Hurricane Milton

 So my plans were to share about our Hurricane Milton experience but.....my son and daughter in love are on an Alaskan cruise and tonight are in the passage way between Vancouver BC and Ketchikan Alaska.  Thankfully my son just called and said the captain has reassured them that they are safe and will stay in deep waters until the danger is passed.....I still want them to sleep in their life jackets!  

Natural disasters are so hard to deal with and it seems like there have been so many that have affected the world and my world in the last few years.  Living in Florida we know all about hurricanes.  I have NO idea how many hurricanes I've lived through at this point but Hurricane Milton was rough

If you've never experienced a hurricane, it's basically like being stalked by a turtle.  You know it's coming but things change sometimes hourly.  2004 was a year etched into my memory—a year of relentless storms. We faced not just one, but three direct hits from hurricanes. On top of that, we had to make an unforgettable journey: driving through a hurricane to get to an important doctor’s appointment in Miami.

The first storm, Hurricane Charley, was predicted to be a monster. All the reports warned it would come straight up Tampa Bay and deliver a devastating blow to Tampa. We prepared for the worst.  When the alert came, we packed what we could and decided to stay with my brother-in-law for safety. Sam was a newborn then, and making sure he had everything he needed was my top priority. I ran to the store for extra medication, hoping I had time.

By the time I returned, the forecast had shifted dramatically. Instead of slamming Tampa, Charley veered south and hit the Arcadia area. While we experienced heavy rain and fierce winds, the catastrophic damage we’d braced for never came.

Little did we know—this was just the beginning. We would face two more hurricanes and have to drive to Miami for an eye emergency while they prepared for a direct hit of a hurricane 4 Ivan.  Thankfully it did not hit Miami as predicated.  

So we've been through it!  When we first started hearing about Milton, we were concerned, but not overly worried. Our older boys decided to stay at their homes but planned to come to our house if they lost electricity since we had a generator. Before the storm hit, they came over and helped us prepare the yard and secure the house. Honestly, we didn’t expect much.

Still, I was nervous—it would just be my husband, myself, and the little ones, Sam and Sarah.

When the storm began, everything seemed manageable. Our yard was dry; there was no water in sight. But as night fell, the situation changed drastically. By midnight, water was lapping against our front porch and the south side of the house.

Then came a heart-pounding moment: we had to rescue our chickens during the worst of the storm, opening their cages to give them a fighting chance to escape if they needed to.

By 2 a.m., the water had reached our house. Waves—actual waves—rolled toward us. We still had electricity thanks to the generator, but that didn’t calm the dread. At one point, we laid out sheets, planning to wrap Sam and Sarah so we could pull them up into the attic if things got worse.

Thankfully, around 3 a.m., the water stopped rising, and the rain eased. We collapsed into bed around 4 a.m., exhausted.

Morning brought a new shock: our neighborhood was submerged. We couldn’t leave for 3 or 4 days. Cell service was spotty. Our sons tried to reach us but couldn’t get through the flooded roads. It was a sobering experience—a reminder of nature’s power.

We were left with damage to our roof, our fence, and our front porch. But many people in our town were much more affected than we wee!

Most of these pictures were about 2 days after the hurricane!  They are a bit mixed up with time frame

I literally put lawn chairs in the chicken pen so they could get out as the water was so high.  T

After the water receded we found our fence was literally pull apart!

my son took this from town lol  Jon and Sam love Taco Bell

our road

Literally the side of the house with standing water.  You can see the water line

outside Sam's window

outside Sarah's window

church

!  

the river bridge

Alot of what looks like grass is leaves from the trees. the WAter was still up to the house!

you can see the water line on the gas tank

About a week after the hurricane my son's job sent a trailer full of supplies to our town.  Our church worked with another church to distribute it all  

my friend Christy and I took supplies to people and this is a picture of us STUCK in the mud on my road!!!

We were still smiling and a "good ole boy"  pulled us out!

 I am trying to post videos but it's not working.

After almost a year our home and church still have damage.  We are dealing with flood and regular insurance on our house and church.  I think we will be getting payment from the flood insurance soon but the roof is another matter.  We are all hoping for no hurricanes this year! 

35th wedding anniversary!

 So 2024 was our 35th wedding anniversary so we ....took a cruise!  We splurged and got a balcony.  It was a longer cruise we went to Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico (our favorite)  St Thomas and St Croix.  Honestly it was the most relaxing cruises we've ever taken!  Our room was near the back stairs/elevators and we were on the 6th floor right above the dining rooms and below the buffet!  We did the stairs mostly in order to make up for the eating LOL  We also brought our meals back to our room and ate on the balcony several times.   We even saw a UFO!  NO lie!  It was December 2024 and UFOs drones etc were all over the news

Our oldest son actually has his FAA drone license and he watched the videos and said he felt it was a very large drone.  We were in the southern part of the Bahamian islands going directly south to the Dominican Republic.   We were not close to land.  That night we had high winds which would make it crazy to have a drone out far from land.  My son said it had to be some type of governmental drone certainly not a private one because no one would be stupid enough to have it out on a night like that!  Winds affect drones and use up the battery trying to keep it on course.  We actually saw it 2 nights in a row and we did notify security.  The second night they got to our room in time to see it and were shocked!  Ironically Jon's assistant chaplain was on another ship a day behind us and they saw a drone out at sea nearer to St Thomas!  Crazy times!  I will admit the first night I was "boo'ed up" as they say in prison meaning I was a little scared!  What do you think???

