It's Not the Outcome We Wanted - Hurricane Irma

Blairsville, Ga (high 72, low 58)

We have been enjoying the very fall like temperatures here in north Georgia with a cooler than normal September.  We have had several mornings with temps as low as 42 degrees!  That is about to change soon, as we get ready to head to they Keys and the heat and humidity.

As I posted on the past few blogs, we have been trying to figure the status of the Fifth Wheel.  Last winter we  had it towed down as a permanent winter home in the Florida Keys. Irma made landfall (ground zero) as a Cat 4 hurricane with winds of 140 mph, right on our little island paradise of Cudjoe Key.

Most everyone in the Keys heeded the mandatory evacuation.  A few people stayed, some even rode it out on boats.    I can't imagine why anyone would want to ride out a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane on a small island in the Keys, but some surely did.

The hurricane knocked out all the power, cell service, sewer, water and of course communications.  For days we have all been forming Facebook groups for each area with the goal of locating "missing" people who stayed, finding out how our property fared, and when we can go back. It has been a frantic search for information.

I was asked why we can't just call the owners of our community for the status.  We are the "owners" and none of us know anything except the few people who stayed and they have no way to communicate.  Most of the police and first responders even evacuated. This was a BIG deal for the Keys and people took it very, very seriously, as they should have.  No one that knows anything has any way to notify anyone about damages or missing people.   People are frantically trying to check on missing friends and family who stayed for the hurricane.

Something I didn't know but now assume it is available for any disaster like this, is that NOAA flies planes overhead filming the area of the disaster afterwards, giving people and governments information about damages.  They filmed the entire 100 + miles of the Florida Keys,  starting in  Key West and all the way up to Key Largo.  It took three days and of course, our section was last for some reason.    There were many news teams coming in and filming areas.  Cudjoe Key (the island) and Venture Out (our resort community) was filmed many times, but they never quite got to our house, so we really didn't know  the status or our boat and fifth wheel.

Not knowing turned out to be very stressful.  We spent hours each day perusing all the FB groups, news organizations looking for video, tv channels and word of mouth.  I found a lot of info and pictures of Venture Out, just nothing definitive on our property.

Last night while on our nightly golf cart ride searching for bears, we found our answer and it wasn't good.


We initially had been sure the fifth wheel was completely destroyed,  but then we started seeing pictures of rv's that were still standing and looked to be fine.  It allowed us to get a bit of hope.

Here is the link for the NOAA after hurricane pictures. It really is kind of interesting

NOAA Florida Keys after Irma  You click on the area in black, zoom and make sure it's set to Map Box Street under layers.

Here is what our lot and Rv looked like pre Irma

Here is what it looks like after Irma

The fifth wheel is in the middle, sitting at an angle.  The problem with the location of our lot is that the only thing between us and the open water is a single row of high rises houses (on stilts) and an empty rv lot on the water.  There was absolutely NO wind block.  It was nice on those hot afternoons because we almost always had a wonderful breeze.

We store our boat at the Venture Out lot.  We aren't even sure where the boat is from this photo.  It looks like the storm surge moved them all around. There were some large boats here.

Last winter, we discovered the coolest place from the past. It was called Perky's Bat tower.  We had no idea how old or what it was when we found it.  After researching it, we discovered it was built in 1929 and was to house bats for mosquito control. The only problem is once released, the bats flew off never to be seen again.

Here is what it used to look like

You can see here how large it is

This is what is looks like now.  You can see it toppled down. It's a shame.

So, now that we know for certain our Rv is a total loss, we need to decide what to do next.  I reported the claim a few days ago and I'm sure the Catastrophe insurance adjusters are going to be arriving as soon as it's safe for them to enter the Keys.

They had to make sure the 46 or so bridges are safe, remove power lines, repair washed out roads (remember, these are a string of islands connected by roads so you want to make sure the roads are good) and attempt to restore water, sewage, electricity and cell service.

They are making progress but only allowing property owners and renters back into the upper Keys right now and curfews are being strictly enforced.

We think we should head to the Keys once we are allowed back in. There will be things from the Fifth Wheel and trailer, that hopefully we can salvage.  It will not be a pleasant trip.  It will be hot, we won't have a place to stay, hotels will be scarce, and supplies will be limited to what you can bring.

