It's been a while since I've had a chance to write any entries into this log, since I have been out of the country for most of August and part of September. We finally got to take that vacation of our own after seeing to the many guests we've had here on the Outer Banks. Unfortunately hurricane season has haunted us at every turn and we are just plain weary of it. Not only for worrying about our homes here and the potential threat to them, but to our many, many friends we have in Florida. Of course our vacation travels took us south, right into the path of several of these storms. We have seen many sobering things and reminders of the power of a hurricane's fury in the past month. My heart is heavy for the many who have suffered damage at the hands of Charley, Frances, and Ivan.
The sheer force of the storm surge and its ensuing devastation along the Florida/Alabama coastline is truly unbelievable and heartbreaking. While we did not see the devastation along the Panhandle first hand, we have seen pictures and can definitely empathize with the good folks who live there.
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Sunday, August 08, 2004
We survived another Saturday...
Well we survived another Saturday! Saturdays are the days we go up to the rentals to check out the places between renters. We go with cleaning supplies and paintbrushes in hand to paint out all those little handprints left on the walls! We go with all sorts of tools as we never know what type of problem we will encounter. We go with brooms, rakes, leaf blowers, lawn mowers. We go with assorted newly washed matteras pads, hot mats, baths mats, that were collected and rotated last weekend. We spend a great deal of effort to keep our rental homes looking their best. We are the on call 24 hour maintenance crew!
I have never seen so much traffic as was down here last week. It must have been the single biggest week for cottage and motel rentals. True we had a storm and some other unfavorable beach days which usually drive tourists to the roads in search of entertainment, but this seemed above that! We crept along "french fry alley" at a snail's pace in the middle of the week, thinking there must be a wreck holding up traffic. After a business stop at the bank which took about an hour, the roads were still clogged, traffic creeping by. We opted for the beach road for a while, but that was just as busy. We finally made it to the Good Life Gourmet to have a LATE lunch only to stand and wait, and wait. I'm happy for the merchants, but boy will I be glad to see September!
The weather turned unusually cool after the hurricane, with overnight lows in the lower 60's. With a strong north wind a couple of days, the beach was not a comfortable place. We drew up in the Avalon Pier parking lot to view the water and the waves were crashing the bottom of the pier, now after the hurricane. The sandblasting was so bad we had to back the truck away from the front row. We laughed at the tourists parking across the street, hauling out their beach chairs and coolers, trekking over to the beach only to find it totally unsuitable to sit down on. Score one more for the merchants as they slunk back over the hill to go shopping.
Tomorrow promises beach weather will return, along with those higher A/C bills.
I have never seen so much traffic as was down here last week. It must have been the single biggest week for cottage and motel rentals. True we had a storm and some other unfavorable beach days which usually drive tourists to the roads in search of entertainment, but this seemed above that! We crept along "french fry alley" at a snail's pace in the middle of the week, thinking there must be a wreck holding up traffic. After a business stop at the bank which took about an hour, the roads were still clogged, traffic creeping by. We opted for the beach road for a while, but that was just as busy. We finally made it to the Good Life Gourmet to have a LATE lunch only to stand and wait, and wait. I'm happy for the merchants, but boy will I be glad to see September!
The weather turned unusually cool after the hurricane, with overnight lows in the lower 60's. With a strong north wind a couple of days, the beach was not a comfortable place. We drew up in the Avalon Pier parking lot to view the water and the waves were crashing the bottom of the pier, now after the hurricane. The sandblasting was so bad we had to back the truck away from the front row. We laughed at the tourists parking across the street, hauling out their beach chairs and coolers, trekking over to the beach only to find it totally unsuitable to sit down on. Score one more for the merchants as they slunk back over the hill to go shopping.
Tomorrow promises beach weather will return, along with those higher A/C bills.
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