Tragedy at Home

                                 Severe flooding and devastation
I have never rally been a fan of Facebook, but I have changed my opinion. While we were traveling on September 7th, I had the laptop open and I was browsing a lot of my favorite sites. I knew that there had been a lot of rain at home from Hurricane Irene but now they were being pounded by the tropical storm. The first I read was that schools were dismissing early. Then I read that NEB was not dismissing children because the roads were too dangerous for the busses. OH, oh….Then pictures started appearing on Facebook of bridges that were collapsing all over the place in Bradford County.







Flooding has closed roads all over Bradford and Sullivan Counties as well as north up in the Owego and Vestal areas. Many stores and homes are flooded and destroyed. Devastations were everywhere close to the Susquehanna River and near local creeks and rivers.
Shannon made her way to Athens, where Keith works. They took the shop truck to try to make it home. They were able to take a round about route and get to the NEB school to pick up the boys. They made it safely home to Warren Center from there. They were home Thursday and Friday with no power, but Keith ran a generator to keep the sump pump working in the basement as well as keeping their food cold in the refrigerator. Thankfully, they have a gas stove so they were able to cook their food.
Keith made it to our house and called to say that all was well there except that there was no power. I heard from a neighbor that the power came back on Friday evening. The pond was very full but Keith said it appeared to be draining out the emergency spillway, which was what it was designed to do.
Most damage appears to be to roads, buildings and to cars. Shannon’s van and Brandon’s car that were left in Athens are now history, water up to the roof. Keith was able to make it to the shop and help with some clean up there. They are hoping to reopen on Tuesday. Shannon’s residents were all evacuated to Ithaca NY and she does not know if she can even get there to work, so many roads are closed.
I have heard that Towanda School District will try to open on Monday but I have not heard about any others. Trying to route the busses to pick up the children will be a monumental task. There are four bridges out on Route 187 I think, maybe more. Pennsylvania Avenue from Vestal down to PA is closed due to a bridge being out.
Our prayers are with everyone affected by the flood. At this time we are not sure what route will be open for us to get home. We are hoping that we will be able to get the RV home…….Not sure at this time.

Alaska Trip September 2-11, 2011

                                                   VCR Rally
After may SKP hugs and handshakes we packed up and left Gillette Wyoming and the 2011 Escapade. We traveled east and settled in Elk View Campground in Sturgis SD. They had saved the closest spot for us. It was a nice level spot and we were soon all hooked up and watching the rest of the VCR (Volunteer Club Representatives) arrive. At 4:00 PM there were some SKPs wandering around looking for a Happy Hour. We found a shady spot beside our RV and set up Social time. We had a good time visiting with friends, old and new.
Of course, SKPs travel on their stomachs, so we all dispersed to go find dinner. Some people went into Deadwood to a buffet but Keith and Shirley Murphy, Betty Bear and Phil and I headed into Sturgis to Pizza Hut. Between $10 specials on the large pizza and our Senior Discount, dinner cost us less than $15. Plus we had half a pizza left over for breakfast on Saturday.
We had a quiet day on Saturday. We had a Pot Luck Dinner Saturday night, followed by an Auction for CARE.  We were pleased that a half gallon of PA Maple Syrup that we had donated sold for $100. Also, a bottle of champagne from my stash went for $50. Phil bought me a goody bag for $50. and a hair cut for another $50. and I bought a Carnival Glass covered dish for $20. Care did well by us that night.
Then  the VCR training started on Sunday. It was a full and productive day.  Susie Orr taking pictures:

