12/8-12/25 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

This was an unusually harrowing week. A gigantic (Godzilla) Atmospheric River dumped a lot of rain over all Western Washington. My trip was delayed because I had a doctor's appointment that kept me from leaving until after noon.

It rained moderately hard all the way, but I saw nothing unusual. I had seen rain before. I arrived at 3:40 and was able to carry all my gear up to the cabin in one trip. It was raining so I put on a light raincoat that I carry in the truck. It was going to be dark soon, so I decided to put off hoisting the flag until the morning.

The cabin was cozy warm, so it was a pleasure to unpack my gear, do some exercises, including a run through the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight sonata, and fix my dinner.

On Tuesday morning, the temperature outside was 30 degrees but the skies were clear and there was no rain. Godzilla was evidently taking a break. After practicing the piano, I took advantage of the nice weather and went to work on firewood. I went up on the hillside and rolled most of the firewood rounds down so they piled up on the road with the others. I didn't quite finish the job before it was time to quit for lunch.

After lunch and a nap, I went for a walk to the grave. The skies were still clear, but I took an umbrella with me anyway just in case. On the way, I met two women who had parked their truck and were looking at something in the ditch. When I caught up with them, they explained that there was a big shaggy mane (or some such name) mushroom that they were watching get bigger as the days went by.

They also told me that we were going to have a huge rainstorm at 7:00. 7 o'clock came and went and there was no rain.

On Wednesday morning, I woke up to about an inch of new snow on the ground. The temperature was 25 degrees and it was raining pretty steadily. This was probably the big rain that was predicted. I didn't want to go out and work in it, so I spent the time at the piano, the jigsaw puzzle, and I took a short nap.

After lunch, and my usual nap, the rain had diminished so I took my umbrella and started on my walk to the grave. Just as I started, I saw John, and I presume he had his dog Abby with him, drive down the road for some destination. I soon had to turn back and return to the cabin.

Next, I placed the Styrofoam blocks in the crawl space vents to protect my plumbing from freezing. Then my doctor called with the good news that my pre-diabetes is under control. Next, Ellen called with the news that highway 2 was closed from Index to Cole's Corner with no predicted time of re-opening. Godzilla had been excessively violent on the west side of the mountains.

Next, the power went out at about 6:15. Fortunately, I had already fixed and eaten my dinner and had even washed the dinner dishes. I decided against building a fire in the wood stove since the cabin was cozy warm and I was interested in how well it would hold its heat throughout the night. I went to bed early and had two down parkas on top of me. I stayed cozy warm until morning when the temperature inside the cabin had gone down only to 60 degrees.

What I didn't know, but learned later, was that John O'Brien and Abby had awakened at 1:00 AM to find that their bedroom was flooded with 2 or 3 feet of water. Fortunately, John had some kind of Internet connection that allowed him to text a neighbor and have them call 911. The Fire and Rescue people then evacuated John and Abby in a boat and brought them to a church where they could dry out. John's truck is sitting in water half-way up the doors, so he is now faced with a host of problems that I am fortunate not to have.

The power was still out on Thursday morning when I got up, so I started a fire in the wood stove and began planning to live without power. I made a couple slices of toast by dangling each slice of bread in front of the fire. It worked pretty well. Then I cracked 3 eggs into a pan with a little water and set it directly on the fire. I sort of adjusted the position to control the heat and I watched the eggs slowly cook. When they were just right, I had my breakfast and I must say that it was delicious. It made me feel proud of my cooking skills.

The rain had stopped so I decided to walk to the Smith's place to get cell service and call Ellen. As soon as I left my driveway, I could see that the road was completely under water in that direction. I changed my plans and decided to walk to the school bus turnaround instead.

I had just got started when an SUV full of people came driving through the water on the road and stopped to talk to me. The upshot was that I should be prepared to stay as long as a week or two because US2 was closed from Cole's Corner to Leavenworth and you couldn't drive through Leavenworth anyway. I think they said that Blewett was also closed. I was probably trapped for a while.

At the school bus turnaround, I talked to Ellen and explained that there was no estimate on the power restoration or the phone service.

After lunch and a nap, Nancy came over with info about roads and what had happened to John. She very graciously offered to help me with meals which I appreciated but didn't need at the moment. I had a plan to try to cook a big yam in a pot of boiling water.

Next, when I was just getting ready to go out and work on firewood rounds, Shirley came over for her annual visit. She gave me the cute little ornament she had made, and she made several complimentary comments about features of the cabin that made an impression on her.

After she left, I started working on my dinner, and just as I got going, the power came back on at 4:30. Hooray! That led to a normal evening except that I didn't know how I was going to get home.

On Friday morning, the temperature outside was 34 degrees and there was no rain. There was also no phone service. I took a shower and then went outside to call Ellen. The water toward the Smith's house had receded so that I could now walk up there. Just as I got going, a car came by with an Indian family on board. We talked and discovered that we had the same objective of finding our way over the mountains. He needed to go to Bellevue, and I needed to go to Seattle.

He, and his wife, had more information than I did and they told me that the only open path was to take the Chumstick and then Blewett Pass to get to I-90. We agreed that it would be safer to travel together and we could each be ready to go in an hour. They were staying at Barb and Byron's bed and breakfast, so they planned to return and pack up. We agreed to meet at my driveway in an hour.

That was just the right amount of time for me to pack up my gear and get ready. The family showed up at 11:30 and we took off. He ended up leading which was OK with me because he seemed to know where we needed to go and he had a navigator with him. As far as I know he had GPS or a navigator program that I didn't have.

Right off the bat, he took a different road than I would have. I would have driven straight east to Plain, but he took the cutoff to Fish Lake and the Chiwawa Loop. That would have been longer, but he was leading and I followed. Later, I learned that the road I would have taken was flooded and closed.

We followed the Chumstick to Leavenworth but right away, we hit a road blockage and a detour. The detour sent us through orchard lands all the way to Peshastin where we crossed the bridge and got on the road over Blewett Pass. From there it was pretty routine to get on I-90 and home.

I don't think the storms and the flooding are over yet, but I'm glad to be safe at home. What a week.