in anticipation of Tropical Storm Laura, Monroe County declared a State of Local Emergency on Friday, August 21 requiring the evacuation of liveaboard vessels, mobile homes, RVs, travel trailers and campers effective noon on Sunday August 23. At the time we were not sure how bad this storm would be in the Keys so we spent several days packing up the RV in case we needed to evacuate. After being in the Keys for almost 10 months, we had accumulated a lot of stuff that needed to be put away, even if we did not leave. Randy power washed the boat and even stored my trike on Sweet Thing since it would not fit anywhere else. Monroe County eventually rescinded the evacuation order, but not until late on Sunday morning. After 3 days of work to put everything away, i knew i did not want to do that again, if another storm came through. Even thought TS Laura looked like it was heading South, we decided that we were going to make a run for home. Another deciding factor for me was that the pool at VO was closing for repairs in September so i would not be able to enjoy my morning swim. Tropical Storm and then Hurricane Laura eventually passed over Cuba on its way to the Texas/Louisiana border.
We left VO on Saturday afternoon when we finally got everything put away. This worked out for us because we stopped at our normal spot in Vero Beach, Sunshine Travel RV Resort. We like this stop because it has a large area for transients that can accommodate us. The traffic was relatively light leaving the Keys, except for one slowdown on the clauseway between Key Largo and the mainland. I guess all of the drivers slowed down to see the few boats anchored there and the girls in their bikinis! Even traffic around Miami was better than normal. We stayed on the turnpike until we hit 95 a few miles South of Vero.
Sunday night we stopped at South of the Border on the NC/SC border. This is another of our normal stops because it is cheap, and the new section has long pull through sites. Now that we have the new boat, we take up more room than years past, so the campground was nice and gave us a second site for the Jeep and trailer. Randy was happy because we stopped early enough to get the Dish set up so that we could watch the Yellowstone finale! Now that Ryan no longer has access to the warehouse with a place for us to park the RV, we decided to head on home. This part of the trip was tougher on me because the traffic on 95 picked up considerably. But still not as bad as some of the previous years. Of course, we would hit DC at rush hour so we took 17 around. While it takes a little longer, it probably is a little better for my sanity. When we arrived home, I was surprised at how green Carroll County still was this late in the summer. And very humid. I am already missing the nice breeze from Key West.
