Saturday, September 18, 2004
Parkersburg II
As I was leaving the library, I was a little concerned about where I was going to stay the night, since the weather forecast said remnants of Hurricane Ivan were coming north. A patron who was leaving about the same time mentioned my backpack, I mentioned my concern, and he suggested the city park and gave directions. There is also a shelter downtonwn at the Salvation Army, but apparently it's for only one night. I went there and found a roof, and sure enough, in the middle of the night it started raining.
I came back to the library Friday. The timing was unfortunate, because I got soaked. I've seen a report that we got three inches of rain. All the smaller creeks and waterways are flooded, travel is restricted in the Mid-Ohio valley, and the Ohio itself is expected to crest near its flood stage sometime sunday monring. When I was dowtown Thursday, I saw that the river had risen very near to the foot of the flood wall a couple of weeks ago when the remnants of Francis came north. erflowing.
The rain let up about 10 pm and the sky is clearing, but it was a miserable, windy night; I was wet and so was my sleeping bag, and I got very little rest when I went back to the park. I'd rather follow the clouds and move out, but I'm far too tired and short of sleep, I badly need to clean up, and the next town down the road is much too far to go in an afternoon. Better to stay here and take care of a few necessities before I go on. I've been fortunate to have mostly avoided bad weather all summer, but it had to catch up with me sooner or later, and I wasn't as smart about it as I could have been. The library here has an arboretum which I explored while I was waiting for it to open. I really don't know my plants and flowers well at all: I'm doing well to tell an oak tree from a maple.
I did get some of the historical studies done that I wanted to do, so the rain delay isn't a total loss. I'm looking to contine (east, on US 50, as I said), Sunday night or Monday morning, weather cooperating.
I came back to the library Friday. The timing was unfortunate, because I got soaked. I've seen a report that we got three inches of rain. All the smaller creeks and waterways are flooded, travel is restricted in the Mid-Ohio valley, and the Ohio itself is expected to crest near its flood stage sometime sunday monring. When I was dowtown Thursday, I saw that the river had risen very near to the foot of the flood wall a couple of weeks ago when the remnants of Francis came north. erflowing.
The rain let up about 10 pm and the sky is clearing, but it was a miserable, windy night; I was wet and so was my sleeping bag, and I got very little rest when I went back to the park. I'd rather follow the clouds and move out, but I'm far too tired and short of sleep, I badly need to clean up, and the next town down the road is much too far to go in an afternoon. Better to stay here and take care of a few necessities before I go on. I've been fortunate to have mostly avoided bad weather all summer, but it had to catch up with me sooner or later, and I wasn't as smart about it as I could have been. The library here has an arboretum which I explored while I was waiting for it to open. I really don't know my plants and flowers well at all: I'm doing well to tell an oak tree from a maple.
I did get some of the historical studies done that I wanted to do, so the rain delay isn't a total loss. I'm looking to contine (east, on US 50, as I said), Sunday night or Monday morning, weather cooperating.
