Sunday August 27th 2023

At the beginning of the day it was just an area of weather interest near Cancun Mexico. This evening it is called Idalia and is likely to hit the Florida big bend as a category 2 or higher hurricane. That is a little too close for comfort. I’ll be moving west out of its path unless something significant changes by morning.

The open questions are when do I move and where do I go. Forecast wise I should be fine departing on Tuesday, but the park authorities here may have other ideas. I learned from a park host that the rangers will be meeting in the morning to discuss how the park will deal with the storm. They could close the park tomorrow or Tuesday. My second question is where do I go. This morning I identified a commercial park sixty miles west on Interstate 10. This evening that area was included in the storm inpact area. I am now looking at other options further away. Tomorrow is a day of decisions.

While I was waiting for the storm and the forecasters to contribute to my destiny I did some exploring in the area. One element of the exploration was to make sure my car had a full tank of gas. The motorhome has enough to get to safety, but will need a fill up to return here after the storm. My drive while successful with respect to gas, was frustrating. I let a couple of cars into the road in front of me from a church. For the next ten plus miles I was stuck behind a Sunday drive by the little old lady that only drove to church and back or so it seemed. Exceeding the speed limit was not close to possible.

Walking around the campground this afternoon was a lonely activity. Occupancy was down to seven campers. A few others arrived this evening. My second walk of the day was cut short by the sound of thunder and some threatening clouds. It only rained lightly for a brief period of time, but somewhere nearby there was a good storm. The sound of thunder was in the air for close to an hour. On the positive side, the temperature went from the high nineties to the mid eighties.