him. I just had a funny feeling about this and it turned out I was right. The driver drove away with his truck and trailer and the three guys are on the boat still tied to the ramp dock. I hear a very lame attempt at starting the engine, like the key isn’t being turned all the way for ignition. I heard this sound several times and then watched the three fellas talk amongst themselves and then heard the lame starting of the engine again. This went on until the driver appeared at the top of the ramp. He had this big smile on his face and I said to him, “Something tells me this boat is going to start right away as soon as you get on it.” He looked at me and laughed and said, “Yeah!” This didn’t sit well with me at all. I knew what I would have liked to say to him but I also knew I couldn’t use that kind of language to a customer. So I did the next best thing. I called after him, “I hope you don’t catch any fish!”

Today is Ronnie and his family’s last day of vacation. We hate to see them go.

Melissa came over and asked if I wanted to watch the sunset with her. Well, I just wouldn’t pass that opportunity up! Yeah, yeah, more sunset pictures!

Oh, look at that red sky at night.

going…

going…

gone.

There has been something we’ve wanted to do all week and we realized its now or never. We want to walk our new bridge. Ronnie took this picture of it from the top of his motor home.

So off we went. (Note to my friend Diana, take notice we left the campground, so we went off to the bridge)

Ronnie will take a picture of anything!

Actually, his picture looked pretty good,,,,,so I took one too.

I also wanted to take this picture.

The one above is the second one I took because Ronnie was being his usual jokester and pain in my butt self and tapped my arm just as I was taking the picture. This was my first attempt.

It’s a good thing he’s my favorite cousin!