The wind is wicked up here on the Plateau! Yesterday the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for this entire area and the park service closed roads leading to two of the most popular overlooks, Cape Royal and Point Imperial, to prevent people from being stranded out there by downed trees across the roads.
All day, gust after gust sped across the meadows, picking up clouds of dirt and blowing them, at up to 55 mph, toward Jacob Lake. Walking into the wind exposed bare skin to being stung by bits of sand and eyes being invaded by grit.
The winds continued throughout the night; Mother Nature rocked us to sleep as if the RV were a cradle--more unsettling than than comforting.
The high winds are predicted to continue through Sunday night and we're not sure our friends Randy and MJ will be able to bring their Class A up the mountain under these conditions.
Yesterday was an interesting day at the store. Some members of a running club from Los Angeles came in to buy food for an early breakfast. They planned to head down the North Kaibab Trail at 5 AM this morning for a rim-to-rim run. Like most runners, especially long-distance-runners, they had lots of stories which they enjoyed recounting and we enjoyed hearing.
Just about closing time, a young woman who came in mentioned that she'd just gotten her MSW and was traveling the area as her graduation gift to herself before returning home to Oklahoma City. She spent a day at Best Friends (aka Dog Town) which went about as well as the day we volunteered there. She had a much more laid-back attitude toward tornadoes than ours while recently driving through that area.
Fred talked with a young woman training for an ironman triathalon. She was attempting to ride her bike the 86 miles from Jacob Lake to the rim and back but the gale-force headwinds were 'killing' her. She wisely decided to turn around for a quick, wind-assisted trip back to JL.
On Thursday, a customer handed me a WSFS card and I blurted, "You're from Delaware!" Actually, they live just over the line in Kennett Square, PA and his wife will be the artist-in-residence at the North Rim for the next three weeks. She's a fiber artist who will be creating a a condor-theme quilt. I hope to be able to attend one of the workshops she's planning.
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