Storm

Fallen tree on road just up from us.

It was hot hot hot yesterday.  While watching TV the program was stopped to warn of impending server weather,  T-storm with extremely high straight-line winds, up to 85 mph!!!!  The warning stated to close all windows and shades and stay away from them because of the winds.  I have not heard that one before.  

  Well about 9:00 it was calm as could be and at 9:01 all hell broke loss.  I have never seen it like that before.  No wind, to 85 mph winds in minutes.  We could hear things falling on the top of the rig and stuff blowing.  Then the lightning and thunder and some rain, but not as much as one would think.  We lost power at the park for maybe  9 to 10 hours.  Not a problem for self contained RV's because we have water and generators on board, but still.  It is very dark and we are hearing a lot of talking and noises outside, but then all is quite.  Well in the morning we find out what the noise was all about. 

This storm came through a wide area.  While out talking a guy who was watching a car race in Kentucky on TV and saw this same storm before it got here.  He said the pit boxes, where the cars come in for gas and such during the race, were being blow all over.  Rog was watching a golf tournament today that was in Maryland and they had to delay the game because this storm tore up a lot of trees on the course.  And we heard on the news that over 100,000 people  still do not have power and they are hoping by next Saturday they will have all power restored.  The spokes person stated this was the worse power outage ever in their company's history.

The storm that whipped through the region Friday night was called a derecho (duh-RAY'-choh) , a straight line wind storm that sweeps over a large area at high speed. It can produce tornado-like damage. The storm, which can pack wind gusts of up to 90 mph, began in the Midwest, passed over the Appalachian Mountains and then drew new strength from a high pressure system as it hit the southeastern U.S., said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The workers here at the park we up bright and early cutting the tree
branch up and getting things cleared out.

 

This is where it broke off.

It landed on this poor guys truck.  I was talking to him and he said he did not hear anything.  He said his neighbor came over and said you better get out here and take a look.

This is the wood from the tree and they pushed the branches and other stuff off to the side with a skip loader.  There are more piles of wood all over the park and we took a little trip out and trees are  down all over.



We are under another T-storm warning tonight.  It is raining now, but no lightning yet and no wind so far. 

The red cross have opened "cooling stations" (schools, fire stations, police stations) because of the extreme heat.  More heat tomorrow. 

HOT!!!!!!!!

I do not have pics for this blog.  We did not go anywhere or do anything because it was so hot.  They are breaking records here since records were started.  It is going to be hotter tomorrow according to forecasts.

We do not have 50 amps at this park.  For RVers with bigger rigs that is important information particularly in hot weather.  That means we can only run one of the two air conditioners at a time or else you will blow a breaker and have to reset all your clocks after you go out side to reset the breaker.  Even with two air conditioners working becuase rv's do not have thick installation in their thin walls it does not keep your rig as cool as say, Wal Mart or even Micky D's.  

They say we will have at least another week of this heat , with tomorrow being the hottest and starting to cool a couple of degrees each day after that. So working my calculations 105 tomorrow, next day 103, next day 101, ... Christmas 85 LOL no snow this year.  

Dogs got a bath.  Two reasons; one to get them cooled off and two and maybe even one to get rid of those damn fleas.  We are bathing them with anti flea soup (I thought) and they get Front Guard almost no flea flea removal stuff once a month.  The vets say it is the best stuff out there to use.  Well at least they are clean and fluffy. 

Well we are getting a lot of reading done and playing card games.  I should be knitting or woodburning, but they all seem hot activities to be doing at 104.   

Appomattox Court House

This is our third National Park we have been to in the last couple of days and the flag has been at half staff.  So I asked why.  A Range died in Washington State.  He was rescuing climbers on Mt Hood.  

We are at Appomattox 

Ulysses S. Grant and his men

This is a painting of the men in the home of Wilmer  McLean.  They are signing the surrender agreement.  Here on April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee, commanding general of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered his men to Ulyssses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all United States forces.  Lee's surrender signaled the end of the Southern states' attempt to create a separate nation.

Robert E. Lee and Col. Charles Marshall

Wilmer McLean's home were the signing took place in the parlor.

The replicated  room where the surrender documents were signed. 

 Lee here

 
Grant here

The parks department  reconstructed buildings using old foundations for placement and pics and stories for the designs.  This is the kitchen to the McLean house. Back in the day the kitchens were separated because of heat and mainly fire.  If the kitchen burnt down it would not bring the whole house down.

I loved how they set the table and had the hams and other meats currying from the ceiling.

Great table detail.  They tried to have this great detail in the other buildings as well

  Meeks Livery stables

 
Clover Hill Tavern on the right.  The one on the left is the Tavern guest house.  There would have been a Dining Room for the tavern in between the two.

 

To print the passes that Confederates needed to return to their homes printing presses were set up in the Clover Hill Tavern.  Printers worked in relays to print 30,000 blank forms. 

These are a couple of the passes.  They do state if the soldier had horses or side arms.
Officers were allowed to keep their side arms and any Confederate soldier who owned a horse was allowed to take it home with him. 

White building was Meeks Store and the small orange building was Woodson Law Office


We had a great day walking around learning about our history.


