11:00 AM...
Nine hours before the eye gets here.
Looking out the garage window to the house across the street.
Winds gusting to around 40 mph now...continuing to increase for the next four hours into Hurricane Force winds for an additional 12 hours.
Gonna be a long night......
Still have power ( although it keeps going off, then coming on) so I keep a close watch on TV.
My finger is pointing to the area where I am hunkered down at Tim and Karen's house.
Red is 9+ foot storm surge, Orange is 5+, Yellow is 3 to 5, and Blue is 1-3 feet of surge area. I-75 is the red line to the right of my finger.
That's a prediction of what Could Happen, not necessarily what will happen.
My location is near Estero, just West of I-75....the eye had just passed over. My previously intended location was at the Blue Dot near Alva. That is Mike and Pat's house, it sustained much more damage. It was in the Northeastern quadrant of the eye wall. Time of this shot was 7:15, Irma hit my location around 6:30.
1:00 PM...
Tree limbs starting to come down across the street. Can't see any of the yard where I am filming from.
House is holding up good as wind increases.
Don't know if Pool Cage is going to survive though. Not looking good.
2:30 PM.. Minutes before the strongest winds came.
Progression of Horrorcane Irma as she make her way over the house I am hunkered down in. Thank you Tim and Karen for allowing me to hang out at your place while you watch from New York and wonder if you still have a house. Your home is a fortress.
Luckily, Florida Power & Light got our power back on much quicker than expected so I have some blog posts to catch up on before daylight.
I will post some After-Irma pics later....hoping Mystic Lady, Tika 2, and all the boats at Legacy Marina held up as well as I did.
Really worried about my friend Mike Harder's place out in LaBelle. I was intending to stay at his place but the storm changed tracks and I changed locations at the last minute.
The traffic North Bound out of Florida is unbelievable.....
Evacuations taking place as Hurricane Irma bares down on the entire state of Florida.
My side is wide open. Good day for 80 mph travel.
Left Bowling Green at 4:30 am and arrived in Ft Myers around 8:00 pm.
Not a record but stopped several times for meals and stretching.
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017
Local restaurants in downtown Ft. Myers are either boarded up or doing so.
They were closing the doors as I was leaving one of the more popular spots. Ford's Garage.
One last burger before I get started with a lot of work.
The work has started, add more fenders on both sides, secure covers, remove sun screens, etc.
Get all systems ready for the aftermath. Generator..check,
Engines...check, Battery Chargers...check, Inverter..check, bilge pumps...check,
water pump...check..etc.
Fill water tank, empty holding tanks, fuel full, etc.
The work continues another day. Double all dock lines, remove any loose items from upper helm.
Add straps to the bimini braces..
Lots of preparations.....
Our friends, Tim and Karen's yacht..."Tika 2" is also well prepared for Irma.
Everyone at Legacy Marina have been very busy the week getting ready for what might happen..
Currently it appears Irma will impact the East Coast of Florida and we are hoping this will be a non-event here in SW Florida.
Time will tell.
Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017
Latest update has Irma coming up the middle of the state with the possibility of going even further west into SW Florida coast.
As I leave the downtown area...it's just me and the Sheriff's car...
Mostly deserted, business's closed, very little traffic.
Headed to our gracious friends house to ride out this monster storm that is coming right up Highway 41 into Ft. Myers.
So, what does a person do while waiting for the biggest storm in Florida's history to come right over your head.
You take a few pictures of before and hope and pray that the after pictures are the same.
Tim and Karen were so gracious to let me use their beautiful home while they are in New York.
We are truly blessed to have so many friends in Florida.
Get this, Tim calls and says he's worried about the canvas roof over his patio. It was a solid panel roof made of canvas that extends past his pool cage.
The worry was that the wind under the roof would take off the entire structure. He is probably right, so he asked if I would remove it.....get this...with a razor knife.
Wow, never been this destructive before but grabbed a 12 foot ladder and cut her down.
Back in the house for another weather update.
Still the same, lots of wind and severe storm surge along the coast and up the river.
Not good news for Mystic Lady...she is in the best place possible but a 9-10 foot storm surge upriver would be catastrophic
Please keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer for all those along the waterfronts.
7:00 p.m. Report...Storm Surge expected, Caloosahatchie River at Ft. Myers is under the Red Zone.
Mystic Lady is docked at a marina by the bridge just above the FORT MYERS lettering.
More stories and pictures coming during Hurricane Irma if possible...see next Post.
A 3 minute video of Sasquatch Trail....turn up the volume and enjoy.
Set your video quality as high as allowable with your service....1080p is recommended.
