Monday 4/28/14
After a late and leisurely farewell breakfast with Dan and
Steve, Hobbes and I hit the road. I had no distance goal for the day as I gave
myself an extra day travel time to get back home relaxed (I hoped).
By late afternoon I had passed Pensacola, the focal point
for us meeting 28-days ago. I stopped at a rest stop and took a nap, the car
running to both keep the A/C running and to give some “white noise” against the
trucks idling next to me.
It was now about nine PM, I had crossed Alabama into
Mississippi, and needed to stop somewhere safe for the night. Safe, tonight, meant
safe from severe thunderstorms predicted, 80% for my location. Far worse was
that in two days prior, 35-people (!) had been killed by tornados, some in
upper Mississippi. I turned on my marine VHF radio for a weather report; “a
tornado watch is in effect until 8AM for the following counties, Green and
George counties of Mississippi” – George County is only 20-miles from me to the
north! Just across the state line I pulled into the welcome center / rest stop
and parked between a couple big rigs (would they run interference for little
Hobbes?). A security guy said that every truck lane would be filled in an hour
and directed me to a “better” spot; in the open with nothing taller to take
lightning strikes or shelter me from the high winds that were sure to come.
Frustrated and now more concerned, I drove westward on I-10 to the next rest
stop near Moss Point, Ms and was relieved to find individual diagonal parking
cuts just long enough for Hobbes and my car to back into. More importantly each
parking cut was under substantial trees that were now swaying violently in the
strong southerly wind. With Hobbes pointing northward, I lashed my “sun” tarp
(white polly) as securely as I could and climbed below with the VHF radio in
hand.
At about three AM I was suddenly awakened by LOUD thunder, a
downpour of rain and lightning flashes closely around me – too close for my
southern California nerves! I turned on the marine VHF again. Thankfully the
tornado watches for George County above me were dropped but now quarter-inch
hail, was warned for the Pensacola area of Florida and parts of Alabama. At
least I was clear of that! With the tarp across my leaky companionway hatch (even
when closed!) and my rebedding fix a few weeks back, of the forward portlight,
I was mostly dry, thank goodness, (except for the three or four inches of
standing water in my cabin foot well likely from unresolved mast leaks) but I
managed to sleep through the receding thunder.
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