Sunday was the day they closed the forests… Irene was planning on paying a visit to the White Mountains of New Hampshire and unfortunately that is exactly where we planned on hunkering down while Irene made her way along the east coast. The only problem with that plan was the forecasters were wrong… way wrong…
When it became apparent that the forecasters were missing the forecasted path through Maine by a long shot we were already pretty much committed to staying put. We did all the necessary preparations to prepare for the storm like we had done several times in Texas. Bought groceries, picked up all the loose items outside, battened down the hatches and filled up the water tanks. We had already dieseled up so we were ready for any power outages in the area.
The only down side to our campground is that it is smack dab in the middle of the forest with trees all around us. With this in mind I evaluated all the trees in the vicinity of our motorhome and found no diseased or dead trees. With only healthy living trees around I felt better but had located a rest area just a mile down the road with no trees around the lot to escape to if I felt the winds got too high.
Irene came in Sunday afternoon with a bit of a whimper but still the winds and rain were fairly relentless. Rain had to over six inches in our area and the news reported that two of the towns we stopped and walked around in Vermont were being ravaged by floodwaters through their towns. Here in our park we had a few small limbs and debris fall down and the winds are still blowing near 15-20 mph as I type this blog on Monday at 10:00 am.
We are just glad the dire predictions of devastation along the eastern seaboard didn’t occur. We also feel bad for those who lost property or life in this storm. Hard to believe the day before we had hiked in the 
White Mountains along a stream to a beautiful 150 foot waterfall… I can only imagine what it looks like today… The pictures today are from the hike yesterday and how we prefer to remember this area. Tomorrow is a travel day to Maine’s coast if the roads are clear and the State Park we want to go to is open and ready for business.
If we are in a hurricane area again when one is predicted to come near we think we will just blow off any of our plans and move further inland. It is not really worth the chance you take with our weathermen’s forecasting abilities…
