I got up this morning at my usual 5 a.m. I get up early to feed the cat and get some reading done. It satisfies the introvert side of myself to have a time when I am all alone (except for the cat and Mary sleeping down the hall of the coach). It was raining when I got up. It had been raining HARD since about 3:30 a.m. HARD!
Checking email and reading various things, I was just relaxing and enjoying the quiet (if you can call the loud noise that a hard rain makes on a coach roof "quiet"). All of a sudden there was a loud knock at the door. I think I knew what was to come. I opened the door to one of the camp ground employees apologetically saying, "You need to get ready to evacuate if it becomes necessary. The water is rising behind you!"
I think I mentioned yesterday that the campground was wet from the rain the day before (and from several days before) and the ditches were full of water. I woke Mary up and we looked out the back window of the coach and could see water flowing over the banks of the little creek behind us. There was maybe four inches of air between the top of the water and the top of the culvert. Maybe.
We set to work, packing the loose items in the coach so we would be ready to drive. I handled the inside and Mary got to work outside. (No, I wasn't taking the easy job. She said I know where things go inside the coach and could get it done better and faster. And she could work outside.) By the way, our little motor home itself was dry and cozy in all this rain.
Some of the residents of the campground chose to leave quickly. Others of us moved more slowly. We were on the high ground and looked safe...relatively speaking. As we worked and watched (and ate an abbreviated breakfast), the rain began to slow and gradually stop. The water kept rising for a while and the campground crew was working hard to place pumps and pipes to move the water away from the campers and to drain the low places. At one place the road out of the campground was almost underwater. Almost but not quite. That was one of the place I kept watching as well as the water behind us that was rising.
As it all worked out, the sun came out, the rain stopped, and we stayed put. In addition we had coffee with neighbors from Nevada and California and enjoyed swapping stories of travels and places and things we've done. One lady, traveling solo, is on a journey to see as many of the over 600 lighthouses around the United States as she can. In three years of travel, she has seen well over 300 of them. After the rain stopped and the excitement abated, she headed off for Door County to see several more.
Otherwise, we spent much of the day with Kitty, Mary's youngest sister who lives in Green Bay. Kitty has just had her offer for the purchase of a home accepted and is going through the process of loan approval, inspection, etc., and moving toward home ownership. We got to see the new house. She did a good job of picking a new home for her and Maya the cat.
Tonight we have a wonderfully pleasant evening in our muddy campground. We've turned off the AC, opened the windows, and are enjoying the fresh air of the evening. Tomorrow we'll run up to Marinette, Mary's hometown, and visit some family and friends. Mary and Sally the cat say "Hi" to all our friends and family reading.
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