We also took the time out to wash our dirty car.  We had not washed it since the Outer Banks and it was way dirty.  We were concerned about the salt from the air out there and dirt messing up the paint job.  It came out great. 

New Location.

This is a statue at the guarded entrance to the capital of Virginia in Richmond.  The guy in the little shack in front of the statue would only let us drive around the statue to take pics. 

This is the capital building itself. You can see the back and the front of the building.  The smaller buildings are the legislative houses.    I can now put a star for the capital of Virginia on my map. 

This a beautiful cathedral next to the capital building


We left Chesapeake Bay Resort this morning and headed to the next location on our travels.  We are now at Lynchburg RV resort. We are still in Virginia.   This resort is located between Lynchburg and Appomattox.  We are planning trips out to learn the history of this area. 

This is the very first time visiting this resort.  We are very impressed.  This is the entrance gate where you check-in.  We were given the pertinent info and a map of the place and said to return when we had picked out our site.  It did not take us long.  We pick the first one that feels good and park it.  We are here for only 2 weeks, it is not like we are living here the rest of our lives. 

We drove around the place after we got all settled in.  It has two good sized lakes.  Here you can see the beach on the bigger  of the two lakes.  They have it all set up so you just come, chairs and umbrellas are waiting for you.  There is also a volley ball area on the beach.  Behind the beach area you can see a white building.  That is were the swimming pool is located complete with changing rooms and showers. They also have basketball courts, tennis, pickle ball, horseshoes, shuffle board.  I getting tired just telling you about it.  LOL

Nice big pool with spa

This is our site.  Really nice sitting under the trees with the birds singing.  And by the way Steve is here too.

On the way here we saw another paper mill.  This shows more of the operation.  We are on a bridge going over yet another huge river.  On the other side of the bridge are the logs being processed and turned into wood pulp.  You see the white tube, that is the conveyer system sending the wood pulp to the paper mill.  The piles of wood pulp is sent to the mill and out comes paper.

This is art.  These flowers were growing here and they are very pretty.  Enjoy.

Kayaking

 
Great news!!!
Laura got a job.   She had placed many many job apps., and had 9 interviews and got the job.  She told us that it would take 9 because the last time she did this she was hired on interview 9.  She will be teaching math and computer tech in Golden. CO.  Way to go!

It was a wonderful day and the weather was great so we decided to go kayaking.  Rog is taking  down the boats.  He finds it easier to take them down by himself, but I help him lift them up onto the car.

Here he is putting in.  The Canadians are moving out of the way. 

This is our first turtle encounter with many more to come.  This lake has so many turtles in it. 

Rog out having fun, you are having fun right, Rog.

You can find a sight in the park to stay by the lake.  Here they stayed so long that they have built a beach.What a cozy little set up on the beach.  The only beach on this lake I might add.

Another dish forest.

A "ship" wreck.  We must be very careful out here.

More guys sunning on a log.

notice his back legs pointing up.

I was able to touch him.  It is hard to get a pic and touch a turtle and steer your boat and go the right direction.  But I got the job done because, well I am good.

This is one of the bigger turtles we found.  It is just resting on the bottom.  I am at the very shallow part of the lake.

If you look really really close in the brush you will see a black bird.  You can see the eye near the fern and the little twig. There were two just making the biggest racket.  They let me get very close and really did not fly away, they only hopped up on the bank more away from the lake and me.


We also saw a Great Blue Heron and another very large bird, but I could not get a pic.  It is hard to bring yourself around and aim the camera in a kayak. 

Just to let you know they come in many different sizes, all one kind and color though.

I showed you pics before of the cabins along the lake well this is a pic looking from the lake toward the cabins. 

I do not know his name.  He was on the window and I thought he was interesting.  Love those back legs.

Here is the belly of the beast LOL

I only spent a very little time removing this mess from a very small area in the lake.  Fisher persons please remove your line and other fishing crap from the places you are fishing,  The birds get it wrapped around their legs and necks and wind up dying or losing their leg.  I have seen this and it is not pretty.  Also turtles try and eat it and it winds up in their gut and they die a terrible death.  So put it in the trash.

cooking

Rog cooking in Myrtle Beach, SC



Chicken Charmoula Kabobs 

1 lb cubed skinless boneless chicken breasts

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

Combine above ingredients into a large seal bag; turn to coat chicken, Chill, turning bag often at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hrs.  Meanwhile, soak wooden skewers in water 30 minutes. Thread chicken on skewers.  Spray  Pam on chicken and grill.  Cook until brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes each side. 

We stayed home today and did nothing fun to write about so I thought I would step back in time and enlightening you about some good eats.  I found the above recipe in a Weight Watchers magazine a while back and thought it was wonderful.  So I am sharing it with you.  It is so easy to prepare and wonderful to eat. 

We served it to friends in Florida and my cousins that visited in Myrtle Beach and they all raved about it.  We have prepared it as a kabob and also as chicken stripes and both work good.  I have not done it as a whole breast, however.  We also prepared it without lemon.  It was great, but I liked that citrus flavor.  You also must remember that when marinating the meat that the lemon juice is "cooking" it, so no longer than 4 hours.  Please try this you will not be disappointed. 

We did have another thunder storm today.  Not bad here, but somebody was having a big storm near us because we could hear it and feel it at times.