We survived Huricane Irene in Blossvale, NY

Friday, 8/26/11 - We arrived in our Coast to Coast park called Frosty Acres in Schenectady, NY and are suppose to stay here 7 days. We are very leary as the Weather Channel....our new best friend right now.....keeps showing Hurricane Irene hitting this area pretty good. We are so undecided what to do I tell Will to go out and ask some of the neighbors what they are doing. Everyone he talks with says they are staying and they figure it "should be okay." However, we are still nervous and Will dislikes our parking spot and they won't move us and I dislike the whole place.

When we get up Saturday morning and this gigantic hurricane is heading slowly towards New York I say to Will, "we have been driving all over this country so whats a few hundred more miles, lets get out of here and head West." So we hook up, I tell the guy in the office we are leaving and he laughs at me and shakes his head. We head out on New Yorks toll road I-90 (gosh, Will didn't even fight me on that one) and I start calling RV parks near I-81 and I-90. Most are already filled with other people fleeing places near the ocean. I finally find a Passport America, Treasure Isle RV Park, Blossvale, NY www.treasureislervpark.com about 150 miles west of Schenectady between Syracuse and Rome, New York. We get settled, no trees over us so we get TV and the Weather Channel....plus even local TV with local stations....it's perfect. I go down and do some laundry and when I get back, Will has been reading the park brochure and informs me (big mistake) that the park is located in a flood area and we are surrounded by a rather large river. Oh that's great.....no wonder we were able to get in this place. He assures me it's going to be ok and I'm sure regrets ever telling me that!!!

At exactly 4 am on Sunday morning the rain starts and continues for 14 straight hours.....then off and on for the next couple hours, we have never seen anything like it. The most unbelieveable part of the rain fall is there is not a puddle in sight.....anywhere we can see. My God, where is it going? Will goes down to the river and says it's not even close to the top......would he dare say anything else? The best part about this RV park we are at, is there is little to NO wind and that is what we feared the most.....WIND. So I never got off the couch all day or out of my jammies and watched both TVs all day and all evening. This has been quite an experience....an earthquake and hurricane all in the same week and a tornado at the beginning of the trip.

I talked with Nancy and Howard who live in W Orange, New Jersey and they had a lot of wind and rain but no damage to their place. Howard said the area his office is as located at was flooded and Nancy wasn't sure if she could get into New York City for work on Monday. It has been some experience being back here for this event......boy, does this make Fresno and their 100 plus degree weather look fabulous.

Monday, 8/29/11 - When we got up this morning the sun was shining and it was beautiful here, not a cloud in the sky, they expect temps of 75.....what hurricane???? Later this morning we head into Rome, NY where the local super WalMart is located and find that this area, where we are, is very rural and a farming community. On our ride into Rome we see lots of corn and vegtables growing, lots of horses and beautiful green countryside. It's a part of New York you can't imagine.

After lunch, Will takes a nap and I head out to lay on the chaise lounge in the sun, its warm and beautiful and perfect for reading a book & sunning. Later in the afternoon we head into a small town only a few miles from our park, Sylvan Beach. Now this is a tourist town located on Oneida Lake that is built for families and summer time. There is an amusement park, a cute downtown with shops and restaurants and lots of summer activities on their calendar. However, today being Monday most places are closed and it's pretty quiet but we park and walk around and look at the boats and water, plus the Erie Canal that runs through here and just enjoy being outside in the sunshine. I'm sure we will come back during this week again for some of the things going on. It has been a pretty exciting couple of days and has certainly added more drama to our trip and we are very grateful to have come through Hurricane Irene so well. I tried to contact the RV park we left regarding crediting of points....but the phone lines are down in the area.....I wonder if "that guy" is still laughing......Much love to all our family and friends.