22 hours

I am now in the middle of week four of the relief operation responding to the tornadoes of April 27 here in Alabama. Most of us have Sunday morning off, so I am taking a few minutes to catch up on the blog. Apparently, some of our readers are disappointed by the lack of updates, but, realistically, it is just not possible.

We work in a department that is among the first to arrive every morning and the last to leave every evening. For example, here in Alabama, we worked 16 hours on the first day and 14 hours per day for the next four days of the operation, from about 7am until around 9pm. We'd grab a bite to eat and then fall into bed (or a cot, as the case may be). Lunch, and sometimes dinner, was brought in to HQ, mostly thanks to in-kind donors, and we ate at our desks.

By the second week, that had dropped to about 12 hours a day, from 7:30am to around 7:30pm, and, again, we ate on the fly. It wasn't until nearly the end of the third week that I reduced the department's hours to the nominal hours of operation at HQ: 8am to 6pm, or a mere ten hours each day. In-kind lunches just ended this week, and now my folks are getting a break and some fresh air for their mid-day meal. To be fair, we have had a half day each Sunday, from 12:45 to 6.

We do also get days off. Generally that happens once every eight days, and I try to spread the days out so that we have enough coverage every day. For me personally, that meant I took two half-days in the middle of my second week, and my first full day off was just last Tuesday. Knowing it was coming up, Louise also arranged to have Tuesday off, and we managed to get in a visit.

Jackson, Mississippi is four hours by car from Birmingham, Alabama, and I managed to escape an hour early on Monday, leaving at 5. Louise drove a half hour east to the town of Brandon and we met for dinner at 8:30. I left my rental car in a convenient spot in town and rode back with her to the bus, shaving an hour off my round-trip drive. That also gave us the opportunity for an early dinner in Brandon on Tuesday, and we were able to spend a grand total of 22 hours together. I also got to sleep in my own bed for the first time in three weeks, and spent some quality time with the pets, who looked at me askance when I first walked in.

We mostly had a slow day at home, as befitting a day off on a Red Cross operation. I was able to drop off some items I didn't need and pick up some that I did, such as my Leatherman and some extra clothing and personal items. We also drove into downtown Jackson and had lunch at our reciprocal club there, using up our freebie for the month. It was a nice, relaxing visit, and we hope to repeat it again this week on my next day off, Wednesday.

As it stands today, neither one of us has any idea when our respective operations will be closing. As volunteers, we are not obligated to stay to the very end, though we usually do. Where we will head next depends on a host of factors, and, of course, we are just nine days from the official start of huricane season. If we are not deployed to a relief operation, we will probably try to catch the General Assembly of Unitarian Universalist congregations towards the end of June, in North Carolina.

We had neither registered for the Assembly, nor signed up as voting delegates as we normally do, since we had figured to be heading slowly across the northern part of the country right about now. Our plan had been to attend Trawler Fest in Anacortes before heading east, and spend some time in South Dakota establishing our domicile there, as we'd like to leave Washington behind before we buy a boat. Of course, the tornadoes and floods conspired against that plan, and now that we are already most of the way to North Carolina coming into June, it makes more sense. We shall see.

In the meantime, please expect updates here to be very sporadic. I don't want to spend any of our precious day-off time together writing blog posts, and otherwise our time is very limited. Things are slowing down in the office, though, and if I can find the time there, I will try to post a few facts about the relief operation here.

Into the Fray

I am at Red Cross headquarters, near Jackson, MS. As usual, I will not reveal the exact location to maintain the security of the facility.

I arrived on the day that the entire relief operation is moving from one headquarters to a bigger one, in anticipation of needing more space as the flood waters rise. Setting up a new HQ is the single biggest, most stressful task the technology group performs. Our crew, many of whom I know and like from other jobs, worked late into the night and we're starting early again this morning.

Godfrey's train, the City of New Orleans from the Big Easy to Chicago, has been canceled until further notice due to flooding, so he quickly booked a flight from Jackson to NY. He left Wednesday afternoon. I am so grateful to him for his help and companionship on this trip! Thanks, man, I owe you. I'll also miss his fine pictures.

Expect blogging to be sparse for a while, as the job heats up. Somewhere among the chaos today I need to re-park Odyssey. I have a good spot near the loading dock, but the Logistics department will need this space soon. The opposite end of the very large building should provide more afternoon shade, anyway. It's just a very, very, very long walk around the complex to work.

Over the River, but not Out of the Woods

We are at the Walmart in Vicksburg, MS. This last day of driving was a straight and relatively short shot east on I-20. After crossing the Texas/Louisiana line, we started to get hungry for a late breakfast. Truck stops are plentiful along that stretch, so we pulled into the Flying J in Greenville, LA, which has a Denny's.

