Planning for the Unknown

is H.A.R.D.

My family has never experienced a hurricane before, so now that Isaac is on it's way, we are getting to experience all kinds of new things and a few somewhat familiar things too.

For example, things fly off the shelves here just like they do in Northern Virginia when there is a threat of snow.  We went to the hardware store yesterday and there were stacks of tarps, gas cans, batteries, etc set out for people to purchase in preparation.  And there were definitely people buying.  We even saw someone buying a generator (the biggest he could get of course).

We went to a discounted bread store on Wednesday (keep in mind the hurricane wasn't even a tropical storm yet I don't think) and there were people stocking up.  We were there to stock up too but just because it was time to do so and they have an extra 20% off on Wednesdays.  I do admit that I got a couple extra loaves of bread in case we find ourselves without power and eating lots of PB&J or PB&H.

We've been able to talk about how the track of the storm is affected by weather in other areas.  We've been able to discuss the kinds of damage usually caused by tropical storms and hurricanes and how thankfully this one will not be as damaging as Andrew (the 20 year anniversary of landfall was yesterday so it made the news). 

We are just North of the Action area.  Our rental house is even closer to the Action area.

It's all well and good to read all the emergency preparedness flyers from the various agencies, but when I was looking into my yard today I got to thinking... they say to put your lawn furniture away and other loose items in your yard.  What about large potted plants?  Will they be heavy enough?  What about the glass table top that is not actually attached to the base of the table in our lanai?  What about our grill? 

At this point, my plan is to pray, store what I can, and pray some more.  Although it's unknown to me, nothing is unknown to my God so I'm just going to leave it up to Him.

Warm Weather = Progress

Here in Northern Virginia the weather the last week has been quite nice.  This has made it so hubby and I have been spending quite a bit of time working on the camper.  Granted we have all the incentive in the world right now to get things done.  You see, there is snow expected tonight as well as the record breaking temps of the last few days are going to be a thing of the past. 

Our goal right now is to try to leave this coming weekend.  I'm not sure if we will be ready to leave this weekend, but I think we will be able to leave sometime early next week. 


Part of me is excited, and part of me is a bit nervous.  I'm looking forward to being in "our" house.  I'm not looking forward to driving the camper from place to place.  You see, the length of the truck and the camper combined is going to be 40 ft.  We're going to have to stop at truck stops for gas and food.  We're also going to have to plan any trips off the highway carefully so we don't get stuck in a position where it's hard to turn around.

We did find out that Google map on our iPad is AWESOME and allows us to scope out our route.  We were a bit worried that our truck didn't have a GPS when we first got it, but to be honest, we like the iPad better.  Considering there are many other people traveling with a travel trailer, I'm sure we will find other things along the way that will help us get around.