Originally had “Day 1” vs. “prelude” and had “day 1” in quotes because this was far more than a day…

I first saw a warning about tropical storm Chantal on Friday, just as a high pressure weather system hanging on off the coast of NC/SC. Didn’t really think much about it at 1st.

By Saturday it was a real concern, as we were supposed to get Grampy’s boat from Little River to north of Holden Beach — on the water! — Sunday morning. We opted to get the jet skis out of the water Saturday afternoon and this was what Reece saw, sharing with the family with the caption “Grampy going out for a joy ride.”

And what I saw the other direction…

Over (Saturday) night, there was a ton of wind and rain keeping both Kelly and I awake, as the rain beat on the windows of the condo and the wind howled. This was probably just before that time:

Kelly woke up with a plan B: to get Grampy’s trailer by driving and hour north and then back, get the boat off the water locally, and get out of town – in cars rather than on the water. So Grampy and I drove up and grabbed the trailer, then Grampy drove the boat the couple miles on the water to the boat ramp, and I dropped Reece off to help Grampy load the boat. I had to get on the road quickly to get home to PBO and then quickly get to the airport.

I later learned that Reece and Grampy had quite the time getting the boat onto the trailer in the wind and rain and river current, which was running high due to all the over night rain. Additionally, they had a flat tire on the trailer on the way home. Reece was our ride to the airport, so things were getting tight!

I got home with the skis and Kelly came in right behind me. We had both driven through “flood waters” in the Fort Bragg area (I’d say 8-10” of water on the road in some places) and had less than an hour turn around to get ready to go to RDU. We had of course already packed, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t last minute things we had to do.

We were ready about the time Reece pulled in and we quickly loaded our bags, picked up the Evenson’s, and made it to RDU. It took a little while to check in (had to check a gear bag) and I think our rep was trying to help with the 10 hour LHR lay over, but no luck. We ended up with at least 45 minutes, maybe an hour in the lounge, before it was time to board.

Amazingly, even with the tropical storm and flooding, our flight took off on time, we landed in London on time, and now had 10 hours to kill. Somehow Kelly’s boarding pass showed “emerald” — I’m going to credit our rep that checked us in, which allowed us to get the Evensons into the BA lounge in Heathrow terminal 5, which is quite nice.

10 hours in LHR — that’s a long time. We took advantage of the lounge — Kelly showered, I think we all ate 3 meals, some of us slept.

No photos of the ladies sleeping — they found some nicer, more comfortable chairs…

There was also a point where I saw power outages in Pittsboro via some of the home automation apps (HVAC and cameras offline), so I messaged Reece. He said there was some weird beeping in the basement, and my 1st thought was “oh no!” That’s probably the water sensing alarm. I had him go down, and yep, that’s what it was. I had hoped it was just the condensation pump over flowing or the HVAC dripping, but nope, this was more than that.

About 20 years ago, the house drain pipe had been clogged by a bob cat driving near it and pushing Chatham County clay about 6 inches in. So I had Reece go find it, and sure enough, somehow it was clogged again. 😦 Reece cleared it out, and then had to deal with the water in the basement. Luckily it was caught early, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a lot of work. Towels and shop vacs and fans and some help from Grampy, and all was well.

After LHR it was on to Geneva, where we took a bus to a hotel not too far from the airport. A quick sleep, a good breakfast, a bus back to the airport, and then it was just over an hour bus ride to Chamonix, where someone got another nap in:

Our hotel:

A few shots around Chamonix:

We had crepes for lunch!

Where the UTMB race starts and finishes:

And TACOs for dinner, on TACO Tuesday!

And then it was back to the hotel and time to get some sleep before we’d start our big adventure in the morning! That would be Wednesday July 9th after leaving NC on Sunday July 6th… Sunday night in the air, Monday in LHR, Tuesday Geneva to Chamonix and an afternoon there…

Stay tuned for TMB day 2, 3, 4, 5….