So sorry due to technical glitches ...

I will not be doing a pictorial essay on our Hurricane Irma adventure...NOT!

First let me start with saying for us this hurricane was night and day from Charley.

We are extremely lucky that the threats of a fifteen foot surge did not materialize but was the reason that we received that robo call at 8:00 A.M. Saturday morning for a mandatory evacuation of our area the A red zone! And so we did.

The hotel we did go to was the Extended Stay America Suites hotel that took us without reservations, we called literally from a bank parking lot a half a mile away for an immediate room, they were the third hotel that I had called from that parking lot!

No frills but a decent kitchenette with a full sized fridge, two burner stove and microwave and dishes and dish towel, but out of coffee pots and toasters, and pots and pans.

We were only going to stay three nights so it did not really matter, until we found no restaurants were open or groceries!

We had brought some food but not that much.

Any-way, we did have air-conditioning free WiFi, and cable TV, so news was available and sending my blog was also able.

So we settled in and registered for two nights, the desk clerk suggested that and said the third night would not be an issue if we needed it.

Oops! When we realized we might need to stay that additional night due to the hurricane seemingly to slow and would be on its way up the middle of our state when we would be homeless once again... we definitely needed that extra night!

The new younger man at the desk told Hubby that he had nothing available for that third night and that we should call corporate and that was that!

Hubby told him what his co-worker had said, no problem, but oh there was!

Hubby returned to the room with the corporate phone number and I called.

This younger fellow, Hubby described as a twelve year old, but wasn't of course was right according to head quarters, I asked if she had any other of her hotels in the area that she could check, and she said no!?  And this was even though I harshly protested and ask her where she was and did she realize that we were in the middle of a hurricane here and told her as I hung up that she was cold! Very cold!

Hubby did something I do not recommend he told an itsy bitsy lie when he went back down to the desk saying that corporate did not know what he the young fellow was talking about and that he should handle it!

It worked!

He quickly, registered us for two additional nights and said if too many don't worry we can cancel the extra one.

WOW!

Do not recommend doing that, but...

Any-who, we were desperate and desperate times call for desperate measures!

I took care of checking out and asked for the refund of the additional night that we had a receipt for being charged, but when I asked the woman at the desk said that we were only charged for three nights the fourth was no charge! Ha, joke on us.

Moving on... and to home...

As I had teased about our trip home was precarious, and it truly was. We like most everyone we know were watching any and all news of the Monstrous Hurricane Irma

400 miles across and category 5, barreling right through the middle of Florida, but with eventual leanings more towards the west coast where we live!

So of course we were tuned in.

And we even saw how each community had gotten the brunt of her wrath, with wind, flooding and every other imaginable punch she could swing at all of us Florida paradise lovers!

Even our route to our get out of town locale Lake Mary was flooded and ruined and did not escape her power!

So when it was time to leave we debated going main roads that most newscasts were showing that were nothing more than fancy parking lots, with stop and rarely go motions...so we finally reconsidered our off the usual roadway back road way to get home, and even though Route 4 from Daytona to Tampa wasn't too bad, always a parking lot even without a hurricane, we exited when we saw the 17 exit that runs parallel to I75, so there was the same road we had taken to evacuate, so we took it once again. One of the women at the hotel had told me the flood waters had receded and since she was local I believed her... STUPID ME for listening to her, and that is why folks I rarely listen to anybody! She was way too faraway from where we were going to know by eyeballing it!

Arcadia was flooded and the roads from it were too!

188.9 miles from home, we left at 10:30 A.M. from the hotel and arrived home by 4:30 P.M.!

We did stop at Publix for chicken and salads and the line was only seventy minutes of a wait!

Thankfully Hubby got gas quickly the night before, since lines that we saw on the way home made those gas shortage ones look like a breeze!

The problem with our chosen path home was when we arrived on the road towards where we really thought there would not be a problem we put in

"HOME" into our GPS, and since ours is two years old, apparently, me thinking Geez that isn't old at all, it is for a GPS... it insisted that we take 17 even with the road block cones up... and yup... several maybe fifteen miles down the road was more cones proving that they were not just there as cheerfully colored decoration in the gloom but meant something significant, THE ROAD WAS FLOODED...   still!

So we trecked back to where we took a road that was on the old school paper map we took with us, 64!

Heading towards Ono, Florida the home of Solomon's Castle the picture of Hubby and I was taken there in 2005, anyway, YAY!

We knew where to go and all the way as we closed in on home we looked for signs of devastation but there was lake like puddles and limbs already removed from fallen trees, and other floras... but not too may roofs damaged or completely, off to be honest we only saw one.

And that one was our first house on our block!

As we came closer to ours we examined it from the front, and we both breathed a sigh of relief it appeared unscathed. Our Charley experience left us with 80K in damages also insured.

Anyway, on closer examination we did lose some soffits on the west side/ garage side, and both front facing gates were broken, other than that, okay!

Hubby went into the backyard for the boat exam and he came back quickly with first a frown and then a happy face, the boat was alright too!

We already knew we had no power, since I had found out nearly 7m Floridians did not, so why would we. The generators were where Hubby left them and their full gas cans and so we have not been without power! It was dark and HOT, 85 degrees inside when we arrived home, that was dropped nicely to seventy-five!

Today Hubby took half the shutters off making the house a more happy home.

The PICS would not go... the genny spits sometimes, she is thirteen, could be partially why, who knows...!

Florida Power and Light I called today and they say we could have power back by.... drum roll please... 9-22-17! NOT GOOD!

Meanwhile, gas driven generators can be expensive to run, $97 bucks today for more gas... and so I contacted FEMA @ 1-800-621-3362 and they will pay for the hotel/motel, but not gas, chain saw yes, humidifier and dehumidifier, weather radio, and generator all yeses too, but you must register, and so I did again.

At least if the cost of the hotel could pay for our gas I figure?

Happy good night to all, and share those blessings and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!