Mike and I were invited to a wedding in Destin September 16th. We were not sure if we would be able to go, but once we found out we could, we decided to make it one heck of a trip. We came up with an agenda and then Irma came a week before we were to leave.
Everyone was talking about Harvey but Molly was talking to me about Irma. She was watching it before it made the news up here in Iowa. Soon, her work was telling the employees not to come in because they are in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Florida. Molly was calling me daily, many times a day with questions and asking for suggestions. I couldn't stand the thought of Molly being in her recently bought condo riding out the hurricane alone. A week before Irma hit, there were no flights out, so she would have to stay. When the path was thought to hit the east side of the state, Molly decided to head to the St. Petersburg area where her cousin Meredith lives. First Molly had to prepare her condo for the worst. She loaded all of her belongings in the laundry room in the middle of her condo with no windows. The biggest problem would be preparing the four sliding doors for the wind. The town was completely out of plywood. She would have no way of getting it to her condo anyway. She decided to duct tape them. This way if they did break, it would be easier to clean up. She had one roll of tape and found one of the last rolls at Lowes.
Pretty impressive, right?
Once she felt comfortable that everything was in place, she headed west across the state with a full tank of gas. When she approached the turnpike, which she wouldn't take, it took an hour to go one mile. Everyone was trying to get on the turnpike and it was jam packed. Once she passed that intersection, it was smooth sailing.
Meredith's husband was not in town and I felt so much better that Molly and Meredith would be together. My sister Jo, had planned a trip to Meredith's but her flight was cancelled last minute. So it would be just the two of them. When the path switched from the east side to the west and it looked like it would hit St. Pete head on, there was some hard decisions to be made. Quite a few people, not in Florida, were telling Meredith to get in the car and get out of there. I couldn't stand the thought of the two of them stuck in traffic, out of gas, in the middle of a storm like Irma. I was hoping they would stay put. They decided to stay. Whew.
They made a "nest" in the closet with supplies.
They had a few days before Irma would hit so they went shopping at Walmart to see what they could find.
They made it though the storm that hit in the middle of the night. I was up here in Iowa so worried!!!
I talked to Molly and she said everything was fine so I went to bed. I found out later that the worst hit after I had talked to her. They said the wind was the most frightening. Meredith said she is going to plan better the next time and not sit through another one. They were without power for 24 hours.
Molly stayed a couple more days because she wasn't sure if she would have power at her condo. A friend drove by her place and said her condo looked okay.
Now that Irma was over, we headed to Georgia, actually North Carolina. We were going to stay in our favorite motel in Blairsville, Ga while visiting Maggie. Because of the storm, we had a hard time finding a place to stay but eventually did find a nice, expensive place in North Carolina, fifteen minutes away from Maggie's college. The drive on our first day was 12 hours and we left at 5am. This is the view from our room.
And this is the view of campus from Maggie's dorm.
Maggie's dorm suite has a cat. This cat is allowed to stay with them as a therapy cat for one of the roommates. The cat actually helps them all but, it tends to attack. The following picture is me demanding the cat give me a hug after it attacked me.
We went hiking after Maggie got out of class.
We then decided to go to a brewery we saw near our motel. We were excited to see New Glarus bottles on display. New Glarus is a brewery in Wisconsin and we couldn't believe these were in North Carolina.
I became even more excited when Maggie's beer came and I noticed the logo on the glass. My sister Sherry found a really cool T.V. lamp at the dump in Wisconsin and we had been trying to research the value of it. We couldn't find it anywhere but now the mystery may be solved. It probably came from the New Glarus Hotel and Restaurant in Wisconsin. It turns out the owner of the brewery is from Wisconsin.
After two nights in North Carolina, it was sad to say goodbye to Maggie but we needed to head off to Destin, Florida for the wedding. We left at 5am and arrived at the resort in time to relax a little before getting ready for the wedding. They were married on a yacht with the sunset behind them. It was beautiful. I don't have pictures.
The next day we headed to Parrish, Florida near St. Petersburg to Meredith and A.J.'s house where Molly rode out the hurricane. On that 8 hour drive we started to notice we were in the hurricane area. First of all, it seemed like everyone that evacuated was now heading back home. The traffic was terrible. In a small window of time, there were five accidents and one of those we witnessed. People were anxious and impatient to get back home. There were also many convoys of trucks, either electric or tree trucks. We really had our guard up.
