All the Comforts of Home?

This morning they returned to the ‘man camp’.

The “Man Camp”

It had all the comforts of home – a gourmet kitchen:

Fine dining room:

And custom laundry service – would you like light or heavy starch?

Rudy didn’t get a photo of where they would sleep. Which is just as well, because about then I’m wondering what I encouraged him to get himself into? It looks like something out of the old M*A*S*H* TV show. I can’t imagine him having to work 16 hours a day, in the cold and rain, and then THIS is where he gets to spend his down time? What kind of rest & rejuvenation can he get in an open air, leaky tent??

Fortunately, they found out their ‘home base’ was going to be further south in NJ, in the town of Tom’s River. So they spent the day moving all of their equipment down to the staging area there. And then the good news, they have motel rooms reserved in AC (Atlantic City) for the next few weeks! Yea! A real bed, heat, and a hot shower every night.!! This is what the drive south looked like:

Hopefully when the weather clears tomorrow they can get started working and help restore power to all those poor people who are still without electricity for almost 10 days now.

Detour – Atlantic City

The man camp wasn’t fully set up yesterday, so the crew spent the night at a hotel in Atlantic City. After driving 1500 miles across country, they had to drive another hour or two to have a place for the night – but of course there are no hotel rooms any closer. This morning they had a chance to see some of the damage near their hotel before heading north again:

A temporary fence was erected to keep people off damaged sections of the beach.

Sand carried in by the storm tide probably had covered this entire street.

Water-soaked belongings are stacked in piles waiting to be hauled away.

Not sure what happened to this truck, but glad it wasn’t one of ours!

It had started raining again, as Winter Storm Athena was moving into the area. Just what this area does NOT need….