Saturday, April 30, 2011

Weather or not...


We had planned to leave the Tropical Tip today, but Mother Nature had other ideas: the wind is gusting above 50, the wind is carrying dirt and sand... it is an ugly mess here. I tried to wash the car before putting a cover on it... my neighbor came by and asked if I was familiar with the story of Sisyphus. "Yes, pushing the stone up the hill through all eternity," I replied.

"You do know that's what you're trying to do here, right? There is so much dirt in the air, that you can't clean it fast enough to get that cover over it."

Of course, he was right. I finally had to settle with getting the car covered, period - the wind was blowing so hard, it took both of us and it was still a struggle. Heck with the dirt. We decided to scrap our plan to head out this afternoon, and will try again first thing in the morning. Heading north, we are trying to dodge thunderstorms in the Dallas area... timing is important, considering the awful weather much of the country has been hit with.

When I came back to the coach, Joan wouldn't let me sit down until I changed my clothes and washed any exposed bare skin... yes, I was that dirty.

After cleaning up again, we stopped to drop off books with our friends Skip and Nancy; they were on their 42' boat, taking down their eisenglass on the flybridge. They had tried to clean each piece, but ran into the same "gettin' dirty faster than you can clean it" situation. So, even though the wind and blowing dirt was unpleasant, the conversation was nice. Of course, we all talked about where we'd rather be.

Assuming the slides will close, considering all the dirt and grit, we will roll when Mother Nature cuts us even a bit of slack. I think we will pull the slides in before we turn in for the night... try to clean them off a bit before bringing them in. The forecast for tomorrow is less windy, in the 20s out of the SSE. It will be a crosswind for the first half hour, then should give us a little push when we turn north.

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