After a surprisingly tasty meal, I scouted around the facility and found they had a clean, empty laundromat and easy-access RV fuel islands with dual-side pumps and convenient water spigot. Great, everything I need to get done before starting my deployment in Jackson.



We stayed another 2 hours to finish my chores, with laundry being the long pole in the tent. Godfrey is sleeping in the bedroom, and I am on the hide-a-bed sofa in the salon. To all my friends who have slept on this sofa in the past: I am very, very sorry to have inflicted that on you. I can't wait to get off the darned thing and back into my own bed. Now that I have clean set of sheets, once Godfrey is safely off to the train station on Thursday I can make up the bed and fall into it.



I put another $500 worth of diesel into Odyssey, as the tank had fallen below the dip tube of the generator. When that happens, the genny almost always loses prime and needs to be coaxed back to life. Godfrey snuck up on me while I was muttering and cursing my way through this process and took a photo.



And speaking of the generator, we have been running it at about a 50% duty cycle since we hit the hot weather. It has become increasingly clear that Odyssey's house battery bank needs replacement and can't hold a charge nearly as long as it used to. I'm really hoping for a decent power connection at HQ, or I may have to find an RV park. I can't risk air conditioning failure with the beasties on board.



After leaving the Flying J, I drove another 3 hours or so to Vicksburg. As we crossed the Mississippi River, it was swollen and ugly and filled me with foreboding. According to the NWS, at 9:00 PM Tuesday the stage was 53.2 feet. Major flooding is occurring and record flooding is forecast. Flood stage is 43.0 feet and the river will continue rising to near 57.5 feet by Thursday morning May 19.

This morning we will drive the last 30 miles to the Red Cross HQ. The technology team is moving HQ into a new facility today, and they will definitely welcome an extra body to do this work. Godfrey will spend the day on his own. I'm guessing he will take photos.

They Call the Wind Mariah

We are parked at the Walmart in Lindale, TX, near the intersection of US 69 and I-20. Yesterday's drive was hard work due to unrelenting cross winds. My right tricep is aching from holding the bus straight all day.

We chose a route that skirted the Dallas-Ft. Worth gravitational zone, but traffic was still aggressive and heavy along US 380 between Denton and Farmersville. The landscape is not particularly pretty through here (sorry, Dallas-ites), and at the end of the day Godfrey remarked there wasn't much incentive to take photos.

He did capture me dumping the tanks at a rest area near Wichita Falls.



My first time doing the stinky deed alone! Now that I've seen the task, Sean has complete job security.



South of Greenville, the countryside turned to tall pine forest, and I had a surreal moment where I couldn't remember where I was. Oregon? Florida? The weather has turned very humid and sticky. The change from northern California perfection, to desert heat, to high desert eyeball puckering dryness, to plains dusty winds, to eastern humidity in 6 days overwhelmed me. I'm burning fuel and blasting through counties too fast to really see anything except the center line. I miss my husband and have no idea when I'll see him next. It was a low moment, for sure.

We rolled into this Walmart a few minutes before sunset, knowing it had several restaurant options. We initially chose the Mexican joint across the street, but were tired and hungry enough to decide that Chili's, a mere 300 feet away, was good enough.

We ordered drinks right off the bat, to round out the square corners of the day. The waitress asked for, then scrutinized our IDs. Wow, I haven't been carded in years! Clearly all this driving is turning back the clock. It turns out Lindale is in a dry county and the waitress said we'd need special "private drinking club" cards to order. I remember getting one of those cards 6 years ago, and carried it around in my wallet until about 3 months ago. She disappeared to get the card application, but returned with our drinks and no further requirements.



This morning, Godfrey loaded an ABC news video on his iPad. Watching Diane Sawyer wade through the rising Mississippi in Memphis reminded me why I am driving 2,300 miles in 6 days. My focus is renewed; it's time to buckle down to the real work at hand. According to Jeff Masters, the Mississippi is expected to "smash the all-time record at Natchez, Mississippi by six feet on May 21."

I spoke with a friend who is already on the Jackson Red Cross relief operation, and he has scouted out a good spot to park the bus. He also gave me the lowdown on what to expect work-wise when I arrive. We need to get Odyssey over the river near Vicksburg. I have one more full day of driving, then I'll do what I'm trained to do.

If the images of people's family homesteads under muddy, murky, filthy brown water move you to help, please consider a donation to an aid agency. Of course, I would love for it to be the Red Cross, but I'm not overly picky. Help can't wait!


