Posts Tagged ‘hurricane sandy’

Full Circle

Friday, November 23rd, 2012

We started this year of travel in April after all the cancer stuff was over; it was like a New Year’s celebration to head to Phoenix on our way to Colorado. One of the first photos I included in my blog was a saguaro cactus (they look like people to me), and here I am back in Arizona finishing up 2012’s travels.

It’s been totally awesome to think back at our time with Focus on Family, a European riverboat cruise, England friends and memories, family reunion on the Jersey shore. Disneyworld and Daytona, a retirement celebration, forever friends, DC Marathon, Hurricane Sandy, voting absentee on the road, a noreaster, humidity, wind, rain, snow, icicle-cold, and desert hot!

While at the family reunion at the shore, we fondly remembered cousin Sandy, who lost her cancer battle.I am so glad we had gotten closer over the last couple years. It seems like she might have had her hand in protecting her family’s beach house when her namesake hurricane came through and didn’t do any harm.

And while visiting Barnoldswick, England, we joined friends still mourning the death of my special friend Gail Usher. Some of her ashes are hidden in a crevice on the south side of the Grand Canyon because this was a special spot for her! We end our travels by way of this majestic natural wonder to be near and reflect on the gift of her friendship.

This journey, all of 2012, has shown us the glory of God in the sights, sounds, and tastes we have experienced, but most of all the people. It’s always good to come home, but if your heart is with God then it ALL feels like home.

Blessings

Jersey Chaos

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

Hurricane Sandy hit this state pretty hard. Though the storm has moved on, a lot of neighborhoods still have no power (and it’s COLD here) and the gas stations have either no electricity to pump the gas, or no gas. The lines are humongous at the stations that are rumored to have petrol, and thousands stayed in their cars all night in hopes of a visit by the gasoline fairy.

Likewise, insurance companies and individuals have booked every hotel, B & B , vrbo in most of the state, leaving us stranded! We raced all over the state after rumors of a “room at the Inn” to no avail, and with an eye to our own gas gauge.

We travel cheaply so we can travel more and the rewards are time with friends and family and a chance to utilize military accommodations. But this time we had to resort to sleeping in our rental car in the parking lot of a Marriott here in Princeton, New Jersey. Thirt ynine degrees and cold toes, but we snuggled and slept and will always remember my b’day dinner with my honey, and deluxe abode we shared. Brrrrr

Waiting for Sandy

Monday, October 29th, 2012

Waiting for a hurricane is like watching paint dry: it will happen but not soon enough. But in the mean time we wait and watch the news and learn more about tidal surges and barometric isobars. Yes it is raining and it is windy but it is the tides that are doing the damage.

I am with my cousins in DC, whose New Jersey coastal town home is under water. It has been in the family for several generations and was the site of this past summer’s Family Reunion. It holds many of my mothers’ paintings and other family records. BUT, if you live at 6 inches above sea level and the sea is now 9 feet above normal, then something is gonna wash away.  All of those outer banks and barrier islands are mainly sandbars protecting the mainland and could just crumble and wash away. This is the storm that happens every 75 years and reconfigures the terrain.

So we wait, and watch as long as we have power, and pray.