Day 39, Monday, 02/04/08

What about that game yesterday!
Finally a Super Bowl that went down to the last second. We really enjoyed it, and Ellen prepared a fantastic "Mexican" dinner. Black bean and queso fresca quesadillas, lobster and steak burritos, and guacamole.

For us it was not without excitement around here. We got into the RV Resort Sunday at noon after waiting a couple of miles down the road at an rv park for two nights. The weather forcast was for high winds and rain Sunday, and boy did they get half of that right! No rain, but steady winds of around 40 mph and gusts up in the 70's. Dirt and sand everywhere! We had to pull in the slide-outs to keep the awnings (that cover the slide tops) from blowing away and also to help keep the dust out. We were really "rocking & rolling". It sounded like we were getting sandblasted! And we did! The winds started at the rv park before moving to the Resort. Beth, I'm sorry to report that "Duke the Duck" got swept up in one of the big wind gusts and disappeared! We looked all over during a lull in the wind but could not find him anywhere. We had to move out of the rv park at noon so our search was limited. Bye-bye Dukie! Gracie loved you!

The winds blew down 10 telephone/power poles leading into the Resort about one hour before kick-off. It was reported to be a tornado! We lost electricity and the cable tv signal from the rv park to watch the game. I was in a panic! We have a generator in the motor home so we were able to use it for electricity. I went outside in the storm to set up the DirecTv dish which I was not going to do because of the high wind warnings out upon arrival, thinking we would just use the park's cable feed for the game. But I could not get a signal with the dish! We checked around and nobody was getting service, even the 1 million dollar rigs with automatic satellite finders. I tried the radio but no Super Bowl coverage. I tried the internet (we still had great high-speed service) but no live coverage. In desperation, and just plain stuborness, I went back out into the sand storm to try the dish again. Somebody was reportedly getting service on their satellite dishes (Ellen was checking it out around the park) and if they were, I knew I could. Without going into the details about how I did it, I finally got a signal. We missed all of the pre-game, but only 45 seconds of the the actual game. I had to weigh down the dish with 8 gallons of water to keep it from blowing away.

The winds continued to blow well into the night and the motor home was a dust bowl by bed time. Still no power by quiet time (9:00 pm) so generator off and we went to bed. Woke up to no wind and mostly blue sky and temperature of 48, but still no power. It was restored by around 10:30am.

Most of the day was spent cleaning up the dust, dirt, sand, and gravel that got into the house. Washing the motor home, washing the Honda, and washing the laundry took up most of the rest. We could see rain falling in the distance all day and a few sprinkles did come our way, but we stayed mostly dry and partly cloudy.

We used the fitness center here, showered, walked the dogs, and then went out for dinner - at 4:30 - like retired people do.

We're back in the motor home now doing the blog and planning on doing some hiking in the near-by state park tomorrow as the weather is to be great.

I tell you, that wind was like nothing we have ever experienced before!

Pictures:

Panorama of the view from Springs at Borrego RV Park the morning after the storm came through with snow on mountain tops

Another view from our site

Rain falling in the distance with most of it not reaching the ground

Blue Boy and Crave after hours of cleaning

We were leaving the dogs to go to dinner and they were not happy!

Sunday look down the "row" from our site. There was a Country Coach rally at the Resort this weekend and there were dozens of these bus-sized rigs here. Blue Boy held his head high though, despite the overwhelming size of million-dollar coaches.