Fulltiming Road Runners

Another big storm, this one was the worst we’ve ever seen out here.  Actually we had 3 storms in a row, the 3rd one the heavy duty one.  Tuesday night we got 1/4″ of rain from the 2nd storm.  Wednesday we had a respite and then Thursday the big one hit!  Around 2 p.m. we were told to close the contact station and go home.  The winds were fierce and it was pouring.  Our garage managed to stay up, but one of the straps still tore off a corner at the bottom while we were at work.  Marv managed to tie it down so it wouldn’t be further damaged.

After we got home when we’d take Willow out to go potty she didn’t know what to do… her potty spot in the wash north of us was covered with a foot of water.

This is a shot of the wash on the south (back) end of the trailer.  The pic was taken shortly after we got home from work around 2:30 or 3.

The skies just kept getting darker and darker and the wind fiercer.  Marv called a little before 5 p.m. telling us he’d been watching a weather channel either on TV or his computer and there was a tornado to the south of us heading our way.  We all got in our cars, drove out to a more open spot east of our trailers ‘n motorhome and faced into the wind and waited it out.  It was way too dark for us to see anything, but we didn’t get hit by a tornado.  The rocking of the car sure felt like it though.  When the skies to the south of us got a bit lighter and the wind died down  a bit we went back to our trailers.  Deb’s brother’s motorhome is parked so it blocks the wind’s full force from my weather station, and yet, the weather station registered winds at 40 - 45 mph.  I wonder how fast they really were.  According to my weather station we got 3.2 inches of rain in the hour of the tornado scare.  The wash at the back of the trailer (5er) was at least 3 feet higher than in the picture above.  The worst of the storm was over by 5:20 p.m.  but the winds were still very high, so we were rocked to sleep Thursday night.

We’d stowed the internet satellite dish  Wednesday night and didn’t bring it back up until yesterday after work.

The rain had softened the ground at least a foot deep and some of our tie down stakes on the garage pulled out, the shepards crook the bird feeders were on pulled out of the ground from the feeders blowing.  Our Weber Big Q bbq blew over along with our bikes on their stand and one of the ladders.  Because we worked yesterday we haven’t been able to get out and take inventory of any damage, but it looks like it was minimal.  Our BLM Ranger, Clyde, told us yesterday they’ve found at least 6 beautiful Saguaro cactus fallen/blown over.  He and Larry went out late yesterday afternoon to try to get them upright using a back-hoe.

It was quite windy yesterday, but little to no rain and fairly sunny.  Today the skies are a beautiful blue with just a few cottonball clouds, a bit of a breeze (6-8 mph) and cool.  The high temp today is supposed to be below 60F.  As a matter of fact, the highs all week are supposed to be between 55 - 64F.

It’s now time for me to get my dishes done, then get outside to help clean up the wind damage.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.