Home From “Vacation”

My boat shoes squished as I walked again, well at least my right one did.  Another disaster like the last time when my sewer hoses disconnected in my hands as I was dumping the black tank?

No, but to prove I can have a mis-adventure anywhere, while driving the car back from visiting our kids in PA and NJ, I managed to dump a whole, large Diet Coke into my shoe.  That will certainly keep you from getting groggy behind the wheel.

Our two sons, Ryan and Corey live just 107 miles apart, in PA and NJ, respectively.  After our visit with Ryan’s family, we had to say good bye to the girls, Taylor and Kierra,

and little Rebekah, who was getting quite annoyed at me for trying to get the perfect picture of her.  For some reason, she doesn’t like the flash on my camera.

Okay, here’s one I did manage to get before she threw some Cheerios at me.

We hoped in the Element and drove the 107 miles to see little Anabelle.

She’s having fun learning to walk, she is almost there.  We had a good visit with her and Corey and Amanda.

While we were in NJ, we took a drive down to the nearby shore to see the damage from Superstorm Sandy.  We lived at the NJ shore for 11 years and wondered how our Coast Guard base at Sandy Hook faired.  We couldn’t even get out on the peninsula where the base and our old home is (was?) located.

We drove along Main Street in the next two towns, Long Beach and Monmouth Beach and were saddened to see all the destruction.

Long Branch has a huge parking lot behind the fire station.  It was filled with tons and tons of sand removed from the streets.  The little dot on top of the sand over the mirror is a man. (Click to enlarge)

All the Main Street stores are boarded up where the ocean waves washed through.

Houses were severely damaged, too. 

Some homes were being repaired.

Others still had blue tarps on their roofs.

It was heartbreaking to see the damage and the challenges the people that live here are going through.  Most houses are not habitable and the police are enforcing a curfew, from 5pm to 8am to prevent looting.  I hope that FEMA, Congress and the State of NJ can act fast to help these poor people.  I hope too, that the insurance companies don’t drag their feet and screw these people around.

We enjoyed the two and a half day visit to Corey’s, but when we awoke to this, we knew it was time to head South!

We split the trip to our South Carolina “home” into two days, just like we did on the trip up.  712 miles is a long way to travel, even in a car and even with my PDD.

We enjoyed the night in another Hampton Inn and the ride together talking about things.  We enjoyed the sights, too, including this driver next to us at a gas station.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.