Wahooo! I can stay in my room until curfew is lifted which is really nice of the hotel. I really like this hotel. It is the perfect setup for riding out a hurricane with double rooms for protection.
It makes more sense for them to open the roads around 3 p.m., so it gives people more time in the daylight to move, but some roads are probably not ready for that.
I am now going to relax for a while and then, go eat lunch at the cafe down there.
I called the front desk. They are allowing guests to stay in their rooms until the curfew is done which is very nice of them.
I walked down to get something to eat and it was still very windy. I saw a banquet room full of hotel workers and families of workers eating. It is nice that the families could join them too here at the hotel.
Uber should be going pretty quickly afterwards. Uber has really helped me a lot. It is $11 to get back to the parking garage. A taxi would be around $29. Uber has committed to not surging the price, but that is their business model, so we will see.
I am happy I made the decision I did. Some people seemed to have a rough night last night. One guy I know took his family of 6 on last minute flights to Dallas. He thinks he made the right decision. It appears a lot of people made decisions that kept them safe as there have been few deaths reported.
A lot of people are concerned about animals ā some are crazy, some are just niceā¦click below about a lizard and a cat and you make the distinction.
At 6 p.m., I went down to the valet. Uber was not available, so the valet called a personal friend. Andrea thought I was going to survive the hurricane, but then get kidnapped. After 30 minutes, the friend said that there was too much debris on the road and to find some other option. Uber came back like two minutes after I spoke to the friend originally. I couldnāt find the cheap Uber, so I went for the UberXL for $19 instead of $11. I didnāt care. By the time the Uber guy came to the hotel, it was like 7:15 p.m.!
In the parking garage, we saw many of my cousins and brothers and sisters with bad roofs. On my way home, half the traffic lights were out. There could be some accidents going through the lights.
Near my house, all the lights were working. I walked in and a neighbor said something to me about a rough night or something. I asked him how it was and he said our place is built tough. I said could you hear the wind and he shook his head and said, āoh yeah.ā I have power, internet, and water. I know Lisa, Jerry, and Maryann from work do not.
Work is open on Wednesday, so I am working Wednesday. Work is fully operational, so I am going tomorrow to get on multiple devices in the computer lab to register to be a race volunteer over New Years. Then, I think I will go to the outlets and IKEA.
I told Dad I feel I missed an experience. Oh wellā¦. I was safe.
Still at the hotelā¦ā¦ 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 10th
I woke up and went to the 24 hour cafe around 8 a.m. There are a lot of construction workers, Spanish speakers, and dogs here. I think everyone besides me falls into one of those categories.
I bought a turkey sandwich with a pickle spear, breakfast potatoes (huge portion size), and a decaf coffee. I hung around for a while. Then, walked around. I saw the gym in a little building. It looks nice, but it is closed.
I went back to my hotel room. With TV and internet, it isnāt too boring. I have a book if the lights go out later tonight.
I ate half my turkey sandwich and half the pickle. I am down to about 3 Twizzlers. Andrea said she could overnight me some more and it would get here before the hurricane. Just kidding. But it a long wait. I have a good amount of drinks left and snacks. I brought a lot of Cheerios, oyster crackers, and Ritz crackers. Andrea also said that I would get Celiacs before the hurricane was over. She is a funny one.
Tornadoes are a problem for us I guess. The curfew finally starts at 7 p.m. tonight and goes through 6 p.m. tomorrow night. I am supposed to check out at 11 a.m. tomorrow, so we will see what happens. I am hoping there is not too much damage. The curfew was lifted pretty early Work has now been closed through Wednesday. Blargh. I should have found a flight to Costa Rica or somewhere, but I was a bit slow not being in the area last weekend. Also, we didnāt know the severity even when I left work. When I left work Thursday night, it was still going East.
The winds are picking up to about 30 to 35 mph, but there are people still outside.
I have set up the bed in the inner room. If I watch the news, it really isnāt that bad yet. I see the forecast for my zip code with the highest winds reaching around 60 mph. They will not lock us down until it reaches 70 mph. I just hope we donāt have to evacuate to their convention center under a tornado watch/warning, because there is a good chance that will come. I am about three doors down from a stairwell which Julie at work told me was the safest place in a hotel.
It is around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 10th
Irma is down to Category 2 hurricane.
If you look at the map, I am in one of the last areas with power. I donāt know for how long, so I thought I would post one more time.
Winds are around 48 to 50 mph right now. I guess Port Canaveral recorded a 64 mph gust. I moved into the inner room. I canāt hear anything outside.
Bill Hemmer on Fox News still looks dry and is outside.
Uber is offline now.
I still have power, but evidently, the hurricane is now tracking North towards us like the European Model predicted.
I heard on the radio about 30 minutes, āWe got lucky.ā Evidently, the station is in Tampa? I donāt knowā¦
Because now, the eye looks to be tracking North from Naples near us. I donāt really know. My TV in my living room (which I am enclosed) only has one channel. Engineering was going to replace it today, but I said not to worry about it. The TV in the other room has local TV and they said that we could get 80 to 100 mph winds around Midnight. If you go to the Weather Channel, you will still see less than 60 mph winds throughout the night. I am confused, but I am not too worried. I am way inside. There are 3 floors above me at least. I am in the inner room. I just gave Andrea a WhatApps video tour. I am worried for a lot of people out there in bad shelters whether bad homes, mobile places, etcā¦ā¦ā¦
I believe the hotel generator has kicked in. I still canāt hear anything here. It isnāt too bad here yetā¦..
