A Very Wet Week

While staying at Bill's brother's house while the trailer was being worked on, I walked to a friends house to see her unusual plant. This is called a Hoya. It grows like a vine & the leaves are curly, almost like the baked chips you see in stores. The flowers are beautiful. The outer petals are like velvet & the inner ones like porcelain. Judy also had this beautiful gloxinia that she keeps from year to year. She has a green thumb & the perfect bay window!
Fascinating!
What a beautiful huge gloxinia!

Well, on Friday afternoon we got the bad news that the motor for our front jacks wasn't going to be shipped until August 11th. We appreciated the hospitality of our family's home, but we wanted our home back. The temporary fix got us to Hidden Valley & UNHITCHED this time! The installation of the new motor when it comes in will be a "house call". They have agreed to bring it to us rather than us having to break camp & make another trip back to Delavan, NY! Thank you Don & Jay! We are waiting for your call.

We have had our share of rain this past week. Sunday afternoon we had the Bullock Reunion at Bill's nephew's in Warren. It was a cloudy, muggy day. We got the meal over with before the rains, but not the meeting or the auction. It didn't last terribly long, but it sure did pour. On our way back to the campground we could see where several places along Rt. 62 had washed gravel out into the road, so we knew NY State had gotten more than in PA.

During the night Sun. night & Mon. morning we really got hit. It thundered & lightninged & rained all night off & on. Becky & Randy, the campground owners, & several campers were awake during the night watching the rise of the creek. Around 7-7:30am it started to really rise. This is what we awakened to:

Looking out my bedroom window across the way there was a lot of brown! When I put my glasses on I realized the creek had overflowed. Thankfully these 2 trailers didn't get any water inside them. Beyond the blue cooler, you can see a green plastic hump of a turtle sandbox. This sand box contained 100# of sand & was swept from near the flag pole out into the roadway.
This is looking down the roadway toward Stony Point, just to your left as you cross the bridge into the campground.
Again looking at 2 trailers. The farthest one is the one that was once owned by my cousin, Maryann. The one by the rail fence is owned by Gary C. His deck was pulled away from his trailer.

The creek overflowing into Stony Point; taken from the bridge. As you can see, a lot of the water had receded when I took some of these pictures.
Creek behind cousin Helen's. The tree right across from the flag was waving pretty good when I was taking this picture. Ten minutes after I left, the tree went down into the creek.
This was the worst trailer hit. The trailer shifted & is about 1-1/2 ft. from edge of creek. The deck went the opposite way. Fortunately everyone was safely rescued. Including the kitty.
On the upper side of the campground the creek has receded, but this tree is hanging on the water line that goes across to HV II & III.
Here you can see where the water was. The trailer that is located here is for sale. Anyone in the market??? I don't think so. I told him he'd better get it out of there & sell it before it too, goes down the creek!
This is the upper part of the creek where my grandsons played while they were visiting! Also, if you read the last post & saw the kids panning for gold......This is the same creek!
The fire dept. had asked everyone to evacuate in case the bridge did go out, but most of the roads in the area were closed due to high water, so we all opted to stay here. If we had gotten another flash flood in the evening, it would have been mandatory evacuation. We packed some overnight things & went to my sisters to play cards, but it didn't rain again, so we came home. Since then it has been beautiful. We got a little rain yesterday morning, but not much & quite a downpour in Warren, but today is beautiful. Even got to go swimming in the pool, cool but refreshing!

Other communities in the area didn't fair as well. A mobile home park was flooded in Silver Creek, NY & even their fire dept. sustained damage. We thank God for the rain, but we are glad the sun is back. We know He didn't promise sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day!

Hope everyone is having rainbows in their lives.

Bill & his brother are planning Thurs. & Fri. at the Warren County Fair. We all know it always rains for the fair, so I hope they are lucky & can enjoy the evening/day without any more. Sawdust only absorbs so much mud!

So until next time........From Hidden Valley (currently called the "marina",..The Traveling Cardinal's