After calling several times a day to the power company, the power was finally restored to our place on the Thursday after Irma hit.  We were lucky that the guy who weathered the storm at our condo building works for the power company.  He told us what to do to get the squeaky wheel oiled ;).  I guess it worked.

We packed up our stuff and the fur bag and headed back to Florida.  We left on Friday which means we’d be traveling on a weekend, that should be interesting.  Hopefully the traffic won’t be too bad.  We had heard that there were lots of people returning to Florida and that some places were out of gas or had no power to pump the gas.  Gary used Gas Buddy again, to see which gas stations had gas and which had power.  We didn’t have any trouble getting gas and we only had one place gouge us. Their gas was $2.99 per gallon, so we considered ourselves lucky.

We did get to enjoy a little bit of “fall” while we were up north and also when we stopped in Illinois for the night

Pretty fall leaves

On our second night’s stop in Chattanooga, TN, Smokie got a little snippy with us.

My Pizza, keep your non-furry hands away! Meow!

I think the stress of so much traveling has left him a little edgy.  Luckily I shook his treat bag and got him off the pizza box so Gary and I could have some dinner.  That cat will do anything for a treat ;).

On our 3rd day, we got up at 4 A.M. to miss any traffic in Atlanta.  We arrived to “our HOV” lane and couldn’t believe it.  Look at all that traffic.

Traffic in Atlanta

Atlanta….5:51 in the morning……on a Sunday.  Just look at all those red lights.  People!  Where are you going Sunday morning at 5:51?  Too early for mass goers.  Are you the left over bar people still trying to make it home?  Either way, much too much traffic, even for Atlanta on an early Sunday morning!  But we made it thru and kept up with the crazy speeds going thru the downtown area.

As we heading down into Florida we were surprised the traffic wasn’t that heavy.  It was actually better than when we usually come home on a Wednesday.

When we got closer to where the hurricane hit we could see some evidence of the winds.  See this billboard

Billboard

If they were still standing, this is what they looked like.  And if you look closely, you can see the standing water in the field in front of the billboard.  There was more standing water everywhere.

Down here they take the highway lights

Normal highway lights

and lower the lights closer to the ground so they don’t swing in the wind

Hurricane lights

Someone was thinking when they made those.

We hadn’t seen too much hurricane damage.  We saw more standing water in places but not as much wind damage as I’d expected.  As we made our final turn down Del Prado, still, not much damage,  A few blue tarps, a few trees down but again, nothing like we expected.  As we turned down our street we saw more large trees down, sidewalks pulled up from the roots of the fallen trees.

Timber!

When we drove down the street and stopped next the to condo buildings next to us, we could start to see some more damage

This is the tree that took the power out

It seemed more open, like you could see more things than unusual.

I didn’t know there were tennis courts behind those bushes 😉

As we drove into the parking lot we saw

Even though it fell in our parking lot, it’s not ours 🙂

Turns out the palm belongs to the neighboring condo unit so we don’t have to pay to have it chopped up.

Our little palms that broke off

Front of our condo

We continued to check the side of the building that took the hardest hit

Those stairs are a mess

Pink, Pink everywhere.

On to the back

Bad avocado for breaking our glass top

What is that in the pool? Do I spy soffits and shingles?

Needless to say Gary was heart broken about the pool.  As the days went on, the pool got greener and greener.  Gary managed to fish out all the soffits, shingles and leaves.  Finally the pool guys came.  We don’t know what he put in there but within an hour or so all the green was gone.  Magic!  We love our pool guy ;).

And what comes out unscathed by the hurricane?  Our neighbors wooden steps on the dock

Steps on dock

they didn’t move an inch.  And let’s not forget little froggy

Little Froggy

Looks like he crapped his pants a little but he is still sitting on his favorite rock with a smile on his face.

So we had some roof damage, soffit damage, insulation all over the place and a few other things but all in all, we consider ourselves very fortunate to have a place to come home to.

Thanks to those of you who said some prayers, looks like they worked :).