Summer Vacation - a Stormy Start

Like most work days. I was up well before 6am. I felt fine and completed a full complement of exercises, including a meditation and a stretch all before 630am when I dressed and left for a run. It was a steamy 81 degrees at 530am, perhaps the first time it didn’t fall below 80 degrees during the overnight in CMH in well over a decade. Despite the warm and muggy conditions I set out on my run wearing a sleeveless running shirt and shorts. The humidity was about equal to the temperature.

The run wasn’t too bad at all, but I was happy to have it in the bag. Once back at home I got logged on and busy with work. My plan all along was to start my work early so I could end it early in order to get on the road to the Outer Banks around 3pm.

Mindy was up somewhere near 730am. Glenn and the kids, however, weren’t up until after 10am. Dad stopped over near 1030am. By then it was already 90+ degrees. I wanted to water all the plants but also wanted to allow Glenn to see my technique so he could model it somewhat closely during my absence.

We did the watering things around 11am. Dad watched on as well. With Glenn figuring to make a mid week run to my mom’s place, my dad agreed to pickup the watering responsibilities. Meanwhile, the geese were as persistent as ever. I must’ve ran them out of the yard four or five times in total.

The day moved fast with me balancing the demands of working from home along with any last minute packing. Shelly dropped Kaileigh off sometime after 12noon. She stayed about 15-20 minutes. She had Sienna and Trip with her too. She gave us $40 for Kaileigh to use as spending money.

We started loading the Pilot near 130pm. Went a lot faster than I expected. It was ridiculously hot and steamy, though. I was soaked head to toe. As usual, I was nervous and a little testy during the entire process. ON my mind was the extreme heat and the impact it would have on our landscape in my absence. Add to that all the goose damage and it was a recipe for disaster. I also got a IM from my boss asking me to join a last minute conference call at 330pm. I was frustrated because that conflicted with our departure plans. I agreed to join but from the road via blackberry.

The car fully loaded by 230pm, we opted to depart a little early pulling away from the house near 250pm. Glenn snapped pictures as we pulled away. Felt good to get on the road. I drove until we were just west of the Lancaster bypass where Mindy and I did a Chinese fire drill so I could join the conference call.

The call lasted about 45 minutes with my blackberry dropping the call on three different occasions as we wound our way down 33 toward Athens. Once the call ended I felt like I was finally on vacation. About an hour later, or near 530pm I set my vacation out of office. Ahh! That felt terrific! Outer Banks here we come!

It was nice riding shot gun. Mindy drove for about three hours leaving me to relax a little. We stopped in Beckley WV to pee but quickly hit the road. Instead of stopping for fast food Mindy brought subs she picked up at Wal-Mart (Italian and roast beef). They were really good. Somewhere into WV we got a text from neighbor Teri asking if we were OK after a wicked storm passed through the island (home). We learned that near 5pm a storm rolled through with 80 mph winds, heavy rain and hail. I worried about my car, house, and yard. We tried unsuccessfully to reach Glenn to get an status on our home. We eventually called brother Bobby who was going to the Clipper game with Glenn and dad. He said our deck table blew over in the initial gust but wasn’t damaged.

About 300 miles into our drive (mid-Virginia) and near 8345pm the same storm that blew through Ohio caught up to us. The gusty winds were so strong that they tossed the Pilot back and forth as we rolled down the highway. Soon there was debris and dust blowing everywhere. Bella was over the top with worry which eventually turned to tears. As darkness set in in only got worse. Still no rain though. In Virginia, trees hug and line the highway both sides. Soon we had tree debris along with an occasional tree branch in the road. Suddenly, just in front of a branch came down causing the traffic in the fast lane to swerve into the slow lane. Two cars spun wildly off the road just three or four car lengths on front us. Scared all of us. We pulled over to make sure those in the cars were OK. Mindy got out and walked back to confirm they were OK. They were.

Our objective from that point forward was to get to a hotel. Unfortunately, though, we were still about 100 miles from Richmond, Virginia. The tension was high. Everybody was on pins and needles. The heavy rains came during the last hour. We stopped at two hotels, both of which were without power. Damn! We stopped at a third, a Hampton Inn, but it was full. Lucky for us, there was a Holiday Inn Express right next door. Finally, just before midnight we had a room. We quickly crawled into bed and went to sleep.