What's a man's insomnia got to do with seeing the country by Airstream, you ask?
The answer: Hurricane Michael.
As the past 7 days have played out we watched a tropical depression in the south central Atlantic become a storm, a hurricane, a major hurricane, that a sharp turn to the north, cross Haiti and Cuba and is now bearing down on... us... Vero Beach, Florida.
According to the forecasters, 24 hours from now the home from which I am writing this will be wrapped in wind of up to 140 miles per hour, and potential submerged in sea water up to her roof trusses. Dread. No, really... That's the feeling... Dread. My wife and I gave birth to this house, or perhaps re-birth is a better term since she has stood here since 1954 when we bought her in 2009 and renovated her in a series of steps. To leave her now, in this way, with so little warning and preparation is hard.
What's this got to do with seeing the country by airstream, you ask?
Well in about 45 minutes I'll slip out the back door of the house, drive the trust Tundra down the street to the Silver Cliche's Vero Beach rest spot, hitch up and bring her back here. Well finish loading her up and at 7:00 AM start the caravan with Mrs. C' and me along with Romeo the wonder Puggle and grandson Gavin in the truck. Riding behind us will be son Chiristopher with his dog and cat in his van. We will head inland. Our destination for the day is Okeechobee, FL. That might be a 4 or 5 hour trip versus the usual 65 minutes given the mass exodus from the coast, but we'll get there. Some combination of us will ride out the storm in the cliche' while others enjoy room service at the holiday inn there. Given the latest forecast, even that may not be far enough away from Michael the monster, but it'll have to do and it will be much better than staying here to ride it out.
Tomorrow? You'll have to ask Michael. Our plan is to sneak back into Vero Beach as soon as the police reopen the bridges to the island. What we will find will be a topic in our next blog. Stay tuned and wish us well!
