Jasper Warned Us, But We Didn't Listen!!!

Hi all -- Dianne here.  From Sioux Falls, South Dakota we traveled halfway across southern Minnesota, then south on I-35 almost to Des Moines.  We wanted to check out another Corps of Engineers campground.    This time we made reservations at Prairie Flower Corps of Engineers  campground on Saylorville Lake, which is just north of Des Moines, Iowa.  Our site is VERY spacious, grassy, with a view of the

 lake and a tall grass prairie behind our site.   (Perfect for a little bird watching!)

Our intention was to take a three-day mini vacation before we head back to Indiana to slave in our sticks-and-bricks yard to keep it ready for sale.   

We'll explain our title "Jasper's Warning" a little later.  Actually, we had THREE warnings here in Iowa, which I'll describe  below.

Warning #1 is actually Chaplin's new reflex.   Early in our full-timing adventure, Chaplin had the unfortunate experience of being sound asleep on the

 couch underneath one of the overhead cabinets -- you know what comes next!   After being on the road for a while, it's common for things to leap out at you from the cabinets the first time they are opened.  Poor Chap got bonked on the head by a falling package of something-or-other.  Ever since then, even if he's SOUND ASLEEP, he leaps off the couch

 every time one of these overhead cabinets are opened.  Roger managed to capture it on the camera while we were in Iowa, so we thought we'd include it for you.   Note Chaplin's tail tucked firmly between his legs in the "scared to death" position.

Warning #2 was Jasper's warning.  I looked over at him and saw that he was on

 "high alert" looking out the window.  Here's what I saw when I checked to see what he was looking at.  Those of you who know whippets, know that they were used years ago

 to hunt rabbits.  That instinct is still very strong in our oldest son!!   His warning went unheeded, and here's what we found the next morning on our patio -- My parsley snipped off to nubbins

 and the stems and leaves laying on the ground.  Roger actually caught Mr. Bunny in the act and got a photo through the

 screen door.   If we'd been smart, we would have moved lemon tree and its associated herbs indoors after spotting the bunny rabbit!!   Oh well, the parsley was getting too big anyway, and Uncle Wiggily books were my favorite as a little child,

 so I have trouble being mad at bunny rabbits for doing what comes naturally to them.

Warning #3 was a bit more serious.  Sunday evening a batch of strong storms moved through the area.  We turned on the local Iowa weather station (using our batwing antenna -- don't dismantle those if you get a satellite!!).  The sky looked a little ominous 

earlier.  Watching the local weather, we saw that the conditions were deteriorating and the storm was headed our way.  We pulled in our slide-outs, stowed the satellite and batwing, put the cat in his carrier, the dogs in the car, and high-tailed it to the bath house to ride out the storm.   The sky looked really ominous, with a wall cloud and wispy rotations.  We met a couple already there (from Iowa -- they know to take these things seriously).  As we were entering the bath house, we heard the tornado warning sirens go off.  The other couple had their little dog with them, too, and luckily all four animals got along well and they didn't mind that we showed up with our menagerie.  

When we peeked out the door of the bath house, 

the wind and rain looked like we were in the middle of a car wash.   Then it started to hail.  I remember our new Iowa friends saying to us, "Welcome to Iowa in June."   

The hail luckily was small and did no damage.  When the all-clear sirens sounded, we went back home to find our motor home intact, and even a little cleaner than when we left!!  There was a small tree down at one of the camp sites, but I saw no other damage right here.   I checked the internet the next day for the report of the storm, and they did spot a tornado on the ground just west of here!!  There were reports of a trailer being blown across a parking lot, trees and power lines down, and more just to our west.  I think we were very lucky Sunday night!  We learned an important lesson: to take these things seriously, and not hesitate to vacate to the bath house or shelter.  We felt pretty safe in there, as it was a block building and seemed very sturdy.

Today was our last day here at Saylorville lake.  Yesterday was cold and rainy, so we stayed inside and read books and worked on our blog.  Today was a lovely day, sunny and low 70s.  We took the dogs for a 3 1/2 mile walk this morning down a bike trail next to the campground.  It was early, about 8:00 a.m., and the birds were in full song.  Wildflowers

 were blooming. 

 We saw a deer in the middle of the path.  It looked at us and promptly jumped into the woods, so I couldn't photograph it.  My boys were really excited about the deer, and got some good sniffing done when we reached the spot where we had seen it.  

