Stranded and a Major Water Leak

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 90, low 75)

We are still in Florida.  We had hoped to be in the mountains of north Georgia by now, but there have been complications.

(The pictures today are from me wishing I was back in Blairsville)

My  Mom woke up the other day extremely confused and confusing dreams or delusions for reality.   We  thought she may have gotten dehydrated so we made her drink more water.  She just doesn’t want to drink anything.  The next morning when it happened again we decided to take her to the doctor.  The doctor ordered a CT Scan and a Doppler scan of her carotid artery.  He suspected a stroke.  She got wind of that and went into panic mode.

It turned out she had a mini stroke or a TIA.  The doctor increased her Plavix and suggested she see neurologist.  So, that is where we are now.  She seems to be doing fine at the moment.  No more delusions and she seems to be feeling pretty well.  (Well at least as well as she ever feels)  :)    

We are trying to keep her from hearing the “S” word(stroke). She is a bit of a hypochondriac so we see no good reason for her to hear that word.  It would only make her worry more.  We aren’t sure how we’ll manage the “S” word when she sees the neurologist. 

 

We’re not sure if we’ll be able to get up to Blairsville this summer or not.  Our friends Tampa, Ralph and Terry are there for the month and our blogger friends Catherine and JoBeth just arrived for a month as well.  Sure wish we could be there to visit them.

Yesterday, we came home to a flood inside the motorhome.   We had water dripping out from the front of the overhead cabinets on the living room slide.  There was a flood of water on the kitchen counter, some of which had drained into the stove opening.  The couch was pretty wet on one corner, but not much water on the floor.  We were baffled because we’ve never seen this type of leak.   It looked like a bottle of water exploded into the air.  Normally when you have a leak, it’s around the slide seal and the water runs down to the floor.  There was some water on the floor but the majority was on the kitchen counter.

We think we had the “perfect storm” and the wind blew just the right way to blow water from the slide topper onto the slide and into the coach.  We’re wondering if there was a little microburst or something.  We weren’t home so we just don’t know.  There were no trees or branches down to indicate strong winds and the neighbors didn’t notice anything severe.

The seals are good, but have never sealed as tight as they should.  There is a lip on the top of the slide that should keep water from running inside, but we’re thinking the wind blew the water accumulation over the lip, under the cabinet and down the front of the cabinet.     (if that makes sense).    I’m sure we’ll have another rain today, so we’ll see what happens.

So, we’re sitting here sweltering in the Tampa heat and humidity wishing we were up in the mountains.  Our other friends are on a 11 day Smithsonian trip in Iceland!    We’re not too jealous!

Lightning Strike-Too Close for Comfort

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 92, low 72)

 

We’re still here in Florida but are wrapping things up to leave soon.  The north Georgia mountains are calling our names. Our friends Ralph and Terry are already there and Catherine and JoBeth are heading that way soon.   We Floridians like to escape this heat.

Typical summer weather in Florida brings afternoon thunderstorms, when the sea breezes from the east and west coasts collide.

The sea breezes  collided right over our heads yesterday bringing some nasty lightning and thunder.

Florida is the lightning capitol of the world and I think Tampa is the lightning capitol of Florida, so we try to be extra careful.

We were inside when lightning struck nearby.  We both happened to be looking outside and saw a flash of light and some smoke.  It was right across the street and the first thing I though of was the vacant motorhome that was right there.  I looked for smoke coming from it, but we soon realized it struck next to the tree.  Fortunately, there was minimal damage and none to any RV’s.

It scared poor Baxter to much that he ran but couldn’t get any traction and I could hear his “wheels spinning.”  He is normally not bothered by thunder and lightning but this one shook the whole coach and sounded like a bomb hit.

Some of our neighbors went out to check it out but we could still hear thunder so we stayed inside.  Who says lightning doesn’t strike twice?  I was amazed people went outside to check out a lightning strike, IN THE LIGHTNING!  

I finally got out this morning to check it out.

It appears it entered in the concrete and traveled through the dirt and up to the tree. 

You can see how close it was to this motorhome.

 

 

 

You can see where it struck the concrete.

 

Can you imagine if it hit your body?

I see people outside all the time when there is thunder and lightning.  We have a Weatherbug App on our phone which tells you how far away the nearest lightning is located.  We try to stay inside if it’s closer than 14 miles.

You can see how close it was from this next picture taken from out patio.

 

 

By the way, one of our neighbors that says they have a surge protector, and the strike fried their cable box.   I”m not sure if they have the high end Progressive Industries surge protector that we do, but I don’t think it would have helped a direct hit.