All photos by Godfrey DiGiorgi

Texas Re-Route

We are at a rest area on US 287, about 20 miles southeast of Clarendon, TX. This is an enormous, clean and well-lit facility. Along with the usual tourist information brochures, the building is full of historical displays, wild west murals, gorgeous tile work, and a small, staffed sheriff's office. It seems to be the pride of Donley County. There certainly isn't much else in Donley County.



Today's drive moved us from the high desert of New Mexico into the flatlands of the Texas Panhandle. I like the Great Plains, but they don't make for particularly interesting freeway driving. However, the long descent down the eastern side of the Continental Divide does make for better fuel mileage. I'm also more comfortable with higher speeds on the long, straight stretches. Also? Nothing broke on the bus.

In Alburquerque, we stopped just long enough to pick up a no-contract VirginMobile Mifi, so I should have better connectivity from now on.

Just after the NM/TX border, we stopped at a picnic area for a break, and I was able to read my text messages. Sean had talked to our leadership in Washington, DC, and it seems that I will probably be needed further south than Memphis. So I've been re-routed for now toward Jackson, MS. The timing couldn't have been better: we were still west of Amarillo, where US 287 angles southeast toward Dallas and eventually I-20.

After looking at the map, we decided that our best dinner options were in Amarillo, and we set our sights on one of several Italian restaurants along our route. The GPS suggested a local place on the western edge of town in a large shopping center. Unfortunately, we never did find it. I could smell garlic, but no Cafe Bella appeared. The Garmin's database is a couple years old and in this economy, restaurants come and go quickly. Oh well, we knew there was an Olive Garden further ahead. As I approached it, though, I could see the parking lot was packed. Oh, yeah, it's Mother's Day, the biggest restaurant day of the year. Surely there could be a spot in the bar. Who takes their Mom to dinner and sits in the bar? I berthed Odyssey across the street and we walked in.

Apparently, everyone in Amarillo has been busy breeding, because the lobby was filled with a sea of young, small, hungry humans. All the mothers were in the bar, and who can blame them? We spun on our spurs and beat a hasty retreat. We decided that every sit-down restaurant in town would probably be the same story, so our options were buying groceries or finding the kind of eating establishment that even Texans won't take their mothers to. We chose groceries, and the next store was a Super Walmart.



Unfortunately, it was one of the unfriendly Wallys with the low bar across the entrances to keep the trucks out, so we kept rolling. I'm getting rather cranky at this point, but perked up when Godfrey suggested Dairy Queen. Turns out there's one in Clarendon, near our chosen overnight spot. We arrived 20 minutes before closing, and had a decent hamburger. I was happy.



As we rolled out of the dinner stop, it was pitch black. Night falls quickly here. US 287 cuts through flat farmland, with very few towns and no street lamps. My AAA map showed a rest area about 10 miles out of town, and we were both tired and ready to get off the road. The blackness seemed endless, and after 15 miles I was worried that AAA had led us astray and that we'd be driving another hour to the next small town. Then we crested a small hill and the rest area shone like an oasis in the next hollow.

I don't normally like such bright parking lot lights while sleeping, but the appearance of so much infrastructure did my heart good. Dumpsters! Pavement! Flush toilets! There were a few parking spots out of direct reach of the klieg lights, and we settled into an area pretty much by ourselves.



Within an hour, we were surrounded by other RVs, but they were relatively quiet neighbors and we had a pleasant night. We're heading to the vicinity of Tyler, TX today.


All photos by Godfrey DiGiorgi

Sweet home, Alabama

Good morning everyone. I have a few minutes here on my first break since arriving in Birmingham ten days ago. This being Sunday in Alabama, we at relief operation headquarters were asked to reduce to "skeleton staff" until 1pm, and so I took the morning off. Most of my team are working, as the reduced staffing gives us a good chance to catch up on cleaning up our cabling and other housekeeping, however each of them has had or will have a full day off.

I think Louise has done a great job keeping the blog up to date as she travels across country with our good friend Godfrey. I must say that Godfrey's professional photos are adding a touch of class to the blog as well. Louise is hoping to be in "deployable" range of the flooding occurring or about to occur along the Mississippi and its tributaries by the time they are calling up technology managers for those operations. The nine major relief operations ongoing right now, including this one, have depleted the pool of qualified volunteers; I have an opening for a networking manager in a few days that I am having trouble filling.

While Louise is driving, I am doing what I normally do when we travel, albeit from two thousand miles away: plotting each day's route on the mapping software, and estimating overnight stops as well as any other needs such as fuel, dumps, etc.. For example, today she will stop at a specific Wal-Mart on the route where I have found some pre-paid Virgin Mobile MiFi units in stock, so she can get online in spite of the satellite dish failure.