We also noticed there were not any billboards intact. I didn't realize most billboards are breakaway plastic. It was unusual to see all of them with these holes.
The old kind of billboards didn't make it either.
There were a lot of trees that lost their tops.
After one night at Meredith and A.J.'s house, we headed to Palm Bay, to Molly's. It would feel good to stay in one place for a week and hang out with her.
We found a duct tape heart waiting for us.
The only damage Molly had was a fence post that became loose. All we would need to do is stabilize it. She was lucky because there were many fences down. Every condo has a courtyard with a fence. I also wanted to take care of the standing water problem she has on her sidewalk after it rains. This really bothered me when we moved her in because we had to walk through water to get to her courtyard. You can't really tell from the following picture but the grass, soil, and sand is so high on the left side of her fence that the water takes forever to drain. Many weeds had grown after this picture was taken as well.
I thought it through and decided we needed to pull all the weeds. dig a trench next to the sidewalk and fill with gravel. It took us all day. When we started digging, we found there were layers upon layers of rock, mulch, and sand that had built up over the years. We must have hauled 30 bags of this mixture to the dumpster. It turned out beautiful and the neighbors were in awe. They loved the rock instead of the red mulch that everyone uses. They also loved the black mulch we used in certain places.
It rained soon after we finished and it was sad to see the water still collected and sat there, on the sidewalk. The good news is that is drains faster than it did before and it is beautiful.
We did get the post stabilized. There was one problem though. We didn't have any way to brace it while the Quickcrete hardened. As long as I had my wine glass and Molly coming out to fill it once in awhile, I was okay leaning on the post for an hour.
We also built shelves in Molly's storage area under her stairs.
And we hired Alex, our new handyman friend, to clean out the dryer vent. This is about the same amount we pulled out a month earlier. We couldn't reach it all since it vents out of the roof, two stories high. Molly's new dryer now works.
When our week with Molly was over, I was so sad. I cried and sobbed. The following picture is a fake smile (mine, not Molly's).
We were now off to South Carolina to visit my sister Jo and her companion boyfriend, Gary. They are finally getting settled in their new house.
We were able to visit Presley, a few days before her first birthday. She is my niece Alison's baby. My sister Jo's first grandchild.
The last leg of our trip was heading home, a 14 hour drive.
So, our trip went like this.......
Iowa to North Carolina--12 hours
North Carolina to Destin Florida--8 hours
Destin to Parrish--8 hours
Parrish to Palm Bay--3.5 hours (would have been 3 but I made a wrong turn)
Palm Bay to South Carolina--9 hours
South Carolina to Iowa--14 hours
55 hours in the car and over 4000 miles.
Once we got home I decided to go to Wisconsin for the weekend. Mike couldn't believe I was ready to get back into the car but I had some things to take to Sherry. She said they needed help cleaning out the barn anyway, as they planned to have a cement floor put in. The cement guy would give them two days notice. There was a lot of stuff that needed to come out.
The first thing we needed to do was get rid of the thousands and thousands of golf balls. My nephew Brice, put them on Craigslist for free. The taker must take them all.
The first guy didn't realize how many were actually there and came in a small vehicle. He took what he could. The second guy was surprised how many there were and we piled them all into his covered truck. As he left, we noticed his headlights were pointing to the sky.
We were able to get everything out (including the mice and possum) and just in time. The cement guy came the next day and said they would be there in the morning to put in the floor.
This picture shows a third of what we pulled out.
After making plans with my sister to make this trip, Mike and I realized I would not be home to celebrate our 34th anniversary. We both decided that would be okay. We rarely celebrate it anyway.
When talking to my sister about this when I got there, she mentioned she still had her maid of honor dress from our wedding. We decided I should put it on and send a picture to Mike.
Sherry, in 1983....
I am sure the zipper in back is zipped on Sherry for the wedding. It isn't in my picture.
I then came home with a car load of stuff for a garage sale I plan to hold in the spring.
I also came home with all of these, from Sherry and Stuart's orchard.
Time to look up pear recipes.
