Hurricane Irma
On Friday, 9/8/17, Mark and I left Lutz to head to Cullman, AL. We had decided the night before to evacuate ahead of the storm, as we were questionning just how effectively our old house could hold up to a storm of that magnitude. At the time, it was expected to float along the east coast of Florida, but I felt uncertain that it would stay the course and that if we waited until we knew more information, we wouldn't be able to evacuate due to the massive number of people already under mandatory evacuation orders in south Florida. So we worked until about 1pm then I scooped Mark up from work and we went home to prep. He was in a horrible mood and didn't remember a lot of the plan, so ended up picking at my nerves all day. Once at home, he slept while I prepped. Eventually he kicked into gear too and we got on the road about 7:30.
The roads were pretty rough, so many people on evacuation routes. We went as far as we could stand and then went off-route, into the back roads. There was no gas to be found anywhere. Luckily we made it to Georgia and found a gas station in the middle of nowhere that had gas so filled up. I was impressed that my car had made it all the way to Georgia only using a half tank.
The conversation in the car had started off pretty irritating. Mark was still in a mood and was blaming me for all kinds of things that were bothering him. If I didn't understand what he said, I should ask him to clarify. I should also stop asking him to clarify. Hours of this. Eventually it calmed down and we were able to talk more freely about the things bugging both of us.
We kept on trucking and ended up in Tuskegee. We decided to drive around the town a bit to check out the local flair. It was such a cool town, lots of beautiful architecture and flora coming to life in the morning sun. Back on the interstate, I saw a sign for SHONEYS!! I couldn't believe it, I haven't seen a Shoney's in years. My family used to go there for breakfast all the time. I whipped the car onto the exit and went straight to breakfast. Mark was thoroughly impressed (or at least entertained) by my aggressive pursuit of the breakfast buffet.
We finally made it to Alabama and found our hotel. We need some things from the store and ended up going out to lunch. We found Cullman to be an adorable town, very reminiscent of Pennsylvania or old Lutz. By the time we got some sleep, I'd been awake for almost 30 hours, and the drive itself had taken about 14 hours. I was so tired I was seeing things, like the leftover effects of a night spent acid tripping.
On Sunday, we decided to go off adventuring. We went to Sportsman Lake Park first. It was a HUGE public park with all kinds of entertainment available - boating, biking, camping, hiking, with one half of the park being focused on human activities (like kids jungle gyms) and the other half being more nature oriented. We hiked through the wildflower garden and up into the mountain. I guess it was more of a hill, but to a Florida girl it felt like a mountain. We zigzagged up and down, stopping to check out these little rock formations people before us had created. I recorded a babbling brook to send to mom, she was so stressed out before we left I thought it might be soothing.
We left there to go to another park, which was more of a sport complex. They had a little dog park where we met some other folks from Florida. Neighbors are everywhere here. I get the impression this town is usually a calm sleepy town, and they're getting caught a little off guard by the influx of visitors suddenly. The dog had a good time visiting with other dogs and eventually we were all tuckered out from the days adventures. I felt almost guilty that we were having such a lovely time while our family and friends were battling Irma. Here, the sun was hot and the air was cool, no mosquitos, no humidity. When we came home that night, I even got to see fireflies.
Currently, we are playing the wait and see game, my least favorite thing to do. The storm passed Florida days ago, and here last night. It's still rainy here but nothing major. The road conditions are hard to guage. I know we do not have power at home and the septic is undoubtedly being a problem based on the water levels in the pictures dad sent me. I'm anxious to be home, but not excited about going back to that mess. I have the hotel booked until tomorrow. We'll see if I can talk myself into staying that long or decide to leave early.