Despite drones or UFOs we had a blast!

DR!

In the old city

Jurassic Park vibes!!!!

He's looking like Indian Jones

Puerto Rico

We walked the old city and look what we found!  A 300 year old saint in wax!  We had quite the debate on whether it was a real person or not...it was!  This is why we like to do our own tours!

St Thomas

it was HOT

my friend posing

After a shower we had supper with St Thomas in the background

St Croix

Self guided tour of the old fort and town

    

This church was on the outskirts of town.  We had to go pass a government housing project where there was a loud drug deal going on.... I admit that was a bit much but we just kept on walking!

And look who said good bye to us by the dock

Love our rainbow off the balcony!

Home in time for Sarah's 18th birthday and Christmas!  Don't forget about Kay's Tours and Cruise  Ovi can set you up for a great cruise or other types of vacations.  Tell him Yvonne sent you:)

Thus 2024 ended....thankfully it was a good year overall for us We did have a ROUGH time with Hurricane Milton!  I have pictures and videos of that and plan on doing a blog about it soon.

Some of our 2024 travel

 So I made it to 2024....

We started out the year right with a cruise with my best friend and her hubby to Mexico  

Then in February it was another cruise with the "little kids" to the Bahamas

Love them so much

We have a family joke about this particular pose we've been doing it for 20 years  The kids roll their eyes but they smile for me 

In July/August we took our yearly trip to NY for Sam's eye appointment.  To be honest I didn't really want to drive or go!  I tried to talk Jon into flying up with Sam but my son Steve talked me into going because he said Jon really wanted me to go.  Now I'm so glad I went!

We stopped on the way up at Chimney Rock NC  It's one of my first travel memories as my family went up there for a church camp meeting in South Carolina and our friends took us to Chimney rock.  Since then I've gone as a young married then as a mom so it's a big part of my life.  Little did we know that in just a matter of weeks Chimney Rock and so much of Western NC would be devastated by Hurricane Helene (which happened to affect my hometown severally!)

/Chinmey Rock Inn is where we stayed in the Lady Bug cottage.  They just reopened this weekend so go to their website and reserve you a room or cottage.  

I'll never get tired of this iconic picture 

YES we made it to the rock!  Sam is pretty good about climbing stairs and he did it!

is this the most precious picture????

This is so precious!  Sam doesn't do this often but when he "sings" for us it just melts our heart.  He was very proud of climbing up the steps and was very happy to be the "only child" for a week!  It was a perfect trip

Jon helping Sam go down the steps

who could dream this little stream would soon almost destroy the town??

this entrance was very damaged.  Can you imagine the force of water that could damage these rock stone pillars???

  from North carolina we headed to Rochester NY but stopped at the New River Gorge in West Virginia.  Our family has stopped there a number of times over the years.

Then we had a little time for sightseeing in Rochester between appointments.  This is down on Lake Ontario

See that lighthouse?  I climbed to the top.  It's not that tall but it's a spiral then a straight up ladder!  The hardest point ws getting down-I did it but almost cried!  Sam was smart he sat in the garden as Jon and I took turns going to the top! 

Sam stole Sarah's bear for the trip LOL

we did the merry go round

Our dear  Dr Aquavella!  Sam got a good report.  This year makes 18!!! years since he had the implants!

He's always been fascinated by this hall mirror at the Ronald McDonald House

We've spent a total of about 10 months at this RMH over the past 18 years

On the way home we stopped at Savannah Georgia for a couple of days.  Let me tell you it was hot as HADES!   

we have a thing for old Catholic Churches

yes more church pictures lol  I love them!

We love our dear friend David Wine and his Aunt Barbara!

You may wonder how we did three cruises back to back.... first two were planned for over a year so that gave us time to pay them off slowly.  We don't go out much at home, I cook A LOT at home and we'd rather spend our "fun" money on something that's really nice.  We also get really good deals and usually we get interior rooms to save even more money.  We don't drink (I will confess to about 4 pina coladas a year ) and if we do an excursion most of the time we do it on our own (yes we are brave) and spend very little!  In fact on our most recent cruise we did two different Mexican town tours and spent $0 on the first one by walking and $26 at the next town by taking a taxi between a couple of places.  So we spent $26 for two excursions!  

And let me give a shout out to Kay's Tour and Cruise the owner is married to one of my childhood friends and always finds us great deals and takes good care of us!  They are located in Lake City Fl but we do all our business online/on phone and are so pleased with them!!!  Ask for OVI and tell him Yvonne sent you!

Please feel free to share my blog and I'll be back soon to finish up 2024!