Ok I was a good girl. I did not go out in the hurricane looking for storm photos. I stayed home. I was bored. But every time I’d think about venturing out I’d hear another horror story about tree limbs hitting cars or even whole trees falling… but one day is about my limit.
I was thrilled when I got up this morning and saw the sun trying to peak through. By 9 am it was shining brightly. There was a breeze but no major wind gusts. There was no reason for me to stay in today.
I had lots of places I could check out..The cape, Falmouth, Scituate, Jamestown and Newport RI??? No way would I get to all of them they were too spread out.
Scituate was on the news. Photos there looked pretty tame now so I headed south to Mattapoisett. Neds Point Light is pretty easy to get to and I figured it would give me an idea of what the ocean was like today. Getting there turned out to be the challenge. The Neds Point Rd. was closed with a huge tree down but one of the residents gave me directions to get around it. Those took me through a residential area with a lot of pine trees. It was easy to tell when you would see down branches because you’d smell that wonderful pine sent before you even saw them.
Once I got to the lighthouse in its little park I couldn’t believe it. It was like nothing had happened.
The sky was blue, there was no damage and the seas were calm.
I enjoyed the ambiance for a bit then decided to head to RI, specifically Beavertail Sate Park. That place can kick up a surf without any storm. I was sure I’d find some big waves there.
To get there I had to go over the Claiborne -Pell Bridge. It’s a beautiful bridge. It’s huge!
When I got to the toll booth I asked if it had stayed open during the hurricane. The collector told me he was only going to tell me once…they need SUSTAINED winds of 69 miles per hour. He said they only had sustained winds of 45 MPH during hurricane Sandy.
I mentioned that I’d seen quite a few boats moored in the harbor as I came over the bridge, did they ride out the storm out there? He said yes, not the smartest thing to do.
Then my time was up. Another car was behind me. I wished my toll collector a good day and continues on my way.
Along the shore you could see the debris left by the storm so it was easy to judge how far up the waves had come but the road was clear and before I knew it I was tuning down the road to Beavertail State Park. That’s when I saw the blue lights. Oh oh road block. I made a left and parked, grabbed the camera and headed down the hill to the corner. A women coming up the hill said I was a day late..I should have seen it yesterday. As I suspected the road had been completely under water. (This is what it normally looks like)
Today they were cleaning it up and had the road closed so the workmen could complete the chore.
On a side note I was told that IF I was able to get across to the other side I would see a car floating in the bay. A woman had run 2 police barricades because she didn’t want to be trapped on the “wrong side” of the bay. When she got to the low-lying section the water was too high and carried her car into the bay. Here the story changes depending on who is telling it. Some says she swam to shore and was rescued by the police others say she got out before her car went in the drink. Either way what she did after that was walk to the nearest bar and get drunk. Most of the folks I spoke with said they hoped her insurance turned her down. They were pretty irritated by her irresponsibility.
I hung around for a bit but by 1:30 it was pretty clear it would be several more hours before they opened the road so I headed back across the bridge to Newport, RI.