Storm After Storm After Storm - Sunday, May 17, 2015

In one of my last A-to-Z Blogging Challenge posts I wrote about water. I'll tell you what, if writing about lack of water causes the kinds of storms we have been experiencing in Texas, then everyone should write about lack of water and maybe we would have an abundance. Just kidding.

In the past month or more we have had high humidity, and weather reports indicating 20-100% chances of thunderstorms just about every day. One morning last week, we had torrential rain with waterfalls coming off of awnings and roofs. Then this morning, starting around 4 am, we had a huge thunderstorm come over south San Antonio. Thunder rumbled and cracked, the storm was slow moving and stayed over us from 4 am until about 9 am. When we looked outside, here's what we saw...You have to understand that the ground was completely saturated from previous storms, so the water had nowhere to go. It will go down in about six hours, after the storm water drains empty enough for this to go somewhere.

Do, do, do, looking out my front door.

There is one site between us and the park model.

Yes, that's our picnic table.

And our vehicles.

We knew the cats weren't going anywhere!

But they were very curious.

Looking down the road of the RV park.

Our site and the site this side of us.

I put on my water shoes and Bob put on his flip flops. We walked over to look at the San Antonio River.

It wasn't as high as two years ago on Memorial Day weekend, but it had rapids and some of the small trees were in the water.

Mission Reach of the San Antonio River

Rapids on the San Antonio River

Sunflowers over 7' tall.

Thistle flower pummeled to the ground by rain

River Walk signage. See last line.

Pretty wildflowers.

Entrance to River Walk outside our RV park

That's what we woke up to this morning. My next blogs will be to catch up with everything we've been doing. I'm pretty far behind.

Suffice it to say, we're doing well and having fun. Travel Bug out.

Ridin' the Storm Out - Sun., June 30

If you know us well, you know I don't walk in the rain. Period. Don't like it, never have. So I was highly skeptical this morning when I read the NOAA weather report proffering a 40% chance of thunderstorms, 50 mph wind gusts, and possible hail. I don't know what I was thinking when I told Bob I still wanted to go. I brought the umbrella and packed my camera, cell phone and car keys in plastic Ziploc sandwich bags. (Bob says I'm a good Girl Scout.)

Driving to the start point in downtown San Antonio, an ominous sky brooded over us. Black sky moodiness dared us to continue with our plans. The blue sucker hole drew us in, even though surrounding us through a 360-degree view were clouds in shades of black and grey.

After registering for the Volksmarch, we started our walk at 7:45 a.m. The temperature was pleasant and we walked at a good pace. As soon as we got to El Mercado, the sky started spitting at us, not enough to soak, just enough to let us know we better be prepared for the moody sky to shed some big crocodile tears.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Church

El Mercado tile art.

El Mercado

More tile art at El Mercado.

El Mercado restaurant - reminds us of New Orleans.

El Mecado business.

Beautiful tile art.

Children's Hospital Emergency Room - we needed a restroom!

Threatening sky.

Stormy, moody sky.

San Francesco di Paola Church

Storm clouds.

Stormy.

My umbrella was up when rain, thunder and lightning descended upon us. The rain came down in earnest. We hurried to find cover and ended up under the awning of the WOAI 4 News building for about 45 minutes. When the rain let up, we continued our walk. You will see that raindrops falling on our heads were not our only challenge.

Under the awning.

When cars and buses went by, they splashed up a wall of water. Thankfully, we were out of reach of the splashes.

Ridin' the storm out.

Waterfall coming off the awning.

Storm drains were overflowing back up into the street.

The drains sucked down the water but not fast enough.

We had to cross this...got our feet and socks wet.

The intersection above was flooded.

Water up to bottom of body of car.

A few more photos of our downtown jaunt...

Domino's Pizza delivery vehicles - Smart.

Airstream re-purposed to sell cosmetics (in La Villita)

We finished up our walk in a damp state. Actually, Bob was pretty wet. He only had his baseball cap for protection from the rain. I shared the umbrella for a while, then he decided not to use it anymore.

Below is some more information on The Big Year birding competition. Bob found these when he searched for "the truth about The Big Year" on Google. We both enjoyed reading these two articles and thought you might enjoy them too.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology Round Robin: "Birds, Birders, and Birding in The Big Year: What We Noticed."

Also see: Cornell Lab of Ornithology: "The Big Year: Our Movie Review."

TravelBug out.

Out of the Blue - Here Comes the Rain Again - Wed., June12

What the ...? A few minutes ago it was sunny and 90. I started hearing thunder, checked NOAA for update on weather. Red warnings for San Antonio. Yikes!

Now the storm is ON TOP OF US! Rain pelting crazily, waterfalls coming off the roof of our 5er all around, thunder so harsh the floor of the trailer is quaking. Lightning at the same time, flashing. Power going on and off. Fan on, microwave on; fan off, microwave off; repeat. This is intense. I am having flashbacks to flooding of three weeks ago. Our site already has water pouring into it. I will brave getting drenched to pick up our welcome mat and put it on the picnic table so it doesn't float off again.

These four photos are from the beginning of the thunderstorm...you can see the temperature has already dropped from 90 to 68.

See photo below looking toward back fence...see a difference?

Looking toward our neighbor's site.

From 90 to 68 in a half hour.

Power off, power on. Massive thunder, more lightning. I'd say this is a slow-moving storm. It has found a parking spot in San Antonio and isn't going to give it up!

This is pretty exciting, but not good for charging our air card which is out of power. [Note: I finished this blog after power was back on, charging air card for a while.]

San Antonio Hill Country Hikers had a three-mile walk planned this evening at Eisenhower Park. I was ready to walk out the door when I first heard the thunder. That's when I checked the weather.

I called the hike organizer and the event has been canceled due to the severe weather. OMG, I looked up and saw lightning out of two windows at the same time AND another massive thunderclap in tune with the lightning. Kind of scary out there.

We now have an inch of water in our site. I went out to pick up our mat and it had already floated away! In ten minutes! I was totally freaked out going out there to pick up the mat with a metal umbrella in my hand while lightning and thunder is happening, walking in an inch or more of water. I moved pretty danged fast!

Photos after 20 minutes of heavy rain...

Mat saved.

About 1-1/2 inches of water after 20 minutes.

Looking toward back fence. Was dry a bit ago.

Crazy weather. Not only us, but I read about the upper Midwest possibly getting a derecho tonight. See another derecho article. And friends in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are worried about massive storms too.

Stay safe and dry out there.

Here's a few cozy kitty pics to lighten the mood.

We love our kitty tube!

Sneak attack.

Sunnie says, "I'm not playin'."

I don't know what's with Sunnie and his stretches lately.

Hi, Mom. I'm going to walk right in front of the pic you're taking of Bowie.

Put anything new on the floor, insert cat.

Travel Bug out.