So, one of the ideas for 50x50 was to go camping. That has yet to happen, but based our our experience earlier this month, I think I got close enough.
Hurricane Isaias was barreling through the Northeast. It all seemed like fun earlier in the day with lots of rain but nothing much to worry about.
But at 3pm, we lost power. The power company said our power should be restored in a few hours. That was before the events of the next hour. In the span of sixty minutes, tons of trees were knocked down all around our town. We tried to drive somewhere to get internet and had to turn around several times as trees and downed wires blocked the roads. When we called the power company again, they said there was no estimated restoration time available.
We went to bed Tuesday night, waking up each hour and wondering if power was back on. Now, it's important to note that we have no cell service where we are. And, our water is well water. So, when we lose power, we lose internet, electricity, air conditioning, and water. By midday Wednesday, they were saying that we would get power back around midday Friday. We briefly talked about driving to NYC, but that would be five hours round trip, and if power was coming back in 48 hours, we decided to just wait it out.
We refreshed ourselves in the pool. We used the pool water to fill the toilets. We used matches to light our gas stove. We made fires in our fireplace and outdoor chiminea. We worked our way through food in the freezer as it thawed. And, we drove to the firehouse, town hall, and library to get internet and charge our computers.
Ultimately, power was restored around 6pm on Friday, so we went 75 hours without power. I think that's enough "camping" for me for a while.