Watching a hurricane approach is like watching a two-year old take a walk. It takes its own sweet time. It wanders here and there. You cannot predict what it is about to do.
Why were we watching Hurricane Ida approach? Because we were staying at Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale southeast of Mobile, Alabama, and Ida was headed our way. We had to decide what to do about that.
Several people had already left Rainbow Plantation but some were preparing to stay. The guy next to us staked down his satellite dish. The guy across from us filled the water tank in his huge 5th wheel trailer to help give it more weight then hooked up his HDT (read semi truck) to act as an anchor.
Another guy was just pulling into Rainbow Plantation having previously been parked on the beach. I don’t know about you but if I was moving inland to escape a hurricane I wouldn’t stop at 9:30 a.m. let alone at a park others were leaving.
We decided to leave. Our next challenge was where to go. Our first impulse was Jackson, Mississippi, but that was further than we wanted to go if we didn’t have to go that far to be safe. Plus our favorite campgrounds there are all on rivers and the rivers are threatening to flood. Why would we exchange one natural disaster for another?
Dave said Montgomery, Alabama, looked like it would just get rain so we headed there. With no reservations, of course. We don’t make reservation even in these conditions. Who knows how far we’ll get before we decide that’s enough?
Gulf Shores State Park was south of us. It’s campground had a mandatory evacuation. Dave talked to one of the evacuees at a gas station in Greenwood on our way to Montgomery. He said some people left their RVs in the park and went to a motel. He and most others pulled out. He was headed for a park in Greenwood which had told him it was a good thing he called ahead for reservations since they were filling quickly.
So we went on to Montgomery hoping we could get into one of the parks on my list. We did. We are at The Woods RV Park where it is raining–surprise, surprise. It’s supposed to rain for two nights and one day. After the first night it looks like this:
But we’ve been in rainstorms like this before and the winds are no worse than many we’ve experienced so I think we did the right thing. A friend who stayed at Rainbow Plantation said it was REALLY blowing hard there yesterday evening. I hope they and everyone else who chose to stay are OK this morning. I’m glad we are.
TTYL,
Linda
So glad you guys are okay. I would have left if it had been us. We’re down in southern Florida – inland aways and all we got was some wind and a couple of showers. Please stay safe.
We evacuated for Rita and I stayed for Ike (Susan was out-of-town). Rita was a fiasco for driving as everyone else decided to leave at the same time. Ike was scary as I was in the house alone and the wind was VERY strong. Still, I was able to fall asleep as opposed to Alicia back in 1981/1982(?) when the adrenalin was flowing so much that I stayed up all night.
Sum total: hurricanes are scary!!! Get out if you can.
Whew! Glad you stayed safe. We would have been in that area, but decided to come back to Wisconsin early. I guess the bad thing about us living in a home on wheels in threatening weather also has the upside – we have wheels and can MOVE. 🙂