More to come as I edit the videos and work thru the worlds worst internet service. We had better service in the hills of Eastern Ky than here in Bowling Green...go figure.
Island Hopping is the name of the song, and it fits with our journey down this creek.
Well, we broke camp at Wildcat this morning and loaded up our toys and headed over to "Mine-Made Adventure Park" in Knott County Kentucky.
We are camped on top of an old strip mine that has been reclaimed about 30 miles from Hazard, Ky. The trail system was developed by the County to promote tourism.
Looks like great weather again for this part of our Eastern Ky. tour.
Mama says she feels like she is camped on a prairie out West somewhere.
Her and Annie are enjoying the peace and quiet. Not many people here this weekend but over 400 campers expected for Labor Day Weekend. That's why we are here this weekend.
Very friendly and rustic area. We weren't here 15 minutes and was invited to a Country Wedding on the premises.
A not so good picture of some of the trails up here on the mountain top.
The campground is far left in the photo. Should be an interesting venture.
We will head out tomorrow for a full day of exploring and charting the trails on our Ride Command GPS.
These trails are also used for horseback riding when the ATV's aren't here. They hold some huge events during the fall season.
Got an early start tis morning and what a morning it is. You can see for "Miles and Miles" as the song says.
We are on top of a knob looking over the Knott County Recreation Area. Free camping anywhere you choose but no facilities.
One lonely camper down there but they are waiting for the group to arrive. We met them later on the trail and there were about 10 vehicles.
Christine and Annie are getting that "Open Prairie" feeling high up here on top of what was once a mountain top, now just a reclaimed knob.
Heading down to the woods trails from here to see what today brings.
One of the first interesting sites we came cross was this early, early 1800"s cemetery way back in the mountains off a dirt road.
We noticed lots of flowers on the markers so we stopped. Most of the headstones were hand carved from sandstone rock from the area and the names were weather too bad to read.
However, the ones we could make out were from deaths around 1802 to 1910. The latter were on marble and easier to read. Seems most of the 1800 markers were children that only lived one or two years.
So sad to think how tough it must have been to live in these hills at that time. Evidently there must have been a community back here for many years before the coal companies bought them out. The cemetery is well preserved and taken care off as well as could be. Just think the parents of these children were born in the 1700"s.
We spent miles in and out of this beautiful creek so we stopped on a gravel bar and had lunch.
No one around for miles, quiet and very enjoyable.
Notice the clean wheels, lots of creek running.......
And about the time I said "no one around" we came across this group of 10 units on the same creek trail.
We had just went thru a "Very Deep" section of the creek and on the other side was a Honda Pioneer that didn't make it thru. It died in the creek and was towed to the other side with a locked up engine.
They had removed the spark plugs, the air filter, the starter, etc. but the engine would not turn over even using a screwdriver to turn the flywheel. It was toast.......
They didn't want to hear it when I told them they probably hydro-locked the engine and bent a rod. So we just quietly left. They had plenty of push power anyway.
Another site was this spring falls that looked like it might have been an old water stop.
It was right on the dirt road that the cemetery was on. People used these springs back in that era to fill their water cans from a horse and wagon.
The old piece of pipe stuck in the ground was the giveaway.
And another great sunset to end the day.
Gotta head home in the morning....so much to do, so little time.
Arrived and checked in on a gorgeous day, mid-week so hardly anyone else in the campground until Friday.
Everything unloaded and setting up the toy-hauler for a three day stay here at Wildcat Park near London, Kentucky.
Looking forward to a week or so of camping and riding. Just Me, Momma, and Annie.
First stop was up on "The Dome", an overlook high atop a rock dome overlooking I-75 and a small lake below. I-75 is between us and the lake..The trail going up is getting real bad and it was a nail biter. Mamma did good, she hung on.
A perfect weather day for this adventure, hard rain yesterday was just enough to settle any dust issues and there was less mud than expected. Cool mornings, perfect for camping.
Rock climbing at 70, what's wrong with that. My grandson Austin would be proud.
Day 2
... we meet our only campground neighbors and hook up for a joint trail ride on Thursday. They have two dogs that never ride with them but when they met Annie it was "get in kids, we're going trail riding. Their dogs were loving it.
Annie says "come on guys, I'll show you how it's done out on the trail.
These three dogs had a ball running and playing everytime we stopped.
The little one is bringing up the rear and hard to see.
Buster and Skeeter are their names.
Eastern Kentucky has some of the best rock formations in the East.
Here Danny and Vicky are checking the map to see what's next.
Christine is logging the trails on our Ride Command GPS and placing waypoints at trails to match the map.
We have been here once before but riding trails this time we have never been on.
A group shot taken by Danny. We usually don't get in the same picture very often.
