Canoeing Anyone?

Early this morning (about 4:30 am) I awoke when my 160 lb dog jumped up on the bed and tried to snuggle under me in fear.  There was wind and rain and more than that, a thunk and the mother ship rocking back and forth .

This is unusual.  Not the wind and rain...the Mother Ship rocking. 

We have been in several storms that included winds around 65-70 mph both here and in NY and the most the Mother Ship has ever done was shiver--kind of a little vibration.  Mother Ship is a 40 ft Kountry Aire 5th wheel triaxle by Numar.  She is heavy--10,000 lb empty--much more (about 17,000 lb--or the equivalent of a couple of small cars of "stuff" extra) loaded--so she is pretty steady.

So, with Mother rocking and rain pelting and winds blowing and 3 pugs and one pony (or 160 lb mastiff/newfoundland named Tank) all vyeing for space under me, I turned on the TV and surpise of all surprises, my satellite was still working--kind of.   It was showing that we were under severe thunderstorms, but there was no sound on the local stations.  I had to just be content to watch the radar in the postage stamp size box in the upper corner and read the banner while the "paid presentation" played soundlessly.

Suddenly it showed we were under a tornado WARNING--this means one is around in the county and has been spotted. 

Too late I thought!!!!  Mother was already rocking and had stopped rocking.

I went back to sleep. 

When I woke up again it was time to head to the campground office for our morning coffee and muffins breakfast club.

I slipped into clothes and opened the door, visions of Vanilla Iced Coffee dancing in my head, and saw this...

I don't own a canoe...

I closed the door.  After all, this is pre-coffee...

I opened the door...

Yep that's definitely a canoe sitting on my fence...or what is left of my fence...

The canoe's home is here...past Little Blue, across the street, past the golf cart on those blocks that the red arrows are pointing to...

See the red arrows pointing to the blocks on which the canoe usually lives?  And the branch on the ground by Little Blue?



This is standing about where the golf cart is parked and looking towards the Mother Ship...

See the silver colored fence post?  It used to be straight.  Until last weekend, it held our satellite dish. 

We had a problem with our reception so DirectTv came out to see about the problem and decided that the dish wasn't in the optimal spot and moved it.  Whew!!!!  Had it been on that pole, it would have been severly damaged...

See the silver colored fence post?  It used to be straight. 



From the looks of the carnage, it appears that the canoe took flight and hit that fence post, bending it, hit the tree, shaving a large branch off (which you can see on the ground here)

See the big branch that the canoe shaved off on the way through?

and finally, hit the Mother Ship about 10 feet off of the ground...

See the spot?

Here, take a closer look...

It actually went all the way through the side of the Mother Ship. 

Fortunately, it hit one of the framing timbers which kept it from going all the way through the inside wall of the camper, but there is a definite hole in the outer skin of Mother. 

Poor Mother!!!!  No wonder she was rocking!!!!

Johnny and He Who Takes Pity on All Campers In Distress removed the offending canoe to it's home, slightly worse for the flight, but still intact, along with the tree limb.

Note that my humming birds are still happy--one of the hooks with the feeders still being intact--only momentarily confused, they continued to eat, apparently oblivious to the carnage around them...

The humming birds are still happy...

So, I took a look around and headed for the office...I needed coffee and this would still be here when I got back, right???

Just before I left, a young lady of about 8-10 came up to me and told me she was so sorry to see that my camper was damaged and that my yard was a mess and things were broken.  She looked so stricken.  I hugged her and told her that it was okay because "things" can be replaced.  Everyone, including the dogs, were okay and that is all that matters. 

My wonderful friend, Kathy, was waiting in the parking lot with a huge vanilla iced coffee in her hands---knowing I needed sustanence...

I came home and started putting things back together.  Several things were bent--easily remedied by bending back semi straight--and I lost my rain guage, a glass torch, and a few of my solar lights.

As I was putting in the newly straightened hook and hanging the rest of my humming bird feeders (gotta take care of my birds!!!!) I looked down and saw that my tomato plant looked to be just fine...

When I bent down for a closer inspection, I noticed that the canoe left a few curls of orange behind on my rock...

And because he is in Cincinnati on business, Gman missed it all...