Hurricane Hunters

We're thinking about coming out of retirement to become Hurricane Hunters. We won't have to hunt long because they seem to find us with no problem! We left Texas a day late waiting for Eduord to go through. Then we stayed two extra days in the panhandle waiting for Fay to go to the east coast and now we're leaving Orlando three days early to out run Gustav because he's heading toward I-10 somewhere from Florida to Texas, right where we have to travel.

We went out to Kristin's on Wednesday. We viewed some of the flooding in DeBary, the city where we lived from 1996-2001. The entrance to the country club is under water as is the guard house and the sales office. Many side streets are flooded and blocked off.



Kristin's lake was 5 feet low and is now at the top of the seawall. Sinkholes are developing in the neighborhoods in the country club. It's a terrible mess. When we lived there, Central Florida was dealing with wild fires but they never got too close to us. This water is a whole different ballgame.



We went out for a very late lunch (4:30) and were the first people at the restaurant that opened at 4:00. When some REALLY senior citizens from the senior housing development next door came in for the "early birds" Kristin remarked "Oh my God, we even beat those people here!"

We went back to her house for the night and I was able to do all my laundry while Ted watched TV. Kara called and said her travel agent was able to cancel our attendance at the Hoop Dee Doo Review and still maintain her reservation for them and Kristin. She told us to go ahead and leave to get a head start on the storm if we wanted.

So I went to the periodontist today and we checked in with our Morgan Stanley guy before heading back to the campground and eventually went over to Downtown Disney for one last dinner with all the kids before we leave.

The campground refunded our fees for the 3 days plus another day for the water "inconvenience." I had told them when we arrived that we didn't know how long we would be staying because Ted had injured his back. Normally campgrounds don't give refunds. And I received word that I can turn our 7-day Disney tickets back in and get a 95% refund. There's no time limit on them but I'm not sure we'll ever go to Disney 7 out of 14 days ever again. It's a lot like work and hot to boot!

We hope to get somewhere between Tallahasee and Pensacola Friday, Baton Rouge on Saturday and home by Sunday. It may be a bit difficult getting camp sites because of it being Labor Day weekend but the campgrounds along the interstate aren't normal "holiday weekend destination parks" and if we're lucky, we'll find a spot.