The trip to Chanute (August 6th) was great - we toured the Nu-Wa 5th wheel factory to see how they are built. No question that we will be buying one of these 5th wheels... just need to decide on the best floorplan for our needs and find an enthusiastic dealer.

August 7th. We drove to Ozark, Missouri, and met with Robert Guthrie from Campbell Ford. Robert was recommended by folks on the Nu-Wa owners forum as a dealer who is competitive on price and great with service and follow up. We found this to be the case, and decided that we were ready to order our 5th wheel. Robert will be taking the toy hauler in in trade. We will be coming back to Missouri sometime in the next month to take delivery - we are excited!

August 8th and 9th. A long drive back to south Texas. We arrived later afternoon today. Here's a note I sent one of our boating friends...


Well, we are home. We didn't escape unscathed. Some of our dock is gone. Some of the facia on the roof is gone. The hurricane shutters did their job and kept the house from being breached (the scuffs, dings, and debris stuck in them shows that). The siding on the house looks OK. Not sure about the roof, yet, since I haven't gotten up there. And, the kinda bad part: with 22 inches of rain and 120+ mph winds, and 24+ hours of hammering, we got some water in the ceiling and walls... likely that it came in the roof vents. So, not real bad, just kinda bad - we are going to have to tear out some ceiling and wall drywall to find out where it came from and how much damage it did. We are in line for the insurance adjustor, and the contractor who built our house has said he will do the work; it may be a while. There are a lot of people here whose homes are in bad shape.

While cleaning off the hurricane shutters so I could roll them up, a couple neighbors came by to welcome us home. We heard the stories of debris so thick you couldn't see the streets; the docks and boats on the bay side of South Padre Island were devastated; homes, too. The eye wall of the hurricane passed just north of us, so we had winds from every direction.

The outside of the house is a gawd-awful dirty mess... nothing that some water, a scrub brush, and some elbow grease won't fix. There is some facia under the eves that is hanging funny. Our underneath storage area walls are still wet all the way through.

On the bright side, we are in air conditioned comfort and will be sleeping in our own bed tonight. The damage is confined to one bathroom and adjoining small bedroom, so it should be easy enough for us to live around it for a while, if necessary. The satellite dish on top of the house was flattened, but the cable TV is working. We parked the toy hauler beside the house, plugged it in, and will be able to take our time unloading it. We didn't know if we'd need to stay in it, but we were ready with full fresh water and empty holding tanks.

No idea yet when we'll get Wild Blue back in the water... I think there is a lot of debris in the canals, so I'll get the inflatable out and "poke around" when I get the chance. That may be a while.

We only saw the main highway into Port Isabel and the road to our island; there is plenty of damage. Seems like when the hurricane came inland, the national media coverage of it moved on. July and August are the busiest tourist months for South Padre Island; a double whammy for businesses there.

On our little island, neighbors and workers pulled together. They've done an amazing job of getting it back in shape in just 2 1/2 weeks. Our friends who watch our place while we're gone have a lot of damage; they are moving out of their house tomorrow so the walls, floors, and ceilings can be torn out and replaced. Another neighbor told us that he knows of only 5 places, out of nearly 1000, that didn't have some kind of damage.

We're counting our blessings.

Best wishes,
Jim B.