Wednesday November 9th 2022

Most of the day was filled with light rain. Most of the time it was little more than drizzle. As the day progressed a little bit of wind joined the mix, but nothing like the wind speed in the forecast. Nicole is now a hurricane. It is true impact is forecast to start shortly after midnight and continue for the next twelve to eighteen hours. The path calls for it to come ashore between 120 to 150 miles south east of here, but the storm force winds extend several hundred miles from the center.

I spent today making preparations for the storm. Mainly that involved charging all of my portable devices in case the power goes out during the storm. After the storm I can run my generator if necessary. The other thing I did was reconfigure the inside of my RV home to support life with the slide outs retracted. I loose a lot of floor space when they are retracted. The sofa only has room for me in one narrow slot at the far end the rest is filled with stuff that usually occupies the floor space available when the slides are out. About 5PM this afternoon I retracted the slides into the travel position. The only reason I did that was to keep the slide toppers from flapping in the wind. They make a real racket in the wind. This evening before I go to bed I will also lower the satellite antenna.

During a lull in the rain this afternoon, I got in one of my daily walks around the RV park. For the most part people have picked up or tied down their outside stuff. A few of the park models have lowered their window awnings into storm shield mode. A few RVs had pulled in their slides and evacuated to places unknown. Surprisingly, that option never occurred to me. In my thoughts if I ran from the storm, the motorhome ran with me. It may be an intense few hours, but I don’t think the risk is very high. The county has not issued any evacuation orders or opened any shelters, so they seem to agree with my assessment. Looking around again just before dark, most of the park residents are still here to ride out the storm.