RE: Blown Away

[Joe Buskirk]

 
We went on our maiden voyage with our new Jayco Qwest PU this weekend to Yogi Bear Campground in Quarryville, PA this weekend.  Friday was a beautiful.  Saturday was a mixture of clouds, sun, rain, lightning and wind.  I was awakened at around 5:00 a.m. this morning, by the wind and rain.   I started to get alarmed when the canvas started to shutter when the wind would blow.   I imagine the gusts were 20-30 mph.  I was debating whether to stay until some drying occurred but I was afraid that a branch from a tree would come down and hurt a family member.  I woke up the DW and DD and we packed up and came home.  Everything was wet, so I brought the PU into my garage and lifted the roof, half way, and pulled out the bunk end canvas and placed fans around so that I could dry the canvas and canopy.  The wind is still gusting as I am typing this.  Has anyone weathered out a constant wind? Maybe being new to camping that I left too soon?  Interested to know what to do in the future.

[tlhdoc]

 Joe Buskirk
Yes we have.  At Easter this year we camped at the beach and had steady 30 mph winds for over 24 hours.  3 families from C.O.T.O.C. were on this trip and we didn t have any problems with any of the campers.  The tops moved and the sides were moving in and out, but everything was OK.  If you were in an area with trees you were smart to get out of there.  You never know when a branch will come down.
 
 Join us on our September COTOC trip if you can.  It will be at Hickory Run SP in the Poconos Sept. 26th weekend.

[brainpause]

 Joe Buskirk
On our second trip last year, we had a pretty hard wind all night, but no rain. It kept us awake most of the night. I wasn t really scared; we weren t near any trees, but that s why the wind was so bad. No ground cover to stop the wind.
 
 We weathered the wind, and the rain came later that day, but not heavy. We left the next day.
 
 It is an individual call. Sometimes it is easier just to hang out rather than to pack up in blowing rain. We, like you, can set up our camper (completely, in our case) in the garage, so packing the camper up wet doesn t bother us. We just don t like packing in the rain.
 
 Larry

[fivegonefishing]

 Joe Buskirk
Last May we camped in our Jayco Eagle in constant gusting wind.  We had the delux AAR and thank goodness we did, the AAR worked just like a wall, it was bilowed(SP?) out the whole time but everything held up well.  We pulled out one day early.

[pinhi18]

 Joe Buskirk
This past Mother s day the IL Chapter of the GLPUC had an outing in Amboy, IL.  There was some severe weather on Sat. night when the rain came.  After the storm passed the winds kicked up to 30MPH with gusts over 40 MPH all night long.  We were warned by the campground staff of the approaching storm, and everyone rolled up their awnings and honkered down.  During the night the tenting on the trailer was flapping loudly, and the trailer would wiggle a little when there was a large gust.  Our trailer was stable and there was no damage to any of the members trailers.  I would say that it was not a very good night for sleeping.  The next morning when we were popping down the wind would blow out the tenting when we pushed the bunk ends in.  With a little help from the neighbors we were able to pop down and be on our way.  The winds were howling all day and the campground let some of our members leave their campers at the campground to be picked up later in the week.  I know the wind blew me around a few times on the way home.  Like I said the campers were fine and I am glad we had our awnings rolled up.  If I know the winds are going to be that strong in the future I would take a pass on camping that weekend.  We had a great time at the gathering, but not a lot of sleep the last night.[&:]

[NCSunshine]

 Joe Buskirk
Last year at Myrtle Beach, SC we were one spot away from the ocean when a 60 mph rain storm snuck up on us.  We (dh, me, and 3 dd s) stayed in the camper, not sure how long it lasted seemed like 2 hours.  The top did rock back and forth but nothing else happen.
 
 A couple weeks ago I had the camper up and a storm came up suddenly that had tornado warnings and blowing rain that you could not see in front of yourself.  I worried hard about our camper being blown over when we got back home, but it was still sitting there like nothing had happened.