The good news is that at least some of the endangered Key Deer survived.  Their food sources have been ravaged though and I saw a video in which they were definitely freaked out.  This guy seems to be doing fine though, don't you think?

Back in the Keys and Some Big Changes

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida (high 70, low 57)

 

So much has been happening that I don’t know where to begin.  Our plan for continuing to be full-time RV’ers has evolved over the past year and we just made another big change.

Since we have RV lots in the north Georgia mountains, and one in the Keys, and spend a lot of time in each place, we decided to put a fifth wheel on each lot.  Last summer we purchased a used fifth wheel for our Blairsville lot and recently we bought another fifth wheel for our Keys lot.

Our plan is to eventually trade in our motorhome for a smaller Rv like a B+, that we will use for travel.  That won’t happen while Mom is still alive, but it’s our plan for the future.

We had been looking for months for the right RV and we finally found one that seemed to be in good shape and priced right.  It’s not new, or pretty, but it fit on our small lot in the Keys.  It passed the rain test last night, so that’s always a good thing!  We had an extra air conditioner installed and bought a washer/dryer combo, so hopefully it will work out.  We had it towed down here, since we don’t have anything that would have pulled it.

We normally rent out our lot a few months in the winter to help with some of the annual expenses and we still may be able to do that.  We could have it towed and stored at the place where we used to store our boat.  We will play that by ear.

One good thing is that there are a lot of pre owned RV’s in the Tampa area and it’s a buyers market.  We knew that closer to the end of snowbird season, the prices would come down and they did.  We got a good deal on our new to us Fifth Wheel. 

 

We bought it from a lady who stored it inside this fabulous garage/barn.  It was HUGE.  The owner has a horse stable and a trucking business.  The horse trailer next to our fifth wheel is a 53 foot (the size of a trailer semi’s pull).  It is a horse trailer with RV quarters.  You can see how huge the storage building was.

The owner, Jeremiah agreed to tow it down for us and also keep it there until we were ready to move it. He allowed us to have a Rv tech come and add our bedroom AC unit. He gave us his gate code so that we could come and go from his beautiful property at will. He and his wife Jen were so nice and helpful.

We will miss going out to the beautiful property and watching the horses jump. 

The tires on the trailer were dry rotted, so Jeremiah told us about a tire place nearby and he arranged for us to get a discount.  He then had his workman Jared take the tires off the trailer. We got the new ones and Jared put the new ones back on the trailer for us.  How nice was that?  We also used Jared to help get the very heavy Splendide washer/dryer combo inside the fiver.  Of course we gave him some money for his efforts.

We were a little concerned the Fiver wouldn’t fit on our Rv lot and still leave us room to park our truck.  We have to park up under the front a little, but Jeremiah managed to get it on our small Keys lot.

You can see why I was a little worried.  There was a patio and a power pedestal that needed to be avoided.

He slipped it right in there and maneuvered it so that it was straight and where it needed to be.

 

Here are a few pictures of the inside.  It has a rv size King bed, which of course means it’s smaller than a regular king bed, but it’s much larger than we had before. The cats have plenty of room now too.  I tossed this old comforter out, put a pretty blue and white one with a beachy theme.

 

 

 

The recliners travel sideways, but turn for use.  Unfortunately, they seemed comfortable at first but we’ve changed our minds.  The only good thing, is you don’t tend to want to sit in them too long and waste the day away on the internet. 

 

 

We’re settling in and trying to do a little decorating “Keys Style.”  

We’ve managed to eat at or favorite places and got our first hogfish sandwich of the season.

 

We took a trip to Key West for sunrise one morning.

We were lucky enough to watch a cruise ship come into port.  It was interesting how they got the huge dock lines from way up high on the ship, down to the water below and tied off.

 

The lines are dropped and a guy in a small boat takes them over to the dock where someone else is there to attach them.

We didn’t wait around to watch the gangplank being lowered and the people disembarking.

 

Did anyone notice the predicted temperatures today for Key West?    Yep…..there is a cold front.  We nearly froze last night in Key West.  My teeth actually chattered and I cannot remember the last time that happened.