So many different "Photo Ops" of the rock formations we got tired of stopping so much.
This one was a little close but we managed to get the "General" thru the Sasquatch Gap....
So far the new unit is performing great. All upgrades have been worth the trouble, especially the suspension and fender flairs.
Nice soft ride and staying clean inside.
We got this shot as we were squeezing thru the Gap.
Looking straight up.
This Gal never ceases to amaze me. She has hung in there with just about every crazy thing I have ever done.
Sometimes I think she likes this "Trail Riding" as much as I do.
She had a big hand in outfitting this new unit to her liking. And Annie's.
Including Annie's custom designed, hand made, over engineered doggie seat.
Danny, Vickie, Buster, and Skeeter squeeze their 800S RZR thru Sasquatch Gap and down the other side. Lots of fun riding with these "new found friends" this weekend.
OH LOOK....
ANOTHER ROCK.
OH THIS MIGHT BE THE BEST ONE YET.....
Let's go in and see where this one takes us.
More to come tomorrow....
Friday, Aug. 25th
Annie says, I think I'm ready for another day of riding mom. She is loving her new doggie seat, she can lay down, sit up, stand up, or give mom lovin'...
Not many pictures today, spent most of our time with the GoPro making videos but we did run across this poor guy trying to get his 4-wheeler out of the rut.
We offered to winch him out but he was waiting for his riding partner to turn around and come back We stayed and helping them muscle this machine back onto the trail without turning over.
After we finished our ride we headed down Highway 25 for a couple miles and took a little side trip back a gravel road for 3 miles to see the Camp Wildcat Civil War Battlefield Memorial. Quite a story, seems this was one of the very first battles fought in the Civil War.......after both Leaders said they would honor Kentucky's Neutral Position in the War.
A beautifully manicured little piece of history sits back in these hills and I doubt if it gets 50 visitors a year.
No one on site to ask, just lots of markers and placards.
Just couldn't resist a picture with this old Civil War cannon.
With all that's going on in this country today it's a damn wonder the protesters aren't here to remove this piece of History.
It's hard to believe these snow flakes won't take the time to read and learn the true reason for the Civil War. It was all about States rights and later became a slavery issue.
Hopefully we can get some GoPro clips on here when we get better internet service. It's not easy posting a blog from the hills of Kentucky.......
The Chafton's arrived a day early and set up camp for a quiet evening in the Cumberland Mountains.
Built a little fire, mixed a little drink, after taking a little ride up the hill to check out the Coal Creek Windrock Campground.
We like this one better, very small and quiet. Only 30 or so sites but booked up for this weekend. The new owners are super people. They sold everything they had in Baton Rouge to move here and follow their dream of living in the Tennessee Hills.
This little creek borders the campground so we took a stroll down to let Annie play in the water. The rains haven"t started yet so it was an easy crossing. Weather is forecast to move in tonight and tomorrow. Should make for some interesting off-roading.
Looks like Annie and her mom have found their "Happy Place" while we wait for the rest of the crew to arrive.
Fixin' to cook up some pork chops and settle in for the night.
The view from the road up to the trailhead. Looks like it won't be long before the showers move in.
Jimmy, Steve and Cathy are here but Alison didn't feel like she could handle the trails just yet.
Hope to get some good video this weekend and add it to the blog after editing.
So the forecast was right on the money. It started raining last night but ended early so we headed up into the mountains.
And boy did we see some neat waterfalls. Every gully and creek was running strong.
This is probably just a wet weather waterfall but the smooth rock face made for a nice picture.
The girls are taking a break, somewhere in the quiet hills of the North Cumberland Mountains.
Peace and quiet away from the crowds and fireworks normally associated with the 4th of July.
Being at peace with Mother Nature is far more relaxing.
Steve Key and Jimmy Chafton standing on one of the many Overlooks that can be found within the 72,000 acres of Windrock ATV Park.
Jimmy is exploring some of the cracks and crevices that make up the unusual rock formations found in these hills.
Several different soil and rock types are also found in this area making for some diverse terrain. The property is owned by Coal Creek Mining Company.
After the heavy rains of this weekend the water was pouring out of every rock and crevice.
This made for some beautiful scenes as we made our way along the trails. Looks like we will exceed the 100 mile mark this weekend.
That's a lot of bouncing, smashing, wading and wallowing.
After riding with Jimmy most of the weekend Christine says she wants a buggy with a smoother ride.
Jimmy has more ground clearance with his upgraded tires, suspension, springs and more comfortable seats.
Alison, you have a nice ride.......
Four days of Trail Riding condensed into a 9 minute video...hope you enjoy.