This hotel is amazing. I went to look out the window for about 5 seconds and the hotel to the north has gone dark. We still have power. It is around 11:30 p.m. here. The power map will not load.
The eye wall (which the radio says the American model showed this track. I saw the European model showing Clermont at one point.) is going through Polk to Lake Counties slightly to the west of me. My colleague and friend, Lisa, who took me in last time is in Lake County. She lives by a lake, but up pretty high on a hill. I am sure there will be flooding there. They could see gusts of 100+ mph. They are saying the eye wall is half an eye wall, so that is good. It is 30 miles wide with 100 winds. It will miss me by 10 miles or more. It is 68 miles from Orlando now. We should be through it by 3 a.m.
I am about ready to go to sleep. I canāt hear anything in my room.
Sorry for the lack of updates. What have I been doing?
I hosted multiple delegations throughout the month and, as you can tell, ate a lot. It was my birthday month, so I had so many free dinners. I ate free meals at First Watch, IKEA, Jasonās Deli, Sweet Tomatoes, Einstein Bagels, and Perkins. I received free drinks from Starbucks and Panera. I missed my honey baked ham meal and I skipped going to IHOP and Dennyās.
I had a very nice birthday celebration at work where we all ate chick-fil-a sandwiches and cupcakes. I received roses from Andrea and multiple gift cards.
Other things:
Again, I apologize for the lack of updates.
Last Friday, I went home to Iowa.
My flight was actually about 30 minutes early. Andrea and I went to a consignment store and then, we went to a new restaurant in Iowa City. Iowa City is getting to be really nice. The city has a lot of new places to eat. We drove home and went to the farm to see Dadās work.
Other highlights of the weekend:
I am using general names to protect people just in case. Besides my other cousins, everyone loosely mentioned above are the only people who read the blog and knows everyone mentioned.
My flight going back to Sanford was delayed 5 hours, so Andrea and I just went shopping. The next day, I received a $50 voucher and a $15 coupon, so I booked a Thanksgiving flight for $25 one way.
So, I arrived back around 11:45 p.m. on Monday night.
When I went to Publix Tuesday at lunch, all water was already gone. People probably started to prepare over last weekend. By that time, flights back to Iowa were already full. Besides we didnāt know the exact path. (It is the following Saturday and we still do not). When I left work on Thursday, we were thinking it was going to go out the East Coast. Now, Irma is going to hit Tampa.
As everything (flights and hotels) was going fast on Tuesday, I booked a hotel for Saturday and Sunday just in case. I donāt want to be a burden to anyone and I donāt want to be trapped in a house. More on that later.
Anyways, I missed grabbing the hotel with the parking garage I wanted that was a reasonable price, so I scoured around for a car cover. I joined Amazon Prime (free trial) on Wednesday to get the car cover on Friday. It never made it. So, yesterday, I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and bought a thick vinyl shower curtain.
Today, I went to Epcot. It was a nice day with a breeze. I ate at Thailand, India, Germany, and Ireland. Then, I went to Disney Springs and had a real lunch at the Polite Pig. I had a chicken salad sandwich and a watermelon, tomato, and basil salad. A lot of people were out. Watching the news makes it seem like it is so badā¦. It really isnāt. Epcot has about 200 power trucks staging in the parking lot.
I checked into the hotel around 4 p.m. All rooms are suites, so I have a living room and a bedroom. It only a little smaller than my apartment (I kinda feel guilty when I see shelters full). I think it was worth the $86 (and even the extra resort fee) just to have some help if necessary. From my hotel, I can almost see my apartment from a few years ago. I would never have guessed I would be surviving a hurricane here. I am on the 5th floor looking east towards Port Canaveral, so that is good news. The hotel says to be in the living room during the storm and if necessary, we might be evacuated to their convention center. I thought my hotel was like Gaylord Palms. It is not. It has towers, so our building will be locked during the stormā¦. which is a good idea I guess. I think we are all going to be moved to the convention center on Monday to wait out the last portion of the storm. Hopefully, the impending curfew will be lifted, so I donāt have to stay another night even though work has been canceled again on Tuesday. So, I did not work yesterday. Hopefully, I will go back to work on Wednesday.
(There are tons of people from Miami hereā¦. I hear more than the average level of Spanish and they are more aggressive than Orlandoans). There are a few restaurants on property including a very nice food court type area. I think we would be fine for a week or so here. No housekeepers will be here until after I leave.
Andrea found free public parking in a parking garage near a mall, so I took my car there. I went to call the mall and I knew the manager as he was the old manager at my place of work. I got his voicemail, but it was till neat. I took my car there and there were other cars with panoramic roofs around me. I was going to use my shower curtain just in case Uber or Taxis arenāt readily available, but I decided, in the long run, taking the car would be better than having half a boat. I Ubered back for $11, so I can return my two shower curtains, my car tie straps, and my car cover for a grand total of over $70. I will look into getting a better car cover for the next storm. I just purchased whatever could get to me the quickest.
Dadās cousin who lives near a swampy area has evacuated. Pray for Tampa and Miami. Donāt worry too much about me and donāt watch the news too much!!!!
Other things I did this week:
Two last things:
But I think I will have to Uber back to my car with a bunch of leftover snacks and drinksā¦..