The trail has an off-shoot 

(an abandoned road) which goes to the beach at Saylorville Lake.  Roger gives it the "ugliest beach"

 award, but I'm sure it feels good on a hot day.  There are large piles of dead wood piled here and there.  I know they had serious floods here last spring and wonder if these were remnants of that.  Anyway, during our stay, we had noticed fellow campers coming back from the beach laden down with firewood from these piles.  Since our plan today included a campfire, 

I had a lot of fun picking up an armful of kindling from the pile.  It did burn really well!  

Roger here...  Dianne was like a little kid at the pile of driftwood.  The pyro-queen was in her full glory.  If we had had a U-Haul, she would have loaded the entire pile into it to drag back to Indiana.  (She exhibits the same kind of behavior when she sees a rock that she likes - just like Lucy in the old movie, The Long, Long Trailer).

We spent a restful 

afternoon tending our campfire and bird watching (me and Charlie), reading (Roger), and sleeping (the dogs).  I saw several Baltimore orioles and a new-to-me Dickcissel.  There is also a bird house right next to our camp site in the prairie grass with a family of tree swallows in residence. 

  It was fun to watch their aerial acrobatics.

Tomorrow morning we break camp and make our way to the KOA in Mt. Comfort, Indiana for one night (Thursday).  We have an appointment early Friday morning to get new Bilstein shocks for the motor home.  From there we'll go back to Mounds State Park and spend our days working at our house in Pendleton.   You might not hear from us for a few days, as we'll be "working like dogs" in the yard.

  Unless, of course, we have something more interesting to write about than pulling weeds!

Stormy Weather and Lessons Learned in Two Parts

Roger here...

PART ONE.  Last Thursday night was our last night at St. George Island on the Florida panhandle.  While I was packing up the outside "stuff" in preparation for an early morning departure followed by an eight- hour drive, Dianne, who had been watching the Weather Channel, told me that storms were predicted during our drive the next day.  I noticed that the skies

 were beginning to cloud up, so I came in to watch the weather.  (Thankfully, our satellite allowed us to get the Weather Channel because there were NO local stations to pick up on St. George Island and we also had very spotty cell phone coverage, so using the tether to our cell phone wasn't an option.)

As it turns out, the prediction was for heavy winds during the day and severe thunderstorms, hail, and possible tornadoes at our destination at the Corps of Engineers campground at Lake Lanier, just north of Atlanta.  It is not fun -- and in fact, quite dangerous -- to drive a high- profile vehicle in extreme winds.  The few times that I have driven the motorhome in less severe, moderate winds, required me to have both hands on the wheel to be ready for any sudden wind thrusts that could push the vehicle in another lane or off the road - very nerve-racking.  I had no desire to do that for eight hours, so I called our destination, told them we would be a day late.   I then made a reservation at River Park RV in Valdosta, four hours down the road, but well south of the storms. 

As it turns out, the forecast was accurate.  There were severe winds, snowball-sized hail, downed trees, and tornadoes.  When we arrived at Lake Lanier, the only damage at our site was a fire pit full of 8 inches of water

 - no campfires that night!  We dodged a bullet and felt somewhat smug at having done so.  Little did we know that the bullet was out of the gun, but had not yet reached us.

PART TWO.  The next day was beautiful - warm, sunny, pretty vistas of the lakes and forest from the motorhome.  We wanted to be sure to explore the campground area on that day because the next day was supposed to be cloudy, rainy, and cold - no forecast of severe weather, just crummy weather.  

I got up early the next morning and was reading on the couch.  It was raining and I felt sorry for the man in the campsite across the street who had arrived the evening before and was in a tent. Everything was normal at his site when I first looked out the window.  When Dianne was heading for the coffee, I told her that it would be a good day to clean the roof on the motorhome because it was raining, but no lightning.  I then said that it was probably a little too windy.  (That comment soon became a HUGE understatement.)  

At that point a huge gust of wind toppled a pine tree across the street. 

 It missed the man in the tent, but prevented him from driving his truck.  Within a minute his tent blew down and he scampered to his truck.  Another stronger gust followed, which prompted Dianne and I to "stow" the satellite dish (not supposed to be in winds stronger than 35 mph) and pull in the two slides to help stabilize the motorhome and prevent damage to the awnings that extend over the slides.  We were feeling pretty good about having weathered the storm and were thankful that we did not have the problems of the man in the tent (whose truck battery was also dead), but our problems were just beginning.  A loud pop, followed by the loss of electricity, extended the day of frustrations.  If you watched the national weather that day, you probably heard about extensive damage in northern Georgia due to 50 mph straight-line winds.  Thousands were without power for hours.  That was us.

