We are home

Last week my mother-in-law, Vickie, and I loaded my two kids, lots of groceries, toys, and clothes into her pick-up and took off for a week in Hersey, Pennsylvania with all the daughters, daughters-in-law, and Jeanie, my twin sister.  It rained just about the whole way there.

Three hours from our destination, we hit bad traffic.  We sat, without moving, for at least 3 hours.  At first, Emily was asleep, but Tabitha was fussing.  After about half an hour, I got Tabitha out to nurse her, figuring I would put her back in her car seat if the car started moving.  About an hour later, Emily had woken up and was protesting having to stay in her car seat.  I took her for a walk through the drizzly rain, and then she joined us on the front seat.  I nursed Tabitha again, and we waited and waited.  Finally, I got out to get something from the back seat, and I could see cars moving between the lanes way ahead of us.  I quickly got the girls back into their car seats, and we only waited about 30 seconds before traffic started moving.

We checked into the hotel around 9 that night.  (Our original arrival time was about 4:30).  The parking was under the building, which was great.  We were able to unpack the car without getting wet, since it was still raining.

It continued to rain for the next three days.  Sometimes the rain came down hard, and sometimes it just barely drizzled, but it never stopped.  On Wednesday, Vickie took the oldest granddaughter to the store to pick up a few things.  She couldn't get back, because the roads between her and the hotel had flooded.  She drove all over the area, and finally made it back late that evening.  We had seen it rain for a couple days, but had no idea that it was about to flood.

The rest of us spent the afternoon in the indoor pool.  The hotel had an awesome kiddy pool next to the full sized indoor pool.  It was about a foot deep, so even the little just-barely one year old could walk around in the water.  The kids either played in the baby pool or floated around in inner-tubes in the big pool.  Besides playing at the pool, we also went for walks at the outlet mall across the street from the hotel.  It finally opened on Friday, so Jeanie, Mindee, and I were able to shop, but before that it also made for a nice covered walk in the rain.

We stayed in suites, each with two bedrooms, and a nice sized living room, dining room, and kitchen between the two bedrooms.  The hotel provided high chairs and cribs, so we were all set for week with babies.  The kids all really enjoyed spending time with their cousins.  They didn't seem to mind that we didn't get out to seem much of the area.

Hersey is just East of the Susquehanna River, which flooded, creating a national disaster.  The creek which flows through Hershey also flooded, rising to over 20 feet; it floods at 7 feet.  When Vickie and I left Saturday afternoon, we could see where the local area had been flooded.  We passed on fast food restaurant that looked like it had been flooded pretty bad.  There was thick mud in the parking lot and they had a trailer in the back that looked like it had tipped over into the building.  Just up the hill, next door, there was another fast food restaurant that had been cordoned off, and next to them there was another fast food place that was doing business.  When Jeanie and I went shopping, on of the sales people told us Hershey had never been affected like that before.

But up in our hotel, which was apparently on a hill, we couldn't see any of the flooding.  They did close the hotel on Friday, and told us that we could stay until we were able to make it home.  One of the maintenance men had his kid stranded with him at the hotel.

When we crossed the Susquehanna, it was still very high.  It was a little ways below the freeway bridge.  There was an island in the middle of the river--you could tell because there was a building on it, that was partially visible.  The island itself was completely covered.  The river had crested Friday night, so it had been even higher then.  On the news, officials were constantly telling the public not to put themselves in danger, thereby risking their own life and the lives of those who would have to try to save them.  People were asked to stay home, so that those who needed to evacuate or rescue personnel would be able to travel quickly.

Our trip home was pretty uneventful.  Tabitha cut her second tooth, quite possible on my finger, since I was letting her chew on it because she seemed so fussy after our first stop.  Both the girls slept a couple times.  Emily used the potty both times we stopped.  One of the rest stops had a farmers market, and we got some pumpkin butter and elderberry jam.  It was a great end to an eventful trip.