Monday Sunrise and a big Surprise

Monday December 10, 2012
Site 4 Gamble Rogers State Park
Flagler Beach, Florida

 

Another coolish, foggy and misty day.  It’s dawn (30 minutes before sunrise) and here is what I see.  A LITTLE COLOR AT DAWN.  If I’d been 5 minutes later I’d have missed it.   By then, it is gone behind all the dark clouds at the horizon but still, I am thrilled.  Especially when I notice WAY up at the top of the picture that little “star”.   That’s the moon. 

 

 

 

 

 

David comes out about sunrise time and catches me watching.  Remember this overlook is right out our front door.  50 steps maybe. 

 

 

We don’t see the sun rise since the dark cloud cover is too thick by that time, but we do see its effects in the pink colors of the clouds above.

 

 

We hang around for another half hour and this is what we see.

 

The clouds are definitely thickening to cover it up as it rises.

 

 

 

 

By the time we leave, the sun looks like a full moon on a cloudy night.
We can hardly see the water or the beach.

 

 

The most exciting thing of the day happens while we are eating dinner. My phone makes a very commanding noise I’ve never heard before.  So I spring to attention and look to see what is the matter. 

 

EMERGENCY ALERT!  

Extreme Alert:   Tornado warning in this area til 6:15pm EST.  Take Shelter NOW.   Check local media.-NWS  Monday December 10 5:37pm

 

We hustle outside, put away the awning (and David’s newly hung lights).  No automatic awning here.  We have to undo the flapper guards, take off the stakes, release the arms, roll up the awning.  We stow the chairs and other things under the coach, grab our bag of emergency things (medical folders, legal folders, laptop, cell phone etc) and go down to the bath house to wait.

From the 34 spaces in the campground, there were only 3 other people here.  Not sure if the others haven’t heard or have lived in Florida long enough to be unconcerned.  I do wonder why someone from the campground hadn’t come by to notify all the campers especially since there are so few sites.  But there isn’t anyone in the office all night and the only person at the campground is the volunteer host so perhaps he didn’t know either.

In any case, the rains pour but the tornado hit 45 miles south of us.  We wait about half an hour and decide to go back when things seem to calm down.  Of course just as we get out from under the overhang and on the road,  the skies open up.  We are soaked as we run back to the coach.   David has forgotten to close one of the roof vents so the kitchen floor is soaked too. 

This is our 3rd or 4th tornado ‘watch and wait in a shelter’ in the past two years of being on the road.   This one was a total surprise.

No harm done and I still marvel at how lucky I am to be able to spend an hour in the morning just hanging out watching whatever the sun decides to do.