One upcoming challenge for us in routing her is the fact that I-40 is closed at the White River bridge in Arkansas due to flooding. I am soliciting assistance from several places in routing her around the closure, and I invite any readers with direct local knowledge of the situation to either email me suggestions or post them in the comments. We do have an inside track: a friend and fellow Red Cross technology volunteer (from Hawaii, actually) is running the tech department on the Arkansas relief operation, and he has agreed to keep me updated with the latest closure information fed to him by the operation there.

I suspect this is the last post you will see from me here for a while, at least until I have another half-day off, unless we get into a jam and I need to ask for help here. However, I am doing my best to update my Twitter feed from my cell phone as the operation progresses. Mostly I have been tweeting photos from headquarters. (I am generally not traveling in the affected areas, and the Red Cross policy of respecting the privacy and grieving of our clients prohibits me from taking photos of damaged homes, so please do not ask.) You can see my latest tweets here on the blog in the sidebar, or follow me directly on Twitter at @slwelsh.

Happy Mother's Day

We are parked at the Route 66 Hotel and Casino, west of Albuquerque. I thought we'd make it all the way into town, but I knew parking was very easy here. At the end of a long day, that was appealing. We were both so tired that after eating dinner, we were asleep within an hour.

The drive was uneventful. It is a long, slow climb to the continental divide on I-40, but the stretch from Kingman to Albuquerque isn't all that steep and twisty. I have a new-found respect for how tricky it is to keep the big Detroit from overheating while climbing. It requires constant tweaking and monitoring, and Sean is incredibly good at that.



Within 20 minutes of leaving our nice parking spot in Arizona, the freeway ground to a complete halt. A big rig had rolled over about 5 miles in front of us and the tow truck was just finishing flipping it back on its wheels and dragging it out of the travel lanes. We sat for a full hour, listening to the truckers whine and gripe about the backup on the CB radio. At least 60% of the traffic is tractor trailers, so there were plenty of personalities to entertain us. Someone near the front of the line gave us regular reports on the clean up. That kind of status information really helps with a long wait.

After we got rolling again and passed the pile of debris from the crash, we played cat and mouse for dozens of miles with the same group of cranky truckers, all trying to make up for lost time. At least they stopped complaining on the radio.



At a truck stop near Williams, we stopped for lunch and to use free wifi at McDonalds. Godfrey's iPad doesn't allow him to take care of certain tasks, in spite of his near constant connectivity as we are rolling. We both checked email and stretched our legs. Parking was tight at the Pilot, but I'm getting better with my slow speed maneuvering.



In general, while Sean is driving, I am quite used to being completely offline and using my on-board resources only. Rarely, I'll use his smart phone to find something. But I must admit that having Godfrey look things up while we drive down the road is both useful and entertaining. Hmm, I'm thinking this aircard thing might have a nice upside to the traveling life. I guess I can allow myself to be dragged kicking and screaming into the current decade.



At the end of the day, we wandered around the casino a bit, playing tourist. The theme here is, not surprisingly, the heyday of Route 66, so kitschy 50s memorabilia reigns. Not only is Elvis not dead, he must be making a mint on knick-knack sales.



This morning we will return to the casino for breakfast, upload this post, and get rolling. Our goal tonight is near Elk City, Oklahoma. Oh, and welcome to our new visitors here from getdpi!


All photos by Godfrey DiGiorgi

Hot and uphill

We are parked at I40 exit 109 in Arizona. Godfrey has connectivity through his iPad, so I'm borrowing it briefly for a quick post. Yesterday's drive was uneventful, but temperatures in the 90s made for hot times. We're both grateful to be at higher elevations and cooler temps.



The big event was filling the tank with the cheapest diesel between California and Memphis, in Kingman. Godfrey drives a Prius, and figured this would take him about 9000 miles. Yes, but his house would still be in Santa Clara!



Today's goal is Albuquerque.

All photos by Godfrey DiGiorgi

A Rocky Start

We are parked on the street near some hotels in Bakersfield, CA, where I am borrowing a bit of wifi. The good news is that the drive from Godfrey's home in Santa Clara and here was smooth and easy, if a bit hot and dry.

You might be able to tell from the tense look on my face in the photo above that there is bad news, too. The satellite dish didn't stow properly first thing in the morning and was badly damaged by the trees lining the roads between the Elks lodge and Santa Clara. I followed our standard pre-drive check list and heard the darned thing stow fully against the roof. It makes a distinctive "clunk" at that point, and I couldn't see anything sticking up above the roof. Starting the engine may have caused it to start to re-deploy, however. We've noticed before that odd electrical things sometimes happen when the big Detroit comes on line.

