WET!

As we got ready for bed last night, we could hear an occasional rain drop hit Auntie Violet's roof. Later there was hard enough rain that it woke us up. That happened a couple of times during the night. Then about six AM, it really began to pour. It rained very hard for two to three hours before it let up a bit. Of course, it wasn't long before it was really coming down hard again.

Once again the forecasts were wrong. We were supposed to have sunshine today with some cloudiness and an occasional shower by mid-week...

Looking out the windows, you could actually see water running down the street. The few cars that were out and about splashed water two to three feet high -- depending on how fast they were going -- as they came up the street.

Both of our cell phones kept buzzing as the Weather Channel was broadcasting "flood warnings." Most of the messages had warnings about staying out of the arroyos and low-lying road areas. We've basically had rain showers, many of them quite hard, until about six PM this evening.

I went outside a few minutes ago to put some paper stuff in the recycle bin. It's amazing how quickly the water dissipates in this country. Where there were large puddles alongside our patio, there is now just wet gravel. Even the paved roads, which were streaming water, are now just wet and without puddles.

I am certainly glad the Mobile RV Service that we hired soon after we arrived, did such a good job sealing the roof !

ONLY Three States Today...

We had rain showers and thunderstorms off and on all night and it didn't look much better this morning. We listened to the Weather Channel and it sounded like we would be dealing with rain off and on all day. Given all that, we decided that we didn't want to take the train into Philadelphia and end up wandering around in the rain. So we decided we would take the Toad and go visit the states of Delaware and New Jersey.

Naturally, the first thing we ran into was road construction --

We had several miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic as we proceeded through the construction zone --

This was our one and only stop in Delaware. It was raining pretty hard most of the trip, so we got gas and let it go at that!

This is what it looked like going across the bridge over Delaware Bay --

As we got towards the other side, the rain let up a bit and we got a clearer view --

And here we are, catching sight of the "Welcome to New Jersey" sign --

We decided that we would go to see Atlantic City since we have heard so much about it. I should not have been surprised, but it looked like every other Atlantic coastal area we have seen. One house after another (many with For Rent signs) all the way to the beach. No easy public access to the beach without walking several blocks...

On the skyline were all of the casinos...

 

 Including a glimpse of Donald Trump's. We thought about stopping by, but decided that by the time we drove home to Auntie Violet back in Pennsylvania, it was already going to be late.

And indeed, as we drove towards Philadelphia on the Toll Pike, it was getting dark and the clouds were once again moving in.

It was an interesting day. We took more of the back roads on our way to Atlantic City and saw lots of truck farms -- most of them seemed to be planted to cabbage. The density of housing is amazing and the traffic is something else again!

We stopped at a restaurant in Franconia for supper. We had crab-stuffed portabello mushrooms with fried eggplant as a side. Neither of us thought it was very good. Our sweet, very pregnant waitress was distressed that we didn't finish either one of our dinners and insisted on comping us with chocolate mousse pie -- which was very good!

From Drizzle to Downpour!

I had talked yesterday about the way we had light drizzles off and on all day. Last night, it changed into a major thunderstorm.  We had lightning and thunder and and then it started to POUR! It came down in buckets -- and kept it up all night!  The ditch in the back of the RV park is running this morning, but the streets are dry. You'd never know how wet it had been during the night. We heard on the Weather Channel today that there had been tornadoes south and east of where we are...

It didn't rain anymore during the day today, but it was overcast all day. We had some very interesting clouds this afternoon.  They almost looked fake --

On the other side of the park the clouds looked relatively normal --

The whole southeast coast of the US is under a storm watch this evening, with predictions that the line of storms will move north towards the Carolinas and out to sea. As we watched the Weather Channel, we could also see the snow that is moving into and through eastern Washington. I think I'd rather have the thunderstorms -- but without the tornadoes!

We had a quiet day today. We spent some time over at Juni and Tom's this evening getting our doggy fix. Tica and Izzie are so much fun, partly because they are so glad to have company. Izzie wags her tail so hard you'd think it was going to fall off.