We decided to use the day to plan an upcoming trip to South Dakota to officially change our residency.  We could make reservations using a tether from our laptop to Dianne's phone.  We switched the refrigerator from electricity to propane , knew we had water, and settled in for a quiet "inside" day.  A comedy of errors (not really funny ones) ensued.

While Dianne was researching campsites on the computer, she noticed that the computer charge was low.  I said "no problem", we'll just run the generator for a while and get our electricity from it.  Unfortunately, to prevent the motor home from running out of gas while on the road, our generator does not operate when the gas tank is less than one-quarter full.  On the day of our drive we had a half-tank south of Atlanta and could have stopped to fill up, but we decided that we could probably find a gas station closer to the campsite, and besides we had plenty of gas to get there - plenty of gas to get there, but less than a quarter tank left = NO GENERATOR. 

 We then determined that we could charge the computer using a connection to the motorhome battery.  Dianne said that the connecting tether was in a box with other miscellaneous electronic wiring.  She thought she knew where it was.  The search began.  Every nook and cranny was investigated - no box of electronic connections.  About two hours later I asked if it could be in the small compartment above the driver's seat.  IT WAS!  I did the happy dance.  Dianne smiled.  Unfortunately, the right connecting tether was not in the box.  We evidently don't have one.  There would be no computer until the electricity came back on. 

Other issues....  We decided to use our rechargeable, battery-powered Coleman lantern for light.  We did have lights that operated from the house batteries in the motorhome, but we did not want to drain them since we could not run the generator.  Unfortunately, we had left the Coleman lit outside all night the night before, and drained the battery; obviously, we had no electricity to recharge it. 

All of our cooking would need to be done using the propane-fueled stove top and oven - no microwave or outdoor grill (in the rain).  However, we turned on the furnace the morning before to take the chill off instead of using our electric space heater that was stowed in an outside bay (too cold to go out and get it in jammies).  We forgot to turn it off.  It kicked on several times the next evening.  When we checked our propane level, it was low.  Ouch.  A good thing we had a supply of crackers.  

Walking the dogs was another issue.  Their morning constitutional was delayed for about three hours due to the wet and windy weather.  When Chaplin, a very quiet dog, needs to go, he stands by the door and stares at the door.  He did a lot of that on that day.  Thank heaven their bladders are much, much larger than mine.

Finally, there was nothing much to do.  No TV.  No outside walks.  And for me...  no reading.  I had just finished the book I was reading on my Kindle the night before and was planning to order a new one.  When I tried, I discovered that the Kindle would not connect due to poor cell phone coverage.  I could have ordered a book using our computer, but then, as you know, we did not have an operating computer!  

There was really only one activity to occupy our time and that was watching the saga unfold with the man in the tent. 

 Did I mention his truck battery was dead?  He attempted to charge it with an electric battery charger plugged into an outlet, not realizing that the campground power was out.  His wife then arrived with jumper cables, but there was no way to get the two vehicles close enough to connect due to the downed tree.  After a few hours a crew came to saw up and remove the tree.

  At that point the man packed up his wet tent (yuck), jumped the battery in the truck, and followed his wife out of the campground.  (I did offer to help, but honestly he was too angry to want help from anyone!)

Frustrations with two people in a confined space (no escape due to the rain) almost always leads to conflict.  I was proud of the way that the two of us conducted ourselves; however, I did grind about an eighth of an inch of enamel off my molars.  (Dianne here - I ground a QUARTER INCH of enamel off mine!!!)

Looking back on the day, we were very lucky to have endured only a series of frustrating inconveniences.  No one was hurt.  Nothing was damaged.  It could very easily have been a different story.  At 7:30 p.m., the electricity returned.

(Short note from Dianne - As you can see from the two photos below, our three

 "sons" were mostly unperturbed throughout the whole drama!)  

LESSONS LEARNED. 

1.  Walk the dogs BEFORE it rains.

2.  Charge the computer when the electricity is on.

3.  Never arrive at a campsite without enough gasoline to run the generator.

4.  Always have an extra book to read.

5.  Know where the electronic tethers/chargers are kept and order a charger that allows the computer to be charged by the house batteries.

6.  Retrieve the electronic heater from the outside bay on cold mornings, even if you ARE in your jammies.

7.  Don't forget to turn off the furnace.

8.  Always have a supply of snack food that does not need to be cooked.

9.  Turn off the Coleman lantern before you go to bed.

10.  Never be too smug about how you handle situations.  Inevitably, your smugness results in being taken down a peg or two!