I noticed that trees that shouldn't have touched the roof were making strange sounds above my head, so I checked again at Godfrey's house. Now I could see the dish from the ground: not a good sign. I called Sean in a panic to say, "I broke the dish!!!" At first glance, it seemed that just the reflector itself was a bit banged up, so we manually stowed it and after a few deep, cleansing breaths, got underway.

Once we arrived safely and without further event in Bakersfield, I climbed back onto the roof in the 96 degree weather as Sean walked me through testing and calibrating the dish. It failed the motor tests, which made us think it was a bad sensor. That would be a fairly easy fix. But as I watched the dish try to move, I realized that the thick metal plate bolted to the back of the reflector looked a little too much like a potato chip and was actually binding the motors.

You may recall that we've done some major repairs on the dish before. Sean squirreled away some spare parts, and thinks he may have another mounting plate. But there are so many nooks and crannies on the bus that finding that piece, and then disassembling 52 nuts and bolts on the roof is going to take too much precious time right now. So I sadly stowed the dish safely against the roof, turned the motors off completely, and will try to find a no-contract-required aircard somewhere along our route. Since we won't be camping in remote places but staying close to the interstates, that will keep me online for a while.

Godfrey was nice and calm through all this, which was a great help. Your words of support in the comments have been cheering me up all day, too. We walked over to Black Angus and split a very nice prime rib dinner. A glass of wine rounded off the square corners of the day. On the way back to the bus, we stopped in one of the hotels for a cup of coffee, and he caught me feeling a bit better:



In the grand scheme of things, whacking the dish and losing internet connectivity is a minor and rather First World problem. I hope that's the worst that happens on this trip. Onward!

All photos by Godfrey DiGiorgi

Hello, everyone! Louise here, to fill you in on everything that's been happening.

One week ago, at 5:30am, Sean got the call we've been waiting for from the Red Cross. He was deployed to the relief operation for the incredibly destructive tornadoes that blasted through Alabama. By 1:00pm, he was on a plane for Birmingham. Today, he is heading up the technology department for the biggest operation since Hurricane Katrina. 16-hour work days are the norm at this stage, as the hard work of feeding and sheltering thousands of displaced folks ramps up.

Needless to say, he's been a bit too busy to blog.

Since his skills were needed immediately, there was no time to drive Odyssey to Alabama. Several factors conspired to keep me in California, so I have been comfortably parked at the Redwood City Elks lodge. It's a lovely facility with a golf course, and I've had a dark, quiet, friendly dry-camping spot for a week.

The things that have been keeping me here are:

1. Increased enforcement of the Red Cross' nepotism rules do not allow me to report directly to Sean. So in order for him to head up the department in Alabama, I either have to work for another department (yuck), not work, or work a completely different relief operation.
2. The project that I've been helping with here in California was not quite completed.
3. Flying me to where the tornadoes are would require kenneling the cats, our increasingly frail and ancient dog, Opal, and storing the bus.
4. We have many friends and family here, so this is a great place for me to hang out.
   
5. Dang, the spring weather is NICE in California!

However, we've been keeping a nervous eye on the rising waters of most of the major rivers in the Midwest, and things don't look good at all. So close on the heels of the huge swarm of tornadoes that leveled so much of the south, the possibility of multiple floods means the Red Cross will be working overtime. Experienced, trained volunteers are needed. And I can't sit idly by, enjoying the balmy sunshine here in Lotus-land while there's work to be done.

You know the old saying, "Lord willing and the creeks don't rise"? Well, the creeks are risin'.

So today I'm heading east in Odyssey, with Memphis as a possibly destination. Flooding along the Mississippi can be followed in slow motion, as the pulse of high water works its way downstream. I have a few days to get close enough that if and when the Red Cross calls me, I'll be well-positioned to help. We are not allowed to "self-deploy," but nothing stops we RVers from traveling the country any direction we choose. I choose east!

Long-time friend Godfrey will be my co-pilot. He's a member of our group of motorcycling buddies, and has useful mechanical skills in case the bus gets cranky. We'll share the driving, and he'll get a peek into our exciting life of 2000 miles of interstate travel punctuated by thrilling visits to WalMart and truck stops for the night.

In the last 24 hours, as I made the decision to get moving, I needed to line up several options for this trip. I asked my Dad to help with the driving, in case Godfrey couldn't commit. Dad agreed to be my back-up wingman, and I'm so grateful to both him and my Step Mom for their willingness to help.

I'll try to blog a bit from the road, and maybe post a few of Godfrey's photos. He's an excellent photographer and will probably bring more cameras than clothing on this trip.