The Unexpected Arrival of Debby

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Debby Downer: My Existential Vacation Through A Tropical Depression

Debby Downer: My Existential Vacation Through A Tropical Depression

The Unexpected Arrival of Debby
Escaping Before the Storm’s Grip
Existential Reflections on Tropical Depression
Reality as a Subset of Dreaming
The Debby-cation Silver Lining

This all started out as a plan to take the family down to Myrtle Beach for some time at the beach. It was simple: load up an RV, drive for a day, and tap into power of the sandy, ocean beach to recharge the batteries of our soul, while glamping, grilling and ditching electronics for a week. Tactically, what ended up happening was vastly different than what we had planned. It started with the weather forecast, as our 1 week hiatus arrived, so did tropical storm Debby. As we headed south, she headed north.

When we first arrived at the beach, it was later in the day but all seemed fairly normal. The sky was partly cloudy, but there were rip-current warnings. The next day, it was raining off and on, cloudy, and since the rip-current warnings persisted, we tried hanging out at the pool. There were so many rules: what type of flotation devices were allowed, height requirements, age requirements, no pets allowed. We found this “family and pet friendly” destination was really only friendly if your family met their criteria and pets were left to rot at the camp sight. After pushing our luck and getting snapped at by several life guards, we decided we’d escort ourselves to the exit before security came to run us off. So relaxing.

We took our pup to the dog park – it was a nice park, and the only place he was actually allowed to exist other than walking around aimlessly. He played with some other pups and we talked to someone who lived full time in the area. They made some ominous comments about flooding from the storm. That night, as we discussed how there wasn’t really much we could DO as a family at this park, the rain started coming down heavily, the wind started to rock our RV, and the phones started to light up with more warnings: the flash flood warning, the storm surge warning, the wind warning (we had already rolled up the awning after the wind did a lift-and-drop on it!), and finally, the tornado watch.