Here's a better photo of the FBI folks dock. It too was rather high off the water but that didn't help, as during this storm, the water was rather high too! You can see that the boat Bob S. left on the lift made it through Isabel. I hardly believe it because, as you'll see in a few photos, the boat Buddy and Sharon D. left on their boatlift didn't make it. OH, one last comment on this photo, just in front of the bow of Bob's boat, can you see the house on the hill with the screened-in-porch? Can you see the cave-in where Bob and Denny M. lost much of their lawn, their property? This is very bad!

You saw a photo of the quiet cove just roiling on Thursday. Here's a shot of all the debris (flotsam and jetsam) that was funneled into it. What a mess. If you are an enterprising sort of person, maybe one who is missing a dock, a pier, some stairs, if you wade into the cove you might just find some of your dock, pier, and stairs!

It's 9:00 AM Friday and we've gathered up the courage to venture out to see how our new home handled the category 1 hurricane. The road leading down to our home, Currioman Road, is 2.6 miles long. One mile down the road we came upon this - a downed cedar tree that must have been 50 or 60, or better, years old.

Of course, that wasn't the only downed tree in those 2.6 miles. Maybe 15 to 20 old trees - poplar, hickory, cedar, etc. - were down and, as one hurricane veteran says, the road was littered with Hurricane Salad!

If it wasn’t for our neighbors down at the bottom of the hill, Frankie and Gail J. and their 2 sons Frankie and Matt, those trees might still be there or the county/state would have to remove them. Frankie runs a mill, farms property, and who know what else (they're a hard working family) and so has all the equipment to cut up and remove the trees. Talk about Hurricane Salad! And just one day later Mother Nature (and cars) had taken care of the salad and moved it off the road.

Gus and I hiked the last 1.6 miles down to the house. Worry was evident on our faces. Did the cupola/vent get pulled off the garage roof? Was damage done to the unfinished front entrance since the roof was only propped up, the entrance posts not yet installed? Water leaks? Downed trees? Anything else broken (like lightening rods or worse yet, the windows)? NOTHING MISSING, NOTHING BROKEN? The entrance and cupola were intact. The only damage we suffered were a few fallen trees along the bank (we've a better river view now, thank you), some water in the master and guest bedrooms on the N/NE side of the house (what do you expect with sustained winds of 50-60 mph and gusts as high as 89 mph at Dahlgren – although I have heard of gusts at 105 mph locally!), and LOTS of flotsam and jetsam on our beach, but the old Hickory tree on the beach is still there.

Back at the house we're living in now, we ventured out on John and Sharon's dock to take a different look at our ruined dock and the shoreline. Undermined - that's all I can think of to say. The property line ends at that copse of three trees. At least there is still some bulkhead left there.

Looking up into our cove, again from John and Sharon's pier, you can see (again) the tremendous damage done to the neighbors’ docks and real estate.

After lunch (PB&J since we had no electricity) on Friday we went out again to check on friends and family. At Nomini Bay, a smaller bay off of Currioman Bay where we live, we checked on Claudia & Robert M. and Guido P. in Vaughn's Landing. En route there we passed this home under construction. Just imagine! The home of friends Al & June F. was okay (in case you're wondering Sandy and Laurel) - they weren't here for the storm, were to return today, so we needed to see if there was damage we should start working on - they just lost some fascia wrap and had yet another water leak in the sunroom. Will that never end!

Saturday around Noon, September 20, Don and Floyd - now owners of the home we're living in - arrive (we'd last talked with them on Thursday during the hurricane) bearing the greatest gifts of all: themselves, their love and support and concern, and BAGS OF ICE AND WATER, and gourmet sandwiches for lunch! Ice-cold water has never tasted so good (and the awe of its availability was only surpassed by the warm shower I eventually took - but that ice water really was, in hind sight, best, a cold GI shower can do okay). Don and Floyd helped clean up the yard, helped straighten up about 9 Leyland Cypress trees whose root balls were pulled up a bit (they are 3 years old and still the storm moved them!). They were leaning about 10 degrees after being blown by the storm, and then they did the same for the Hollywood Juniper trees outside of the gazebo. It was decided that if the Junipers were to live and grow, that the tops had to be cut back.

Don, what a card!, has to ham it up for the camera. Thanks for the humor, Don - we all needed it.

It's a bit of a stretch to reach the top of the Junipers. Thank goodness the screens were blown out of the gazebo.