[VAC] Storms - 2 of 3

["Terry Tyler" <tylerbears@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Continuing:

This morning (04/12/01 Thursday), Grand Lake was full of rolling white caps and the wind had been
jouncing our Airstream all night. But, not one hail stone had fallen on us. With all my nautical
experience (yeh - right!), I decided the wind was blowing only on the lake and that we could
continue our run northeast toward the mountains of Upstate New York. The fact that my hat refused to
stay on my head each time I faced the wind didn't matter. I was hell bent for election to roll out
of there and that was that (bad sign for good judgement). When Sandie got into the truck, she
suggested, "You may want to reconsider moving today." Just because her skirt did a Marilyn Monroe
didn't mean we should stay put.  

Before leaving the state park, we stopped to check out and watched the waves crash against the
shoreline with enough force to thrust a spray line of water five feet into the air - which then was
blown horizontally several dozen feet before landing on the beach. That was impressive. I had only
seen wind with such force when aboard the USS Laffey (DD724) during a gail off the Carolinas. I
thought to myself, "Maybe it's too windy to tow the Airstream. But, maybe not. After all, I've got
an extra friction bar to supplement the dual cam sway controls." My pie in the sky thinking was that
once we drive away from the lake and onto the Interstate, it would calm down. I didn't want to
believe it would be just as strong on the Interstate (wake up, Dummy).

After three wrong turns in the tiny town of St. Mary's (Was someone trying to tell us something? Or
was my intuition shouting at me?), we finally got on the Interstate. Truckers were telling of rigs
blown over and taking bets on which travel trailer would flip next. The first exit was less than a
mile from the entrance we had just driven up. During that short stretch, our Van and Airstream were
buffeted violently and mercilessly by gusting wind, but never once seemed about to have a problem
(close though). So much for calm wind after we got away from the lake. 

Right blinker on and down the exit ramp we went. Immediately on the right was a Ponderosa Restaurant
all boarded up with a For Sale sign on the front lawn. It had a large parking lot on three sides of
the building. An 18 wheeler had arrived before us and had just finished parking. We pulled in
adjacent to him, close to the building on the lee side of the wind and watched as trees bent over
from the wind's force. We saw hats being blown off people scurrying from their car to the nearby
McDonalds and then saw other 18 wheelers coming down the exit ramp. One pulled into the Ponderosa
lot with us. Others went in various parking lots along the street.  

With tongue in cheek, I suggested to Sandie, "Let's go in the Airstream and have an early lunch." It
was still mid morning. With heads bent into the wind, we managed to get inside the Airstream without
Sandie being blown away. While sitting at our table, the overhead chandelier swayed back and forth
and the floor jiggled (like a vibrator had been turned on) as the wind pounded our Airstream. Both
cats sat very close to us. Offering them treats on the floor didn't persuade them otherwise.   

With no let up of wind in sight and with the NOAH weather radio forecasting gail force winds for the
rest of the afternoon until evening, both of us took midday naps. About 5 pm, the winds calmed
considerably. With our new route planned, we left the parking spot, got back on the Interstate and
headed for Pennsylvania. 

After six hours of our leisure night time pace with winds becoming increasingly calm, we picked a
truck stop along Lake Erie in Pennsylvania (on I-90), eased into a level parking spot beside another
RVer, had a few snacks, hugged each other again and slept soundly. Tomorrow would be soon enough to
plan the next leg of our trip toward Albany, New York. That's where this very stable Airstream will
take a highway break for two weeks.

More tomorrow,

Terry
mailto:tylerbears@airstream.net