Someone said that watching a hurricane is like being stalked by a turtle, and that certainly felt accurate with this one! We had been watching the news for days to decide what was the best thing to do. The weather forecasters were up front about saying they didn’t know when it would turn north or how it would impact Florida. When we were planning this journey, we agreed that if there was ever a scenario like this; a hurricane, or some other somewhat predictable natural disaster, we would not hesitate to get out of harm’s way if we had the time. We had pretty much made up our minds that if this storm didn’t change path, we would leave and started packing up on Saturday. When we woke up Sunday morning it had turned into a category 5 hurricane with winds of 185 miles an hour. If we hadn’t already made up our minds, that did it! We left around noon on Sunday and started driving northwest.

A couple that we workamp with, Tim and Laura, had pulled out a few hours before us and we kept in touch with them while we were driving. We happened to mention to each other that our intent was to head North West. They stopped in Macon, Georgia, which is far enough north and west to be safe, so we decided to join them. Ironically, the park’s name is Safe Haven! Once we got there, we looked around to see what there was to do in the area. We found the Museum of Aviation was about 15 miles from where we were staying. According to their website, this is the second largest Air Force museum in the United States, and the fourth most visited in the Department of Defense, and it is free! Even after reading this, it was much larger than we expected! We wound up spending the better part of a day there. Of course, after walking around all morning we had to take a break for lunch. Luckily our fellow workampers also love Mexican and we found a cute Mexican restaurant nearby.

By the end of the day Dorian’s track was more predictable and it was clear that it would head north before making landfall and would only affect the eastern part of Florida. Tim and Laura were going to head north for an early Vacation home that they had planned for later. We decided to head south to be a little closer to Welaka so it would be a shorter drive back. We found a small campground in Old Town Florida that gave a 50% discount to Escapees members and decided to head there. We stayed there for two nights and spent the next day exploring some of the Gulf Coast. Horseshoe Cove is a small town right on the gulf. It is mostly a weekend town and since we were there midweek the town was mostly buttoned up. But we did get some nice pictures and had a great lunch at a cute little stand. Candi had the special which was barbecue and Mike had a hot dog with slaw. Putting cole slaw on a hot dog must be a southern thing, and saying it correctly requires a southern drawl. Even though Mike couldn’t say it quite the same way, he definitely enjoyed it.

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We were keeping an eye on Dorian from a distance. It was off the coast of Florida closest to Welaka while we were in Old Town and was well north by Thursday so we headed back. We were relieved to find out that Welaka had very little effects from the hurricane. Luckily there was no damage and everyone was safe. Hopefully there will be no more hurricane drama for our remaining six weeks here!