The day ended with a great steak dinner provided by the campground.
Sunday morning Denny and Susie serenaded me under the bedroom window with “Happy Birthday to you…”. Nice way to start the day. Everyone also sang to me when we came in to breakfast. Again, there were lots of hugs and handshakes before we were all on our way.
We headed for Council Bluffs IA to the Camping World. We had an appointment the next day to have a new washer installed in the RV. We had not really looked at the mileage on the map before setting up this appointment. We traveled over 500 miles to get to Council Bluffs and then had to go around a detour of an extra 50 miles before reaching Camping World. They have had flooding along the Missouri River.
We reached Camping World after missing the road and having to find somewhere to turn around. We slept well that night in their parking lot. Phil was up early the next morning and had the front windshield washed and everything ready for Camping World by 8 AM. We went inside and signed papers and headed out for breakfast. We could not find the Cracker Barrel but did find Perkins. So we had breakfast, visited Sam’s Club and went back to Camping World. The RV had been moved and we checked the inside and sure enough, I had a new washer in place, all ready to use! Old washer was gone never to be seen again.
Before we set out, I called our friends Dave and Karen Long from Iowa. They were in Bellevue camped at a county park. So, we set out to find them. It was another long travel day, as we needed to cross Iowa and then go NE from Iowa City to Bellevue. However, we were able to get there before dark, and after a few wrong or missed turns, we were successful. Dave and Karen were just returning to the campground from a day trip around the time we arrived. So, of course we set up, did some visiting and then headed out to supper. There was a neat restaurant next door that we enjoyed.
The county park was RIGHT on the Mississippi River. We could watch the barges going up and down the river from our camp sites. So early in the afternoon we headed downtown to the locks to watch the barges go in and out of the locks. Here are some pictures of the barges:
 
Tug pulling barge into lock.






This barge was full of trash recovered in a River Cleanup Mission.
 
                                             

                         The next ship in the lock, headed north. What a pretty sight.

We enjoyed our short visit with Dave and Karen and gave hugs before setting out the next day. We traveled into Illinois for the night and then on to Ohio. We will be heading for our Chapter 20 Rally in Manheim PA next week.

Week Twenty and Twenty one ~ Alaska Trip

                               August 22-September 2
We arrived first in Buffalo, Wyoming and stayed there for two days before heading into the Escapade. We noticed several other people with Escapee stickers on their rigs. So we hosted a SKP Happy Hour on our second night. We met some neat people and had a good time.
On August 24th we traveled the rest of the distance to Gillette Wyoming. We were met by the smiling Parking Crew. They escorted us to our site and helped Phil to back in. It was easy, when we got there the lot was almost empty! Everyone else filled in around us as the week went on.

As soon as we were all hooked up, we headed to the Office to see Molly and get our assignments. Phil was the Handicap Host and they supplied him with a radio and a golf cart. On Friday he greeted all the rigs with Handicapped People, gave them their instructions and provided his phone number. If anyone needed a ride to or from the Cam-Plex they would call Phil and he would shuttle them back and forth. So, he was ‘on call’ all through the Escapade to supply rides for handicapped people. They did find several odd jobs for him to do as well through out the time we were there.
The Cam-Plex was a beautiful set up. All air conditioned, thankfully. We had a 50 AMP hook up which made life easier for us, we could run both air conditioners and keep the rig cool. It was in the high 90’s several days. Of course, in the mid west that means you can have some pretty severe storms and we did have a couple.



My assignment was the Newsletter Editor.  I was concerned about not having enough information to fill the two pages I would produce daily. NOT a problem. Anyway, this kept me out of trouble for a while. I produced the newsletter, sent it to the Escapade Director (Molly), she sent it to Headquarters in Livingston TX. From there it was emailed to almost every participant in the Escapade. This was a large task, as we had about 680 rigs attending. I would then also post the news on the Escapee’s Forum as well as on the web site I had created for the event.

Opening ceremonies were impressive. Quite a few people.

It was a very busy week of seminars, craft classes, staff dinners, chapter socials, coffee and donuts in the mornings and entertainment in the evenings. WOW! Busy time!  Here are pictures of the campground that Phil took. They are side by side, not the same pictures.
 

 

There were parked several rows deep. This is Boxelder where the attendees were. There was another whole section that held staff, vendors and handicapped parking.


Here is a picture of BIG RED TRUCK that they use to ferry supplies back and forth from Livingston TX to Escapade.
Anyway, exciting times. We saw many, many friends and made some new ones. The Escapee motto is, ‘The more involved you become, the more fun you will have.’ That holds true for us. We had a wonderful time.
We are now in Sturgis SD and a small VCR Rally. We have some training, but these people also Play Hard! We are expecting to have a great weekend. I’ll let you know soon.